Jeans, nose stud and Union Jack cushion... at home with IS bride
WEARING a maroon headscarf, jeans and a diamante nose stud, Shamima Begum could be sitting in a living room in England.
The Islamic State bride, now 20, has furnished her makeshift tent in the al-Roj camp in northern Syria and decorated it for St Valentine’s Day.
The former London schoolgirl was pictured for the first time without her usual black burka, which has been banned in the camp as part of attempts to de-radicalise the women and children.
Her tent, which she shares with US- Canadian citizen Kimberly Polman, has heating, electricity, satellite TV and cooking appliances. The women have decorated it with hearts and fairy lights for Valentine’s Day.
They have made a small sofa from blankets given to them by the UN and Begum even has a knitted Union Jack cushion.
She was stripped of her UK citizenship after she left the country at the age of 15 with two friends to join Islamic State in Syria.
Ten days after arriving, she married Yago Riedijk, a Dutch convert to Islam who was 23. Begum gave birth to their son in the refugee camp last year. The child later died, as had her previous two children.
The 20-year-old was dealt a blow this month when she lost the first stage of her appeal against the Government’s decision to remove her citizenship. She told the American network ABC News that her ‘whole world fell apart’ when she was stripped of her nationality last year.
A tribunal ruled she could be stripped of her citizenship because she had not been left stateless.
Britain has refused to take back dozens of British women and children from Syria out of fear they would present a security risk back in the UK.
But the Special Immigration Appeals Commission said Begum could turn to Bangladesh for citizenship, where her father is from. She said: ‘When my citizenship got rejected, I felt like my whole world fell apart right in front of me. Especially the way I was told. I wasn’t even told by a government official. I was told by journalists.’
She added: ‘I thought I would be a bit different because I had not done anything wrong before I came to Isis.’ Asked about her previous comments to The Times where she appeared unrepentant after being found in the al-Hawl camp after fleeing the village of Baghuz, she said she was ‘afraid for my life’.
She said: ‘I had just given birth. I was hearing all these stories about women threatening other women, folk uncovering their faces or speaking to men or doing interviews. I just was afraid for my life.’