A few weeks ago, the British Broadcasting Service (BBC) spent thousands of dollars giving massive coverage to Islamic State (ISIS) bride Shamima Begum thus portraying her as a victim, or even hero, as part of a propaganda stunt of the notorious Islamist militancy outfit.
According to the British tabloid The Sun, an ISIS slave has told how she saw Shamima Begum at a terrorist training camp where she would have been taught how to use suicide belts and guns.
Shamima Begum – who fled the United Kingdom (UK), as a teen to join the death cult – was also good friends with a sick ISIS slave master who would sell girls as young as 14 into a life of sexual abuse.
Dila – not her real name – is a member of the Yazidi people who were subjected to genocide by ISIS, with an estimated 5,000 murdered and more than 10,000 kidnapped. She was kept as a slave by ISIS for seven years – being sold, raped and abused after being snatched at just 13.
And Shamima Begum’s jihadi husband, Yago Riedijk, also offered some clues that she was not the housewife she claimed to be. He let slip that she received wages for the terrorist group, implying she was doing more than just staying home.
Dila eventually escaped as the caliphate collapsed – but she remains haunted by the horrific conditions ISIS subjected her to.
She was kidnapped as a teenager – before being sold as a slave in Mosul and taken into Syria.
Shamima Begum fled her home in Bethnal Green, London, to join ISIS at the age of February 15 2015. She travelled with her two school friends, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana, flying to Turkey before crossing Syria.
As ISIS was defeated militarily in 2019, journalists rediscovered Shamima in the al-Hawl refugee camp in Syria.
Shamima Begum seemed unphased by ISIS’ crimes – admitting to witnessing beheading, shrugging off the rape of Yazidis, and attempting to justify the bombing of the Manchester Arena.
But after the Government signed an order to revoke her citizenship – she appears to have gone on a charm offensive, rehabbing her image as a regretful victim as she attempts to return to the UK.
She was even given a podcast by the BBC – which was branded a “sham”.
Shamima Begum is again due to appeal after the Special Immigration Appeal Commission rejected her latest bid to regain her British citizenship.
Duncan has warned Begum remains a threat to the UK – and points to her as a symptom of a wider issue around the treatment of female ISIS fighters.
Testimony from victims has placed the female members as key players in the abuse and tyranny – especially against those they kept as slaves, like the Yazidis.
And yet, some female fighters have been allowed to return to the UK – including the shameless Samia Hussein, who was given a new prosthetic arm on the NHS.
Duncan compared how they are treated with how British soldiers have faced witch hunts over allegations of crimes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Northern Ireland.
