Eight years after Begum left the UK to join Isis, journalist Joshua Baker hears her side of the story. The Shamima Begum Story,Shamima Begun,Joshua Baker ...
The media caught up with her in 2019 just days after she gave birth to her third child. But, for most viewers, this was our chance to witness Begum herself – to hear her tell her story in her own words rather than through a sensationalist media lens. The 15-year-old [Shamima Begum](https://inews.co.uk/news/shamima-begum-where-now-what-happened-schoolgirl-uk-isis-2077462?ico=in-line_link), along with two school friends, first made headlines when they left their London homes in 2015 to join the so-called “caliphate” in Syria. “In the real world, I wouldn’t tolerate his crap.” When she appeared to show no remorse for aiding and abetting the barbaric so-called Islamic State of Iraq and Syria death cult, her demonisation was complete. “It’s like when you’re in love and you don’t want to see their faults,” she remarked now.
So is Shamima Begum a celebrity now? Tonight, a documentary about her airs on BBC Two. Over the weekend, her picture was splashed on the front page of the ...
One of the media articles flagged up as problematic in the report was a Daily Mail interview with a Yazidi woman who had been enslaved and raped by Isis. A writer for the Metro says she was the target of a ‘media-induced Islamophobia frenzy’. There is something really off in the transformation of Begum into a celebrity sufferer. Indeed, a couple of years ago the Muslim Council of Britain published a report slamming the UK media’s treatment of Islam. Apparently racism in the UK was partly to blame for Begum’s decision to go on a 3,000-mile trek to join the murderous dystopia of the Islamic State. You now live in a country where an interview with a Yazidi victim of the Islamic State’s terror can be treated as problematic, while a soft, friendly interview with a former Islamic State supporter is viewed as normal. ‘I was in love with the idea of the Islamic State. It steals the focus from those who really suffered – from the Yazidi women, Kurdish citizens, Christians and ‘heretical’ Muslims who were slaughtered on a neo-fascistic scale by the organisation Begum joined. In this telling, the problem was not so much Begum’s morally depraved choice to sign up with the enemies of humanity – it was the failure of us terrible Brits to make her feel content here at home. The reason she fled Bethnal Green for Raqqa was because she was ‘not content’ with her life, she says. Do you think he’d get a sexy photo shoot at the Times and a soppy pod with the BBC? Over the weekend, her picture was splashed on the front page of the Times Magazine.
New documentary hears from the former Isis recruit herself, as well as those who knew her in London and Syria.
These days, she is more circumspect, presumably because she and her lawyers must realise that what tiny, vanishing chance she has of returning to the UK rests on an unforgiving public. For example, she claims to know nothing, not even the full name, of the mysterious wealthy Egyptian with the big house that she and her husband lived with for many months. But one of his staff asserts that the guy was an arms dealer, a major armourer for Isis, and testifies that it is simply not possible that Begum – who is evidently not stupid – had no idea what he was up to. It’s strange to think of a terrorist such as Riedijk being so gentle and puppy-like in his devotion to the (forced) love of his life. “Here,” she says, without hesitation, “because [Isis ](/topic/isis)was the worst thing in the 21st century and I was a part of it and now I have to face the consequences of my actions, and this camp is the consequences of my actions.” The skill in Josh Baker’s film is in allowing Begum to speak for herself, and setting that, quite dispassionately, against the testimony of others – childhood friends left behind in London, independent witnesses who knew her when she was an “Isis bride”, and bit of a surprise appearance in her (former?) husband, Yago Riedijk.
Begum has been the subject of a podcast, Sky documentary and newspaper interviews – but this iteration fails to provide us with anything new.
“They just wanted to continue the story,” she sighed. Begum’s story raises the important subject of why young people, born and raised in Britain, can feel so alienated from wider society that they are radicalised in this way; why living “a good Islamic life” in Syria, as she described it, would be preferable to life in east London. She now claims to feel shame and guilt, but it is impossible to gauge whether this is genuine. When Begum arrived in Syria, she was put in a house with 100 other women; their only way out was to be married off to an Isil fighter, for the purposes of breeding. She remains a mass of contradictions. “For the first time, she’s given her account of what happened over the last eight years,” we were told.
BBC viewers were left divided on Tuesday night as Shamima Begum returned to screens to share her story nine years after she left the UK.
While Tim raged: "@BBC why the f**k is the BBC giving the dreadful Shamima Begum airtime?. Joan Anderson tweeted: "I am finished with this BBC tonight showing The Shamima Begum story! "@BBC The Shamima Begum story. Astounded the BBC are giving it airtime." "She knew what she was doing when she signed up for it!! She also shared her thoughts about what people think of her now, explaining she feels the population sees her as a "danger" and a "potential risk".
If you want to start an argument in a pub, mention Shamima Begum. The woman who was 15 when she left Bethnal Green to join Isis divides opinion sharply, ...
But even now when proclaiming “regret”, she has an unfortunate, smirky, evasive manner that does her no favours. The woman who was 15 when she left Bethnal Green to join Isis divides opinion sharply, most in my experience falling into the “she knew what she was doing, tough titty” camp, the rest saying “but she was groomed as a child”. This seems blindingly obvious for a person who joined an evil death cult and shrugged off seeing severed heads in bins.
VIEWERS have slammed the BBC for giving airtime to Jihadi bride Shamima Begum in a one hour 30-minute long doc.Many Brits have also threatened to canc.
She denies all the claims in the new BBC doc, claiming she was "just a housewife" who was rarely allowed outside. Supporters claim she is a victim of trafficking - but the government says she went to Syria with her "eyes wide open" and is a danger to society. She has begged to be allowed to return to the UK and has appealed against a decision to Begum claimed she didn't know about the "atrocities" connected to the terrorist group when she fled the country. She told the BBC2 doc, in an interview monitored by Kurdish authorities, she was "in love" with ISIS and desperate to join. The broadcaster was blasted as "disgraceful" after Begum appeared on the nation's TVs in a fresh bid to get the country on her side.
'Why are the BBC giving Shamima Begum more airtime?': 'Sickened' viewers slam broadcaster for airing 90-minute documentary that 'parades ISIS bride as a ...
advising us on what to do and what not to do. I mean in a way I felt kind of relieved.' But it insisted her story would not be 'unchallenged', describing the podcast as a 'robust, public interest investigation'. She's a terrorist with no remorse, she doesn't deserve to have her story heard like she is a victim.' She said she was 'in love' with ISIS and desperate to join. Begum and her friends hid their luggage in advance and game-planned for scenarios such as being quizzed or caught out. 'We went to ISIS, that was it. Her two companions are believed to have died there That girl has zero remorse and I don't know why I have to see her on my TV? She had a choice - she made her choice. But here, you don't know if there's going to be an end.' At least with prison sentences you know there's going to be an end.
CHRISTOPHER STEVENS: The 22 people murdered by Isis in the Manchester Arena bombing in 2017 will not get a second chance.
But isn't that exactly what Isis stood for? But as Tim Loughton, a Tory MP on the Home Affairs Select Committee, pointed out, she left Britain to join 'people who are against everything that we stand for and want to kill us. The camera closed in on her eyes and mouth, which opened in a faint sneer, as she listened to the questions. . . Begum says she had to flee Britain because her family wanted a 'loose and immoral' life for her, that she 'didn't feel accepted by society because of racism', and that she joined Isis because 'I wanted to be loved, because I felt I was not loved'. Bradley and Barney Walsh visited the 'Land of the Strays' in Costa Rica, home to 2,000 dogs, on Breaking Dad (ITV).
We need to know whether or not she's a monster and a traitor, and what the mitigating circumstances are and were.
It is not that she needs a closure, because that’s not the point at issue. We need to know whether or not she's a monster and a traitor, and what the mitigating circumstances are and were. Whether she is entirely sincere, or has one eye on the legal action to allow her to return to Britain is left to the viewer to decide. If so, she needs to be incarcerated properly, and under the rule of law. Her words, as such, do not pose a threat to anyone now, and indeed she appears – appears – to be full of remorse and hatred of Isis. She has lived a lifetime since she left Bethnal Green, and, as she says, seems destined to live her life out in a dusty detention centre in Syria. She too is part of the context, and we learn a little about her too. It’s still a bit of jolt to be told she is only 23 years old. So there is a current issue at stake as well with Begum: what to do with her. The interviews with Begum – over a period of a year – weren’t soft, but the questions were calmly put, and her responses challenged. The different accounts she’s given of her life with Isis were set out, and independent witnesses, who were there in Syria at the time, questioned her veracity. I’ve seen reports of people being sickened by the sight of her, and refusing to pay their licence fee just because she was allowed on their airwaves.
The panellist has come under fire following her comments made on the former ISIS recruit, saying she was too 'high-profile' to be a threat.
At the age of 15, Shamima Begum was one of three schoolgirls to join the Islamic State in Syria, resulting in her British citizenship being revoked. In a clip shown from the documentary, viewers were able to hear the 23-year-old, who is now living in a Syrian refugee camp, give her thoughts on what the public thinks of her. Currently stateless, after being denied Bangladeshi citizenship, the now 23-year-old is in a legal battle to be able to return back to the country as she fights for her citizenship to be restored.