ISIS bride Shamima Begum after giving birth to baby boy: I was just a housewife and people should have sympathy for me

Hatty Collier|Katy Clifton17 February 2019

ISIS bride Shamima Begum does not regret leaving the UK to join Islamic State in Syria because it made her “stronger and tougher” and said she believes “people should have sympathy” towards her.

In an extraordinary interview with Sky News, she said she had “a good time” in Syria and that she would not have met anyone like her Dutch jihadist husband Yago Riedijk if she had remained in the UK.

Ms Begum, 19, who ran away from school in Bethnal Green to join ISIS in 2015 aged 15, said that for four years she had been “just a housewife” and that British authorities had no evidence that she had done anything dangerous.

It was revealed that she has just given birth to a baby boy who she has named Jarrar.

Isis bridge Shamima Begum is interview by Sky News at a refugee camp in Syria (Sky News )
Sky News

She said that if she was allowed to return to the UK, she would try her best to keep her newborn son with her and that she did not see any reason why he would be taken away from her.

Shamima Begum, 15, captured on CCTV at Gatwick Airport
EPA

Asked if she knew that ISIS had carried out beheadings and executions before she left the UK, she said: “Yeah I knew about those things and I was OK with it at first because I started becoming really religious just before I left and from what I heard Islamically that is all allowed. I was OK with it.”

Ms Begum was found by The Times in the al-Hawl refugee camp earlier this week and spoke of her desire to return to the UK and “live quietly with her child.”

Another woman held the baby in her arms while Shamima Begum was interviewed by Sky News (Sky News )
Sky News

She told Sky News: “I think a lot of people should have sympathy towards me for everything I’ve been through. I didn’t know what I was getting into when I left. I was just hoping that for the sake of me and my child, they’ll let me come back. I can’t live in this camp forever, it’s not really possible.”

Ms Begum went on: “When I went to Syria, I was just a housewife for four years, I stayed at home, cared for my husband, took care of my kids. I never did anything dangerous.”

Shamima Begum when she was 15 and fled to join IS
PA

She said her biggest priority now was her child, adding: “I just want to try to give him a better life.”

Asked if she thought she had made a mistake in leaving the UK to join ISIS, 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 married my husband, I wouldn’t have found someone like him back in the UK. I had my kids. I did have a good time there. It’s just then things got harder and I couldn’t take it anymore."

She told Sky News that she thought it would be "difficult" for her to be rehabiliated and return to the UK to start a new life.

A statement released by her family's lawyer said: "We, the family of Shamima Begum, have been informed that Shamima has given birth to her child, we understand that both she and the baby are in good health.

"As yet we have not had direct contact with Shamima, we are hoping to establish communications with her soon so that we can verify the above."

On Friday, Ms Begum told The Times she feared her baby would be taken away from her if she returns to Britain and said that she would miss her jihadist husband who she still "loved very much."

Ms Begum, who has already lost two children to illness and malnutrition, said: “What do you think will happen to my child? Because I don’t want it to be taken away from me, or at least if it is, to be given to my family.”

She also said she feared she might never see her husband again. The last time she saw him was two weeks ago when they fled from the village of Baghuz – the last Isis stronghold in Syria.

He surrendered to a group of fighters allied to the Syrian Democratic Forces who are in the final stages of defeating Isis there, while Ms Begum was taken to the al-Hawl refugee camp.

Ms Begum married him just months after arriving in Syria in 2015.

Ms Begum told The Times she understood she could face a police investigation on her return, admitting: "I knew that coming back to the UK wouldn't be a quiet thing. It's uncomfortable.

"If I ever do go back, it'll be a long time before the cameras stop and all the questions stop."

The former east London schoolgirl had previously admitted that she did not regret travelling to IS-controlled Syria, and asserted she was "not the same silly little 15-year-old schoolgirl who ran away from Bethnal Green four years ago".

Her case has been the subject of an intense debate over what should happen to the teenager with questions immediately raised over whether Britain would be able to prevent her eventual return to the UK.

Home Secretary Sajid Javid warned that he "will not hesitate" to prevent the return of Britons who travelled to join Islamic State, but Justice Secretary David Gauke told Sky News that "we can't make people stateless".

Shamima Begum when she was 15 and ran away from Bethnal Green to join ISIS in Syria
PA

Former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation Lord Carlile told the BBC that if Ms Begum has not gained a second citizenship of another country, she will have to be allowed back to her homeland because under international law it is not possible for a person to be made "stateless".

Chief executive of counter-extremism organisation Qulliam Haras Rafiq said he thought it likely the pregnant teenager's family will find the money to fund her journey back and that she would be allowed entry and then arrested.

He said it was possible that she could be de-radicalised but that, based on The Times interview, the process could be difficult.

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