Sharmeena Begum

Sharmeena Begum (sometimes transliterated as Shamina; born 1999) is one of the jihadi brides. She left the United Kingdom to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in December 2014. Two months later, in February 2015, school friends Amira Abase, Shamima Begum, and Kadiza Sultana joined her in occupied Syria. Begum is one of the youngest British teenagers to join ISIL.

Not to be confused with Shamima Begum who left for Syria with friends and was found in a refugee camp.

Sharmeena Begum
Born1999
Bethnal Green, Tower Hamlets, London, England
Alma materBethnal Green Academy, London
Parents
  • Mohammad Uddin (father)
  • Shahnaz Begum (mother)

In February 2019 Begum was described as "missing".[1] However in 2023 she was tracked down by the BBC, currently living in Syria using a different identity.[2]

Background
Main entrance of Mulberry Academy Shoreditch, formerly known as Bethnal Green Academy

Sharmeena Begum was born to Shahnaz Begum and Mohammad Uddin who are of Bangladeshi origin.[3][4] She was raised by her mother until her father joined them in the UK in 2007.[3] Begum's mother died of cancer in January 2014.[4] Her father remarried in September 2014, and Begum left for Syria in December 2014.[5] Begum's father, Mohammad Uddin, said that her behaviour changed; she stopped listening to western music, and started going to her room to pray, but he assumed this was a grief reaction to her mother's death.[3][6] At the time of her father's second marriage she lived with her grandmother.[4]

Members of her family were sure Begum was targeted for recruitment by a group, known as the "Sisters Forum", within the Islamic Forum of Europe, that met at an east London Mosque.[6][7][8]

Women from the group that recruited her have been described as "brainwashing" her, telling her she would meet her recently deceased mother in paradise if she died a martyr. Women from the group are reported to have taken her to the airport, for her departure.[6]

Sharmeena Begum was friends with Amira Abase, Shamima Begum, (unrelated) and Kadiza Sultana who left for Syria a couple of months later. All four attended Bethnal Green Academy.[5][9]

Joining ISIL

After her mother died, Begum became increasingly interested in religious themes, although her family had previously described her as non-religious.[10] She is said to have begun to pray and stopped listening to western music.[3][4] Begum was not getting along with her new stepmother, and had gone to live with one of her grandmothers.[11]

According to the police, Begum was encouraged by two unidentified women to join ISIL and that those two had taken her to Gatwick Airport on a flight to Turkey, from where she made her way to Syria. According to reports by the family, she purchased the plane ticket with £500 she had persuaded her grandmother to give her.[4] She used her grandmother's passport for her travels, telling her she needed to borrow the passport for her schoolwork.[6]

East London Mosque, where Begum is said to have met the "Sisters Forum"

The women who encouraged her are thought to be members of the East London Mosque in Whitechapel and that they are members of a group called the "Sisters Forum" within the Islamic Forum of Europe. The mosque, however, denied any involvement in the radicalisation of Begum.[8]

Two weeks after her departure, she reportedly called her father to inform him that she did not intend to return.[12][13]

Following his daughter's disappearance, Mr Uddin informed the police of his suspicion that his daughter might have been encouraged by Islamists and that her three friends might be at risk as well. Police subsequently approached the three girls to question them about Sharmeena. As they were minors, they gave them letters to pass to their parents to seek permission. The letters were not passed on and police did not follow up.[14]

Two months after her departure, she was joined by her three friends from Bethnal Green Academy who had also made their way to Syria via Turkey. According to reports, they were able to meet up in Raqqa.[12]

It is thought she married a Bosnian fighter who has since been killed.[5] Shamima Begum reported last seeing her in Baghuz in June 2018.[15][1][5]

Jasmine Jawhar, author of "Terrorists' use of the internet: The case of DAESH", characterized Begum and her school friends as being "mesmerised by the 'romantic idea of jihad'."[16]

Criticism of the response of security officials

Begum's travel to Islamic State-occupied Syria, followed by the travel of three of her friends, triggered a discussion as to whether UK security officials could have prevented the other girls following her example.[17] The parents of fellow students say they were unaware that Begum had travelled to Islamic State territory.[18] Parents who were aware assumed she had returned to Bangladesh out of grief, following the death of her mother.

Begum's father was critical that his warnings to police regarding his concern that her friends might follow her example, were ignored.[17][18]

On 19 February 2019, Cressida Dick, Commissioner of London's Metropolitan Police Service, defended the Police against claims they should have been able to anticipate Begum's friends following her example.[19] Dick disputed that Begum was travelling on the same plane as another teenage recruit, who was prevented from travelling. Dick acknowledged another 15-year-old girl was prevented from travelling the night Begum left, but said she thought the other girl was on a different plane. As for the criticism that the police could have prevented her friends from following her example, she asserted that the police did speak with her friends, but, at the time, saw them merely as witnesses, not potential victims, because "knowing somebody's intentions is 'extremely complicated'".

See also

References
  1. 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.
  2. "Shamima Begum: Friend who inspired IS defection mocks her as non-believer". BBC News. 22 March 2023. Retrieved 22 March 2023.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. "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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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.
  10. 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).
  11. 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.
  12. "First missing UK schoolgirl named". BBC News. 14 March 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  13. "Missing schoolgirls: First teenager who fled from east London named as". The Independent. 14 March 2015. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  14. London, Katrin Bennhold in. "How Islamic State lured three UK teenagers". The Irish Times. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  15. "Father Of Isis Schoolgirl Tells LBC His Daughter Was "Brainwashed" And Wants Her Home". LBC. Retrieved 3 March 2019.
  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. 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. 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.
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