ISIS Bride, Shamima Begum Reveals Incredible Makeover

Category: Terrorism News

Head uncovered, in sunglasses and Western clothes, this is Shamima Begum six years after she shocked the nation by running away to join ISIS in Syria.

British-born Ms Begum, 21, agreed to be photographed, but refused to be interviewed, in a detention camp in Syria, where she faces an uncertain future after losing her right to return home.

The Supreme Court last month blocked her return to the UK to appeal against the loss of her citizenship.

Human rights campaigners have branded the court decision a “disgrace”.

Sculptor Sir Anish Kapoor, who designed the Orbit tower in the Olympic Park in London, said the ban was a: “disgraceful indictment of our national conscience”.

Ms Begum was 15 when she left her home in Bethnal Green, East London, with two other schoolgirls, and travelled to Syria to join another friend, who was already in the Islamic State.

Sir Anish, 67, said: “Imagine that four young white schoolgirls from Wiltshire were enticed to go to Syria and join Isis.

“Would they be seen as terrorists or victims of terrorists?

“We have no doubt that we would be demanding that no expense be spared and not a moment wasted in having them returned to the safety of their homes in England.”

But Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, said: “There are plenty of examples of people who are not of colour and who are terrorists being treated in the same robust fashion.

“This is not about race, it is about protecting UK citizens from the horror of terrorism.” He cited the case of “Jihadi Jack” Letts, 26, who had his citizenship revoked after allegedly joining ISIS.

Within days of arriving in Syria, Ms Begum was married to Dutch-born jihadist Yago Riedijk, a convert to Islam.

She has since had three children, all of whom died, and has been locked up in two Kurdish-run detention camps in north-east Syria, following the defeat of ISIS.