Shamima Begum, who left Britain to join Islamic State as a schoolgirl in 2015, has said she understands public anger towards her but insists she is “not this person that they think I am”.
Begum, who was 15 when she left her east London home to join IS with her school friends Kadiza Sultana, 15, and Amira Abase, 16, has told the story of how she joined the terror group and life in a refugee camp in a 10-part BBC podcast, The Shamima Begum Story.
Begum was found in a refugee camp in 2019, stripped of British citizenship and banned from entering Britain. She said she knew the public saw her “as a danger, as a risk, as a potential risk to them, to their safety, to their way of living”, but added: “I’m not this person that they think I am.”
She knew exactly what she was doing.
