Shamima Begum boasts her trip to Syria was ‘easy’ and says she never considered turning back as BBC podcast traces her steps via ISIS smuggling ring
- Begum tells the podcast she could have safely returned to the UK but chose not to
- Tells presenter she ‘thinks’ she could have turned around but was ‘scared’
- Begum also describes the process of crossing the Syrian border as ‘easy’
Shamima Begum admitted she never considered turning back as she traveled 700 miles through Turkey to join the Islamic State.
The former London schoolgirl, who was 15 when she made the trip in 2015, tells a new BBC podcast she could have safely returned to the UK but chose not to.
Asked by journalist Joshua Baker if she had ever considered going back on her plan to join the cult of death, she replied: “No, not during the trip”.
When asked if it would have been possible not to go to Syria, she replies: “I think so. But I think I would have been pushed to continue by my friends and by the smuggler. And at that time, I was so scared of being arrested and going to jail.
Begum also describes the process of crossing the Syrian border as “easy”.
Shamima Begum tells new episode of BBC podcast she could have safely returned to UK but chose not to
In the second episode of I’m Not a Monster: The Shamima Begum Story, Baker traces Begum’s story through Turkey to Syria.
Local presenter and journalist Zeynep Bilginsoy starts at an Istanbul bus station where the Londoner and her two friends met a smuggler, believed to be Mohammed Al Rasheed.
Describing her journey, she says: ‘We were on the coach for half a day and then got off and on in a bunch of cars and changed cars seven times before we reached the border.
“At times we also separated and wondered what was going on. A lot of adrenaline was going through us.
Recalling the moment they reached the border, she says: “There were Syrian men waiting for us who helped carry our bags and the smuggler told us to cross the border with them. It was very easy.
Baker and Bilginsoy find a taxi in which she traveled through Turkey but the driver refuses to speak to them.
They then try to talk to the smugglers, and in a terrifying exchange, a gangster demands money from the couple, and when they ignore his request, threatens to make them “disappear”.
In the second episode of I’m Not a Monster: The Shamima Begum Story, presenter Joshua Baker traces Begum’s story through Turkey to Syria. Pictured: Begum with his friends, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana at Istanbul bus station
Later, Baker receives a secret note about Mohammed Al Rasheed – the Islamic State smuggler and Canadian spy accused of smuggling Begum and his two friends into Syria – with the warning to “be careful” because it could “ embarrass powerful people”.
The BBC has come under fire for giving Begum a 10-part podcast, which sees her claiming she is different from how people perceive her.
It is understood that no money was paid to him by the BBC for his participation in the series.
But critics say the company shouldn’t give it the ‘oxygen’ of publicity amid fears it will allow it to ‘spin’ a ‘gory story’ and use it as a PR opportunity.
Campaign group TaxPayers’ Alliance said in a social media post that BBC licensing fee money “should not support this shameful PR exercise to tell the bloody story of a wife of Isis”.
The BBC insisted the series is “not a platform for Shamima Begum to tell her undisputed story”, but a “solid public interest investigation”.
In 2015 Begum (centre), then 15, Sultana (left), 15, and Abase (right), 16, fled their east London home to join IS. It is believed that his two companions died there
The BBC said the series was “not a platform for Shamima Begum to tell her undisputed story”, but a “solid public interest investigation”.
In the opening episode, she says, “I’m not that person they think is seen as in the media, you know I’m so much more than ISIS and I’m so much more than anything I have been”. through.’
She also talks about when she left for Syria to join the terror group, saying she packed mint chocolate because it couldn’t be found there.
In another section, Begum says that when people think of Isis, they “think of me because I’ve been put in the media so much.” The other two girls who joined her – who also attended Bethnal Green Academy – were Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana.
The podcast explores how Begum came to Syria and what she did when she arrived.
– I’m No Monster: The Story of Shamima Begum is now available on BBC Sounds
