Live TV RADIO

KURDISTAN24

  • Erbil
  • -
  • Türkçe
  • |
  • English
  • |
  • Kurdî
  • |
  • فارسی
  • |
  • عربي
  • |
  • كوردی
KURDISTAN 24
  • News
    • Kurdistan
    • Middle East
    • World
  • Analysis
    • Kurdistan
    • Middle East
    • Features
  • Economy
    • Kurdistan
    • World
  • Interviews
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Social
  • Opinions
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Social
  • Culture
    • Kurdistan
    • World
  • Sports
    • Kurdistan
    • World
  • Features
    • Politics
    • Economy
    • Social

About Us | Contact Us  | Apps

World

Pregnant British teenager who joined ISIS wants to return home from Syria

Kurdistan 24 Kurdistan 24 |

Pregnant British teenager who joined ISIS wants to return home from Syria
Shamima Begum (R) and two companions begin their February 2015 journey to Syria at London's Gatwick Airport. (Photo: Metropolitan Police/PA/The Guardian)
ISIS Britain UK Syria SDF Baghouz

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A British female who left the UK for Syria as a minor in 2015 to join the Islamic State says she has no regrets about joining the terror group but is pleading to return to her country, London-based media reported on Wednesday.

Shamima Begum, along with her schoolmates Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, made headlines in 2015 when they flew from London's Gatwick Airport to Turkey and then traveled into Syria. 

Begum and Abase were both 15 at the time, while Sultana was 16, reported the Guardian. Two months prior to their journey, two other girls, also from the East London neighborhood of Bethnal Green, also arrived in Syria for the same reason. All of them reportedly married foreign Islamic State militants.

Begum, now nine months pregnant, explained to the Times of London that she initially settled in Raqqa, the Syrian capital of the group's self-proclaimed caliphate.

“I could not endure the suffering and hardship that staying on the battlefield involved. But I was also frightened that the child I am about to give birth to would die like my other children if I stayed on. So I fled the caliphate,“ Begum said in an interview conducted in the al-Hawl refugee camp in northeastern Syria. 

“Now all I want to do is come home to Britain.” 

As the terrorist organization lost more and more ground against the various forces in Syria, the teen and her family moved down along the Euphrates river valley, finally ending up in the last bit of territory the group still controls, Baghouz.

With the Islamic State’s territory dwindling to nothing, more and more members, including females, are surrendering to anti-ISIS forces. Begum said she only decided to flee after both her children – a one-year-old and a three-month-old – died from illness.

“There was so much oppression and corruption that I don’t think they [ISIS] deserved victory,” she said. However, she added, “I don’t regret coming here.”

Begum confirmed earlier reports that her friend Sultana had died in an airstrike in Raqqa. Regarding the other women from Bethnal Green, she said that it was possible that they could still be alive in Baghouz, but “with all the bombing, I am not sure whether they have survived.”

Despite apparent denunciations of the Islamic State, Begum still appeared to be commending the faith her cohorts had expressed and promulgated while the Islamic State’s fighting forces struggled in Baghouz to repel the SDF’s final battle against the group.

“They were strong… I respect their decision. They urged patience and endurance in the caliphate and chose to stay behind in Baghuz. They would be ashamed of me if they survived the bombing and battle to learn that I had left.”

Still, she pleaded for a return to Britain, saying, “I just want to come home to have my child.”

Tasnime Akunjee, the lawyer representing the Begum family, told The Guardian that Shamima and her friends should be allowed repatriation, saying they “should be treated as victims as long as no evidence emerges that they committed offences.”

As the British newspaper wrote on Thursday, their cases pose ”a dilemma for the Foreign Office first as to whether she could be offered consular assistance, and possibly helped out of the camp the Times found her in.” 

Editing by John J. Catherine 

Related Gallery
Related Article
Last 24 Hour
01 EXCLUSIVE from Baghouz: ISIS fight stalls amid civilian influx in eastern Syria
02 Turkish authorities remove multilingual signboard in Kurdish city
03 New Kirkuk Operation Commander: PMF will participate in ‘security duties’
04 Dutch to bolster Kurdistan’s private agriculture as part of post-ISIS security
05 SDC official says Damascus mentality unchanged despite Syrian crisis
06 Canadian Commander warns of ISIS re-emergence in Iraq unless causes addressed
Last week
01 Kurdistan and Iraq unify customs tariffs to facilitate commercial trade
02 SDF says will focus on liberation of Afrin, sleeper cells after ISIS defeat
03 KDP, PUK agree on new Kurdistan government, president, Kirkuk governor
04 First British female ISIS member sentenced in UK has been released
05 Netherlands coordinating with Syrian Kurds for return of ISIS females
06 WATCH: Iraq removes domestic custom points on roads to Kurdistan Region
Last month
01 EXCLUSIVE: German ISIS wife explains why she joined, traveled to Syria
02 US forces patrol Mosul street; Iraqi militia claims to have blocked them
03 King arrives in Baghdad for Spain's first head of state visit to Iraq in 40 years
04 Kurdistan and Iraq unify customs tariffs to facilitate commercial trade
05 SDF says will focus on liberation of Afrin, sleeper cells after ISIS defeat
06 Netherlands coordinating with Syrian Kurds for return of ISIS females
Most Popular
    opinion
    The Lady with the Knife
    Despite being banned by the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) and made illegal, FGM is still practiced today. The “lady with the knife” has become better at performing secretly in homes of families who generously compensate her for her service.
    The Lady with the Knife
    Arayish Barzinjee-Martsch
    How Iraq’s Supreme Court can end ongoing legal battle over MPs retirement benefits
    Majida Ismael:
    How Iraq’s Supreme Court can end ongoing legal battle over MPs retirem...
    Donald Trump’s Syria withdrawal a return to his anti-war, campaign self
    Adam Lucente:
    Donald Trump’s Syria withdrawal a return to his anti-war, campaign sel...
    Who speaks for the Kurds?
    Paul Davis:
    Who speaks for the Kurds?
    • News 
    • Kurdistan
    • Middle East
    • World
    • Section
    • Economy
    • Sports
    • Culture
    • Interviews
    • Opinions
    • Service
    • Frequencies
    • Live
    • Apps
    • RSS
    © Copyright 2019 Kurdistan 24 – All rights reserved

    Sitemap | Terms and Conditions | About us | Contact Us  | Work For Us


    Design & Development by: AwroSoft (AP.)