{"id":310173,"date":"2026-01-29T18:06:17","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T18:06:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/310173\/"},"modified":"2026-01-29T18:06:17","modified_gmt":"2026-01-29T18:06:17","slug":"isis-bride-or-trafficked-sex-slave-shamima-begum-still-looms-large-in-british-psyche-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/310173\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Isis bride\u2019 or trafficked sex slave? Shamima Begum still looms large in British psyche \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Bethnal Green Academy school that Shamima Begum attended changed its name in 2018 to escape the notoriety of what British media still call the \u201cIsis brides\u201d.<\/p>\n

In 2015, Begum and two other schoolgirls were radicalised online to flee their families for then Islamic State-controlled Syria<\/a> to join a fourth girl from the school. Begum was just 15.<\/p>\n

Now she is 26. Even though she is locked up in a camp 4,500km away, she remains one of the most talked about women in Britain<\/a>, and one of its most publicly reviled. Brits are convulsed with a fear she might come back.<\/p>\n

Bethnal Green Academy is now the Mulberry Academy Shoreditch \u2013 better to be named after East London\u2019s trendy tech hub than the Bangladeshi enclave that spawned Begum and the other two teenagers, Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, both now believed dead, who travelled with her to marry fighters from Islamic State (also known as Isis).<\/p>\n

Sharmeena Begum (no relation) was the fourth pupil who went three months earlier. She was last tracked down by BBC in Syria in 2023. Another schoolgirl was pulled off a plane by police in 2015 as she tried to go. Five other Bethnal Green girls were made wards of court to stop them travelling.<\/p>\n

Yet police were too slow to stop Begum and her two friends. Authorities knew they were at risk, but never told the girls\u2019 parents and never followed it up.<\/p>\n

Their old school sits off cacophonous Bethnal Green Road. The area was once a white-dominated, working-class East London neighbourhood \u2013 the gangster Kray twins attended Begum\u2019s school 70 years before her.<\/p>\n

Now it is the most Islamic part of London. Forty per cent of the population are Muslims from Bangladesh or their descendants. The Tube signs are in Bengali and English. The cloth markets sell hijabs and pashminas. The cafes are halal.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The story of Shamima Begum, a London teen turned exiled terroristOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

\"ShamimaShamima Begum travelled to Syria in 2015 – at the age of 15. Photograph: PA\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Although it is being gentrified by tech workers, Bethnal Green remains dotted with the cramped estates where Begum and her contemporaries lived. As well as one of the most colourful districts in London, it also one of the most deprived.<\/p>\n

The miserable arc of Begum\u2019s story is, by now, well known. At 15 she married a Dutch Islamic State member \u2013 she says he was abusive. She had three babies who all died in infancy. When Islamic State fell she was captured by Kurdish forces who locked her in camps with other so-called \u201cIsis brides\u201d. She is still in one, al-Hoj, for now.<\/p>\n

The \u201cbrides\u201d term is still used by British media even though UK courts found Begum was likely trafficked for underage sexual exploitation. There are vague parallels with what happened domestically in areas such as Rotherham. An obvious difference is the Bethnal Green girls were groomed by jihadis in the Middle East, not Yorkshire taxi drivers.<\/p>\n

The other obvious difference is the Rotherham victims were white British girls. Begum was a brown British girl \u2013 or at least she was British, until former home secretary Sajid Javid revoked her citizenship in February 2019 when she was found in a camp.<\/p>\n

At the time, Theresa May was in the death throes of her premiership. Javid was a contender but had no chance without the support of the Tory right. As Britons raged at the \u2018silly little Bethnal Green jihadi bride in Syria\u2019, Javid stripped her citizenship.<\/p>\n

His hardline act was met with huge public approval. It is legal in Britain if the person has the theoretical right to claim citizenship elsewhere, so the sanction is disproportionately a greater threat to British people with foreign ancestors. Indigenous white Brits have less to fear.<\/p>\n

Javid had only to say his decision was \u201cconducive to the public good\u201d to make it legal. No more explanation required. Bangladesh, where Begum\u2019s parents were born, refuses to take her. She is now stateless.<\/p>\n

Begum wants to return. She fought in the courts but all UK legal avenues were exhausted. Now, with lawyers including Gareth Peirce of Birmingham Six fame, her case is with the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR). The Strasbourg court is politically controversial in Britain, blamed for halting refugee deportations.<\/p>\n

ECHR this month asked the British government to defend how it factored Begum\u2019s sex trafficking into its decision. The Labour home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, herself the daughter of Muslim Asian immigrants, says she will \u201crobustly defend\u201d the position taken by her Tory predecessor in 2019. It would be politically risky to do anything else.<\/p>\n

The majority of Brits don\u2019t want Begum back \u2013 a YouGov poll in November said two-thirds agreed she should never be allowed return. She has come to personify Islamic State, even though she was never convicted of an act of terrorism.<\/p>\n

The Kurdish camps are now at risk of being overrun by Syrian government forces. British media is full of fearful stories that Begum and other \u201cIsis brides\u201d might escape.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Daily Mail ran a story quoting the father of a victim of the 7\/7 London bombings in July 2005, saying Begum must be kept out \u2013 she was only five years old when 7\/7 happened. The Sun said freeing her \u201cwould be like releasing a shark into a swimming pool\u201d. GB News said her re-entry would be \u201cthe worst thing that could ever happen\u201d.<\/p>\n

Britons are still obsessed with Begum, who reminds them of things they\u2019d rather forget.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0The problem with banishing Shamima BegumOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Bethnal Green Academy school that Shamima Begum attended changed its name in 2018 to escape the notoriety…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":310174,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[9,10,13,14,6,125843,127680,11,12,15,16,5,15516,7,8,1294,65,66,67],"class_list":{"0":"post-310173","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-breaking-news","9":"tag-breakingnews","10":"tag-featured-news","11":"tag-featurednews","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-isis","14":"tag-islamic-state","15":"tag-latest-news","16":"tag-latestnews","17":"tag-main-news","18":"tag-mainnews","19":"tag-news","20":"tag-syria","21":"tag-top-stories","22":"tag-topstories","23":"tag-uk","24":"tag-world","25":"tag-world-news","26":"tag-worldnews"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115979720014738811","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310173","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=310173"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/310173\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/310174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=310173"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=310173"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=310173"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}