I don’t regret going there ..it’s made me tougher
Shamima Begum on her experience with ISIS
SITTING with her newborn son in a Syrian refugee camp, Shamima Begum still insists she does not regret joining Islamic State.
She is at the centre of a debate over whether IS brides should be allowed back to the UK with their children and fears her baby will die in the camp.
But, showing no remorse yesterday, Begum, 19, echoed last week’s first interview when she said seeing severed heads in bins in a Jihadi stronghold didn’t faze her. She said:
“Yeah I knew about those things [beheadings] and I was OK with it at first. I heard, Islamically that was all allowed, so I was OK with it.”
Speaking shortly after giving birth, Begum said: “People should have sympathy towards me for everything I have been through.
“I didn’t know what I was getting in to when I left. I was hoping maybe for the sake of my child they would let me back. I can’t live in this camp forever.”
Her plea came after a lawyer for Begum’s family accused UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid of “putting a child in danger” by claiming he will block a return.
But Begum – who has lost two children in the grim conditions of the “Caliphate” – sparked fresh controversy as she spoke of fleeing her family in Bethnal Green, East London, at 15.
Asked if she made a mistake, she said: “In a way, yes, but I don’t regret it because it’s changed me as a person. It’s made me stronger, tougher.
“I wouldn’t have found someone like my husband in the UK. I had my kids, I had a good time there. But it was hard in the end, I couldn’t take it. I had to leave.”
Begum also hit out at claims she could pose a threat if allowed back to Britain, maintaining she was “just a housewife” in Syria.
“They don’t have evidence against me doing anything dangerous,” she said. “I stayed at home I took care of my husband, took care of my kids... I never made propaganda or encouraged people to come to Syria.”
She told Sky News she decided to join the terrorists after watching propaganda videos online, in Britain.
At first her life under IS was “nice”, she said, after marrying Dutch IS fighter Yago Riedijk, 26, three weeks after arriving in Syria and starting a family. But things became “harder” after the IS stronghold of Raqqa was defeated, forcing families to flee.
Her son Jerah and daughter Sarayah both died without proper medical care. She and Riedik were separated after surrendering to Kurd forces.
Her newborn baby has been named after her lost son, she revealed, adding: “That’s what my husband wanted.”
Asked what she thought life would be like back in the UK, she replied: “I don’t know. I don’t know if they’d take my child away. That’s one of my biggest priorities. I left because of him I’m just trying to give him a better life.”
When the interviewer said there may be concerns about her extremist views, she responded: “That’s something they have to question me about before they take my child away.”
She added: “I’m still kind of in the mentality of having planes overhead, an emergency backpack. It would be a really big shock to go back.”
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has warned he “will not hesitate” to prevent the return of Britons who travelled to join IS after Begum spoke
She is severely brain-washed ...it’ll be a long time before she sees error of her ways
MOHAMMED SHAFIQ RAMADHAN FOUNDATION
out, having fled Baghuz where IS were making their final stand.
The head of MI6 has said British citizens “have a right to come to the UK” despite posing a security risk.
Justice Secretary David Gauke has said: “We can’t make people stateless.”
Begum still wants Britain to take her back, despite knowing she may face charges. In a message to her family, she pleaded: “Please don’t give up on me. Get me back, I don’t want to stay.”
Begum is one of up to 33,000 women and children stuck in the al-hawl refugee camp in northern Syria, where 50 infants and babies have died from the cold and hunger in three months.
After news Begum had given birth, her family’s lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, said: “Her family want the baby back to protect his health and so Shamima doesn’t lose this child. Sajid Javid seems to be comfortable with his decision to put a child in danger.”
Begum was one of three, along with Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, from Bethnal Green Academy who left the UK to travel to Syria in February 2015.
Sultana is thought to have died, while Begum said she has not heard from Abase for “a long time”. Begum said she has not heard from the British Consulate or her husband either but has contact with her family.
Muslim group The Ramadhan Foundation said it was “disturbed” by Begum’s comments which show she is “severely brainwashed”. Chief executive Mohammed Shafiq said: “She tries to normalise the beheading of many innocent people including British citizens like Alan Henning.
“There can be no excuses or justification for such brutal crimes.
“It shows she is severely brainwashed and it will take a long time to get her to see the error of her ways.
“Shamima needs to show humility, condemn ISIS and promise to work to return back to the mainstream of Islam which totally rejects their barbaric practices and propaganda.”
Responding to the latest interview, Tory MP Bob Seely said Begum has a legal right to return and the priority has to be “practical solutions” for managing her and other IS returnees.
He said: “Whether we want her back or not she has the right to legal return.”
Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright, who previously served as attorney general, said: “We do have to be concerned about the health of that baby, and her health too.”
But he added that if she comes back, it must be on the understanding we can hold her to account. “She will have to answer for her actions,” he said.