Shamima Begum leaves the UK and joins a terror group

Key takeaways: 

• 23-year-old reveals how she joined the Islamic State and life in a refugee centre in a podcast series.
• Shamima Begum says the al-Roj base in northern Syria where she stays is ‘worse than a jail’.

Shamima Begum, who fled Britain to join Islamic State as a teenager in 2015, has said she understands public rage towards her but urges she is “not this individual that they think I am”.

Begum, who was 15 when she fled her east London house to join IS with her schoolmates Kadiza Sultana, 15, and Amira Abase, 16, has revealed the story of how she entered the terror group and life in a refugee centre in a 10-part podcast, The Shamima Begum Story.

Shamima Begum opens up about life in a refugee camp: 

Begum was seen in a refugee camp in 2019, ousted of British citizenship and barred from entering Britain. She said she understood the public saw her “as a threat, as a danger, as a possible risk to them, to their security, to their way of living”, but continued: “I’m not this person that they think I am.”

The 23-year-old, who had three kids in Syria, all of whom died, now stays at the al-Roj base in northern Syria, driven by the Syrian Democratic Forces, which she defined on the podcast as “worse than a jail”.

The UK ousted Begum’s citizenship and banned her from entering Britain: 

Begum has questioned the UK government’s decision to deprive her of her citizenship in the hope that she will be permitted to be back to Britain. In November last year, a court was informed that she was alleged to have been the victim of child trafficking and physical exploitation. 

The Home Office has claimed that people trafficked to Syria and radicalised remain perils to national security as they may be desensitised after vulnerability to extreme violence.