JIHAD IT
Shamima Begum moans she was an ISIS ‘baby machine’ and demands to return home as British prisons are cushier
ISIS bride Shamima Begum has claimed that all she did while living in the so-called caliphate was "make babies" - and again expressed hope that she will be allowed to return home.
The former Brit schoolgirl also said she now "hates" the terror group after the death of her three babies and that her mental health is suffering.
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Begum came to national attention in 2015 when she and two school friends, all aged between 15 and 16, fled the UK to join ISIS in Syria.
She later married Dutch-born Yago Riedijk and spent more than three years living under the rule of the brutal group.
Speaking from a Syrian camp, the jihadi poster girl has denied having been a member of the hesba, an organisation within ISIS tasked with enforcing its strict behavioural and dress codes.
"For the first eight months [in the caliphate] I was waiting at home for my husband who was in prison suspected of spying," she told the .
"After that I was constantly making babies.
"I did not even speak Arabic."
She added that she would rather be in a British jail so she could access education and psychiatric help.
“Mentally I am in a really bad way. I need therapy to deal with my grief. It is so hard. I have lost all my children,” she said.
“I have no real friends. I have lost all the friends who came with me. Now I do not have anyone.
“I would like to be at home. There is more safety in a British prison, more education and access to family.”
She added: “I hate the [ISIS] so much.
“I hate these women and what they stand for and what they believe in and that they think they can terrorise anyone who does not share their views.”
STRIPPED OF CITIZENSHIP
Begum asked to return to the UK so she could face trial in her own country.
She said she feels as though she is already being punished for living in a warzone – despite deciding to travel there in 2015.
The ISIS bride now shares a tent with a Canadian woman in "Camp Sunshine" and spends her time watching the latest blockbusters on TV.
There is a phone at the camp, but Begum has admitted her family haven't spoken to her since she fled to Syria.
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Home Secretary Sajid Javid has stripped Begum of her British citizenship because of public safety fears and she now lives in a camp near the Iraqi border.
Begum has hired a human rights lawyer whose former clients include hate preacher Abu Qatada.
Her case is now the subject of two appeals challenging the home secretary’s revocation of her citizenship, and the legal fight over her status is expected to last months or years.
She said: "The only crime I committed was to come to Syria. I would like to be at home.
"There is more safety in a British prison, more education and access to family. Here, there are so many uncertainties about what will happen. It is still a warzone."
Begum, who went to school in Bethnal Green, left London in 2015 along with two friends to join ISIS.
LIFE WITH ISIS
She was found in a Syrian refugee camp in mid-February at the age of 19 after fleeing battle-scarred Baghuz.
At the time she had a baby son, Jarrah, but she was only at the camp for a week before he fell ill.
She had woken in her tent on March 7 to find Jarrah suffering with serious breathing problems and his skin turning blue.
The pair were both taken from the camp to a nearby hospital, where the tot was put on a drip and given oxygen.
He died hours later and his young mum reportedly stayed alone on a bed in a hospital room with her dead baby until dawn.
However, when she returned to the camp the baby was taken away and buried outside of the perimeter wires that surround the camp.
“There was not an imam there, but some people who work outside the gates they prayed over him,” she said.
NO TEARS FOR TRAGIC TOT
It was the third child she had lost since her first son died in November aged eight months and her one-year-old daughter died in January.
Both died of malnutrition and disease.
One of the camp's guards told Times reporter Anthony Loyd “she never shed a tear” as Jarrah was buried without ceremony.
Despite her dark past, the Londoner says she now regrets everything she has done and has begged to be allowed back to the UK to start her life over.
"Since I left Baghuz I really regretted everything I did, and I feel like I want to go back to the UK for a second chance to start my life over again," she said.
"I was brainwashed. I came here believing everything that I had been told, while knowing little about the truths of my religion."
Begum's jihadi husband earlier told of their “nightmare” after their third baby died in a Syrian refugee camp.
MOST READ IN NEWS
Begum's ISIS fighter husband Riedijk, currently detained in a Kurdish-run camp in Syria, has described her as "the perfect wife" and said they are heartbroken over the deaths.
He said: “Me and her, we loved them so much it’s a nightmare.
“It’s the worst thing that could ever happen. She’s just alone, heartbroken, having lost three children."
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Shamima Begum's husband Yaho Riedijk says 'we've made a mistake' and hopes to be given a second chance after 'miserable life' in ISIS
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Shamima Begum’s dad Ahmed Ali pleads for the British people to forgive his daughter
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