Shamima Begum discusses her family's reaction to her joining Daesh in an interview with the BBC
Shamima Begum discusses her family's reaction to her joining Daesh in an interview with the BBC
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London: When Shamima Begum left Britain in 2015 at the age of 15 to join Daesh in Syria, it was the first time she spoke to her mother.

"When I called my mother the first time, she was sobbing." In an interview with journalist Joshua Baker for the second season of the BBC podcast "I'm Not a Monster," which began this month, she said, "I felt like she was trying to make me feel guilty."

"I don't know, maybe it was just the feelings, but I didn't talk to her and let her cry. I just kept telling her I was fine. When Baker asked her what she said in response, she wanted to return home. Regarding the mother's pleas, he said she "just said no.

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Despite not making up her mind to join the extremist group at the time, Begum, now 23, continued, not wanting to give false hope to her mother as she did not know if she would be able to go.

After publicly pleading with his sister to leave Daesh, Baker later asked Begum how she felt. She said, "I couldn't believe it. I found it hard to believe that my sister would fly to Turkey in an attempt to save me."

Begum even said that her family's fervent calls for her return were "responsible" for the media frenzy that followed the revelation of her trip to Syria.

But I don't think they anticipated how big and how far it would spread," she continued. "I blame the media for being overly obsessed with my friends and I."

The podcast, new episodes of which are released every Wednesday, also provided details about Begum's Syrian traveling companion, people smuggler Mohammed al-Rashid, who was also an agent of the Canadian intelligence services at the time.

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This month, the Begum podcast series, which focuses on her case and in which she defends her actions, has drawn criticism from the general public. As a response, the public service broadcaster in the UK said the show was "not a platform for Shamima Begum to deliver her astonishing story," but a "robust, public-interest investigation" into her case.

Begum was born in the UK to parents who were both citizens of Bangladesh. When she left for Syria, she was living with her family in the Bethnal Green neighborhood of London.

She married Yago Riedijk, who was born in the Netherlands, shortly after her arrival in the war-torn nation. She had three children in the years that followed, but all of them died at an early age.

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She was found in 2019 in a camp for refugees in northern Syria. Her citizenship was revoked by the UK government, and it was announced that she would not be allowed to re-enter the nation.

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