"I saw decapitated heads in the trash, but they did not bother me": Shamima Begum, the British girl who joined the Islamic State and now wants to return to give birth in England

She fled her home at the age of 15, while she was only a schoolgirl, to become a "combatant wife" of the Islamic State, an organization that designated to commit atrocious crimes in the territories he controlled and who has admitted to carrying out deadly attacks in several cities. European

Now aged 19, Shamima Begum says she does not regret having done so but wishes to return to England to give birth.

He informed the British newspaper The Times of a refugee camp in northern Syria.

"I do not regret anything, but I want to go back to England because I know my son can live there quietly," said Begum, who is 19 years old and nine months pregnant.

He also stated that he had already had two children and that both died. And that he has witnessed the actions of the Islamic State.

"I saw heads (beheading) piling up in garbage cans, but they did not bother me at all," he said.

But how did a teenager living in a London neighborhood travel the world to join one of the most radical Islamist groups in recent years?

His journey began in February 2015.

The rise of the Islamic State

On February 18, 2015, in the middle of the advanced Islamic State of Iraq, Shamima Begum, as well as Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, took a flight to London Gatwick Airport for Istanbul, in Turkey.

At that time, Begum was 15 years old.

They stole family jewelry to pay for the tickets and did not inform anyone of their departure. They simply said that they were gone for the day, that they had disappeared and that they had learned their journey through the images of a security camera for airport and airport. a bus terminal in Turkey.

Immediately, the parents of the three young people – who did not finish their studies – tried by all means to communicate with them and prevent them from going to Syria or Iraq to support the Islamic State.

"You are strong, smart, beautiful and we are waiting for you to make the right decision," the family said in a statement issued by the police. "Please, come home."

The three were prominent students of the Bethnal Green Academy, a district in the east of the British capital.

What he learned about them afterwards was little. They had crossed the border of Turkey to Syria, which had reached the territories of the Islamic State, where they had married foreign jihadists who, like them, had joined the ranks of the radical group.

According to British and Australian intelligence services, Kadiza Sultana was said to have married an American activist of Somali origin and died during an airstrike in May 2016.

The same fate would have run Amira Abase. According to the young woman's relatives, she died in 2017 in a similar situation. She had married an Australian citizen incorporated in the Islamic State.

According to the Strategic Dialogue Institute, about 550 women from different western countries traveled to Iraq to marry jihadist militants.

Begum

The only teenager to have no more information was Begum.

Until journalist Anthony Loyd of The Times newspaper finds her in a refugee camp in Syria.

There, the young woman told him how was his life after leaving London.

"I signed up to marry someone who speaks English aged 20 to 25," he said.

He stayed in Raqqa in a common house reserved for "future brides" of employment insurance. Ten days later, he marries a 27-year-old Dutch convert to Islam.

And she stays married to him. The couple managed to escape from the city of Baghuz, the last enclave of the Islamic State in eastern Syria, two weeks ago.

Her husband went to a group of Syrian fighters. They are now part of a camp of 39,000 refugees in northern Syria.

"I do not regret what I did, it's a normal life, just like what we see in the propaganda videos, it's a normal life," he said. he told Loyd.

"From time to time, there are bombs and that kind of thing, but other than that, nothing …", he added.

Dead children

Begum revealed that she is currently pregnant for the third time.

And that the two children that he had had before were dead.

His daughter died when he was a little over a year and a half old. His other son, three months ago and at the age of eight months, was suffering from a malnutrition-related illness.

"I took him to the hospital here in Syria, but they could not do anything, there were no drugs or enough medical personnel," he said.

"That's the reason I want to go back to England, because I know that there (my son) will be careful, at least in the medical aspect."

But he insisted that he felt no regret for what he had done.

"I'm not the same innocent and stupid girl who escaped from Betnhal Green four years ago," he said.

The first time she saw a "head decapitated" in a garbage can, she said in her story, it did not "bother her at all".

"He was a prisoner of war, an enemy of Islam," he said.

"The only thing I thought was what I could have done to a Muslim woman if I had the chance to do it," Begum said.

companions

The young Londoner confirmed to the reporter that Sultana had died in a bomb attack and that it had affected her a lot.

"It had been several days since I refused, I always thought that if we were to die, we would die together," he said. he said.

However, the fate of his partner is not certain.

The truth is that he believes that "oppression" experienced within the group ended up finishing it.

"I have no hope of being reborn, it is getting smaller and smaller, and there is so much corruption and oppression in the organization that it does not deserve the victory" , did he declare.

The truth is that the UK authorities have stated that the eventual return of Begum, a British citizen, should be contingent on a series of requirements.

"Any British citizen who has left the country and is involved in supporting terrorist actions in Syria must be prepared when he returns to the country to be interrogated, investigated and eventually formally charged in court," said the minister. of the United Kingdom. Ben Wallace.