Former ISIS bride believes Shamima Begum may be scared to speak out

Former ISIS bride blames anti-Islamic bullying at her British school for driving her to marry a Syrian Jihadi like Shamima Begum – and claims she ‘never felt safe’ in the UK

• Former ISIS bride ‘Fatima’, 30, shared her story of spending two years in Syria
• Left UK at 26 and returned in 2017, aged 28, cutting all ties with the organisation 
• The Londoner compared her story to Shamima Begum, who left at 15 in 2015
• Says Shamima, who is battling to return to the UK, may still be scared of group

A former ISIS bride, who turned her back on the organisation after spending two years in Syria, has blamed anti-Islamic bullying at her British school for driving her into the arms of ISIS.

Fatima, 30, from London, spent two years in Syria before cutting all ties with them and returning to her family in 2017, at the age of 28. 

In an eye-opening interview with Stylist, she said she sought solace in extremist beliefs, after being regularly assaulted in school, and singled out due to her headscarf.

Fatima told how when she was 11-years-old, a gang of girls pushed her into a corner of their playground and ripped off her headscarf, pulling out handfuls of her hair. 

‘The whole time, they were screaming that I was a Paki b***h’, she recalled. 

‘Men would come up behind me, groping me, threatening to pull off my headscarf and jeering that I would be a sl** without it. I have also been punched and kicked. I never felt safe’.

This comes as Shamima Begum, now 19, who left her Bethnal Green home in 2015 for the Syrian city of Raqqa and married a Dutch jihadi, has appealed the decision to have her British citizenship revoked as she battles to return to Britain.

Former ISIS bride Fatima, 30, from London who turned her back on the organisation after spending two years in Syria, thinks Shamima Begum may still be living in fear of the group (stock image used)

Recalling an incident when her pregnant friend was subjected to a violent assault, she said: ‘You hear about attacks on British people on the news, but then compare that to the women who threatened to kick an innocent baby to death just for being a Muslim, and suddenly you don’t feel so sorry for them anymore’.

Fuelled with rage Fatima admitted that she felt inspired after meeting a man online, who pointed her in the direction of articles about ‘Islamic justice’.

She added: ‘Prince Harry was a warring hero for the British people, so I felt: why can’t we have our own heroes that protect us?’

This comes as Shamima Begum, now 19, who left her Bethnal Green home in 2015 for the Syrian city of Raqqa and married a Dutch jihadi, has appealed the decision to have her British citizenship revoked as she battles to return to Britain

Fatima married the man she met in London after a short relationship, and they arrived in Syria in 2015 to support the ‘liberation army’. 

Shockingly, Fatima revealed how they were given books justifying the murder of children, beheadings and use of sex slaves. 

The rise of Islamophobia 

Last year hate crimes rocketed by nearly a fifth in England and Wales, latest figures reveal.

There were 94,098 such offences recorded in 2017/18, an increase of 17 per cent on the previous year, while statistics show the figure has doubled since 2013/2014.

In November, a 15-year-old boy who whose family escaped war in Syria and were relocated to Huddersfield, was beaten up and ‘waterboarded’ on a school field, and told how he was so upset and ‘ashamed’ of the attack he dreaded returning to school and cried himself to sleep. 

Admitting that she initially justified attacks on the western world as ‘retaliation’, she said a ‘terrifying wake-up call’ – which she would not detail –  ‘changed her mind for good. 

Returning to Britain in 2017, Fatima was accepted by her family on the condition she cut all ties with her husband and any extremist connections. 

She moved to the suburbs and took on the new motto that ‘the solution for violence is never more violence’.

Addressing the apparent lack of regret Shamima expressed in an interview with Sky News in February, Fatima said: ‘It’s ‘possible’ that Shamima Begum has been threatened with consequences ‘if she dares to be publicly disloyal to the Islamic State’.  

‘Once you’re too far in, for some, it can be difficult to get out.’ 

Fatima believes the stereotypes and rising Islamophobia is creating an environment where ‘where female terror recruits can thrive’.

She added: ‘When someone ties you to a stereotype for years, eventually you get tired of trying to prove people wrong, and out of anger, you start living up to that stereotype’.

Shamima Begum: Her story in brief

The British-born schoolgirl left her family in East London to join IS at the age of 15 in February 2015. 

She lived in the Syrian city of Raqqa and married a Dutch jihadi named Yago Riedijk with whom she had three children, all of whom died as infants.

After being missing for four years, the teenager resurfaced at a refugee camp earlier this year saying she wanted to come home and pleading to be allowed back. 

In an interview on whether she regretted joining ISIS, Shamima said: ‘Yes, a mistake in coming here, living under Islamic State.

‘In a way, yes, but I don’t regret it because it’s changed me as a person.’ 

 In a dramatic move, Mr Javid ordered that she be stripped of her citizenship ‘in order to protect this country’.

She is now fighting to appeal the removal of her citizenship. 

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