Sharmeena Begum

Not to be confused with the unrelated Shamima Begum who left for Syria two months later.

Sharmeena Begum
Born1999 (age 24–25)
Bethnal Green, London, England
Alma materBethnal Green Academy, London
Parents
  • Mohammad Uddin (father)
  • Shahnaz Begum (mother)

Sharmeena Begum (born 1999) is a jihadi bride who left the United Kingdom to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in December 2014. Two months later, in February 2015, her school friends Amira Abase, Shamima Begum, and Kadiza Sultana (who collectively became known as the Bethnal Green trio) joined her in occupied Syria. Begum is one of the youngest British teenagers to join ISIL.

Begum was tracked down by the BBC in 2023, and was living in Syria under a different identity.[1]

Background

Covered entrance in the shade
Main entrance of Mulberry Academy Shoreditch, formerly known as Bethnal Green Academy

Begum was born to Shahnaz Begum and Mohammad Uddin, who are of Bangladeshi origin.[2][3] She was raised by her mother until her father joined them in the UK in 2007.[2] Begum's mother died of cancer in January 2014.[3] Her father remarried in September 2014, and Begum left for Syria in December of that year.[4] Begum's father said that her behaviour had changed; she stopped listening to Western music and began going to her room to pray, but he assumed that she was grieving about her mother's death.[2][5] At the time of her father's remarriage, she lived with her grandmother.[3]

Members of Begum's family were certain that she was targeted for recruitment by a group known as the Sisters Forum within the Islamic Forum of Europe, which met at an east London mosque.[5][6][7] Women from the group that recruited her have been described as "brainwashing" her, telling her that she would meet her recently deceased mother in paradise if she died a martyr, and reportedly brought her to the airport for her departure.[5]

Sharmeena Begum was friends with Amira Abase, Shamima Begum (unrelated) and Kadiza Sultana, who left for Syria few months later. All four attended Bethnal Green Academy.[4][8]

Joining ISIL

Begum became increasingly interested in religious themes after her mother died, although her family had previously described her as non-religious.[9] She is said to have begun praying, and stopped listening to Western music.[2][3] Begum did not get along with her new stepmother, and had gone to live with one of her grandmothers.[10]

According to police, she was encouraged by two unidentified women to join ISIL. They brought Begum to Gatwick Airport for a flight to Turkey, from where she made her way to Syria. According to reports by her family, she purchased the plane ticket with £500 that she persuaded her grandmother to give her.[3] Begum used her grandmother's passport for her travels, telling her that she needed to borrow the passport for her schoolwork.[5]

Large mosque on a city street
The East London Mosque, where Begum reportedly met the Sisters Forum

The women who encouraged her are thought to be members of a group known as the Sisters Forum, part of the Islamic Forum of Europe. The East London Mosque denied any involvement in Begum's radicalisation.[7] Two weeks after her departure, she reportedly called her father to tell him that she did not intend to return.[11][12]

After his daughter's disappearance, Uddin told police about his suspicion that Begum might have been encouraged by Islamists and her three friends might also be at risk. The Metropolitan Police subsequently approached the three girls to question them about their friend. Since they were minors, they gave them letters to give to their parents to give permission for the questioning. The letters were not passed along, and the police did not follow up.[13]

Begum was joined two months after her departure by her three friends from Bethnal Green Academy, who had also made their way to Syria via Turkey. They reportedly met in Raqqa.[11]

Begum reportedly married a Bosnian fighter who was later killed.[4] Shamima Begum reported last seeing her in Baghuz in June 2018.[14][15][4] Jasmine Jawhar, author of Terrorists' use of the internet: The case of DAESH, said that Begum and her school friends were "mesmerised by the 'romantic idea of jihad'".[16]

Criticism of police response

Begum's travel to Islamic State-occupied Syria, followed by the travel of three of her friends, triggered a discussion of whether UK security officials could have prevented the other girls from following her example.[17] Parents of fellow students said that they were unaware that Begum had travelled to Islamic State territory.[18]

Begum's father criticised the police for ignoring his concerns that her friends might follow her example.[17][18] On 19 February 2019, Metropolitan Police commissioner Cressida Dick defended the police against claims that they should have been able to anticipate Begum's friends following her example. Dick denied that Begum was travelling on the same plane as another teenage recruit who was prevented from travelling. Acknowledging that another 15-year-old girl was prevented from travelling the night Begum left, she said she thought the other girl was on a different plane. As for criticism that the police could have prevented her friends from following her example, Dick said that police did speak with her friends but saw them as witnesses rather than potential victims at the time; "knowing somebody's intentions is 'extremely complicated'".[19]

Online contact with the BBC (2023)

In February 2019, Begum was described as missing.[15] In 2023, she was contacted online by the BBC after she had escaped from a Syrian prison for women who had been with ISIL. According to the BBC's report, Begum was living in hiding in Syria, raising money for ISIL through social media.[1][verification needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "Shamima Begum: Friend who inspired IS defection mocks her as non-believer". BBC News. 22 March 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d Gordon, Bryony (16 March 2015). "Syrian schoolgirl: blame the father, not the police". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Archived from the original on 13 December 2017. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  3. ^ a b c d e Mendick, Robert (14 March 2015). "Girl, 15, fled to Islamic State after mother died from cancer". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  4. ^ a b c d Perraudin, Frances (14 February 2019). "Shamima Begum tells of fate of friends who joined Isis during half-term". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d Dodd, Vikram (13 March 2015). "Sharmeena Begum – British girl left to join Isis after upheavals at home". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  6. ^ "Schoolgirl 'radicalised at east London mosque'". Gulf Times. 2 August 2015. Archived from the original on 7 March 2016. Retrieved 1 January 2016. The group has previously been mired in controversy after one of its founders was accused of murders and war crimes in Bangladesh. The newspaper reported that Sharmeena was effectively brainwashed by the group.
  7. ^ a b Rachel Blundy (2 August 2015). "London schoolgirl who recruited three classmates to join IS in Syria 'was radicalised at east London mosque'". London Evening Standard. London. Archived from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved 1 January 2016. The Mail on Sunday reported today that Sharmeena was radicalised at the East London Mosque in Whitechapel by women from a group called Islamic Forum of Europe.
  8. ^ Smith, Tom Ough and Hannah Lucinda (14 March 2015). "Revealed: first of four teenage schoolgirls who fled to Syria". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  9. ^ Rebecca Davis (2016). "What Do They See? A Look at the Appeal of IS to Young Muslim Women Raised in the United Kingdom". Illinois Journal of International Security. Retrieved 4 March 2019. Others did not even wear a hijab, the Muslim head scarf, until shortly before leaving the UK. This was true in the instance of Sharmeena Begum, the first girl from the Bethnal Green Academy to leave for IS-controlled territory (Sinmaz and Reid, 2015).
  10. ^ Ben Ferguson (3 August 2015). "Left in the Dark: The Story Behind the Families of Three Girls Groomed by the Islamic State". Vice News. Retrieved 4 March 2019. She wasn't getting along with her father's new wife and had decided to live with her maternal grandmother in East London. In the absence of news of where she was, parents at the school presumed she had returned to Bangladesh.
  11. ^ a b "First missing UK schoolgirl named". BBC News. 14 March 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  12. ^ "Missing schoolgirls: First teenager who fled from east London named as". The Independent. 14 March 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  13. ^ London, Katrin Bennhold in. "How Islamic State lured three UK teenagers". The Irish Times. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  14. ^ "Father Of Isis Schoolgirl Tells LBC His Daughter Was "Brainwashed" And Wants Her Home". LBC. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  15. ^ a b Kelly McLaughlin (19 February 2019). "ISIS brides from Canada, the US, and Europe are asking to return home years after fleeing for Syria. Here are their stories". Insider Inc. Retrieved 22 February 2019. Sultana is now believed to be dead, Sharmeena Begum and Abase are missing, Riedijk has turned himself in to authorities, and Shamima Begum is asking to return to London.
  16. ^ Jasmine Jawhar (2016). "Terrorists' use of the internet: The case of DAESH" (PDF). Southeast Asia Regional Centre for Counter-Terrorism. Archived from the original (PDF) on 9 October 2018. Retrieved 4 March 2019. Another concerning development out of this influx is the travelling of women and girls as young as 14 years old into these war zones who are mesmerised by the 'romantic idea of Jihad'.
  17. ^ a b Buchanan, Rose Troup (14 March 2015). "Missing schoolgirls: First teenager who fled from east London named as Sharmeena Begum as father says he told police to warn trio's families". The Independent. Retrieved 1 June 2015.
  18. ^ a b Katrin Bennhold (18 August 2015). "Jihad and Girl Power: How ISIS Lured 3 London Girls". The New York Times. London. p. A1. Retrieved 4 March 2019. Sharmeena's father, Mohammad Uddin, said he had been surprised that the other girls had not left with his daughter. He told The Daily Mail he had urged the police and the school to keep a close eye on them, though the police say the formal statement Mr. Uddin gave to them on Feb. 10 — a week before the three girls left — held no such warning.
  19. ^ Kirsty Bosley (19 February 2019). "Met says stopping schoolgirls intent on becoming jihadi brides is 'incredibly complicated'". Leicester Mercury. Retrieved 4 March 2019. It was claimed that Sharmeena Begum and another unnamed passenger were on the same plane when the latter was pulled from the runway at Heathrow in December 2014 as she sought to travel to Syria. The Times newspaper said the 15-year-old was arrested but not prosecuted, despite officers finding extremist material on her devices.