The BBC was criticised today for ‘giving terrorists a platform’ after Shamima Begum landed a 10-part podcast to ‘retrace her journey’.
In 2015, a 15-year-old Begum and her school friends Kadiza Sultana, also 15, and Amira Abase, 16, fled their east London homes to join IS.
Begum, now 23, was found in a refugee camp in 2019 and soon after the UK withdrew her citizenship and banned her from entering Britain.
She now lives at the al-Roj camp in northern Syria, run by the Syrian Democratic Forces, which she described as ‘worse than a prison’.
The 23-year-old, who packed mint chocolate for the trip to Syria to join the brutal death cult, says ‘I’m just so much more than ISIS’.
Critics have accused the BBC of ‘wasting licence fee payers’ money’ and said the families of ISIS victims would be ‘mortified’.
Wasiq Wasiq, a fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, tweeted: ‘While the victims of grooming gangs are still trying to be heard and get justice, Shamima Begum manages to land 10-part podcast on the BBC.’
The BBC said the podcast would provide Ms Begum’s ‘full account’ of ‘what really happened’ when she disappeared from London in 2015 to become a jihadi bride.
But it insisted her story would not be ‘unchallenged’, describing the podcast as a ‘robust, public interest investigation’.
Begum told the BBC she accepts she joined a terror group, but on the topic of public anger aimed at her says: ‘I don’t think it’s actually towards me. I think it’s towards ISIS.
‘When they think of ISIS they think of me because I’ve been put on the media so much but what was there to obsess over?
‘We went to ISIS, that was it. It was over, it was over and done with.’
But she also researched information herself including looking for IS members online to help her and her friends plan their journey.
The podcast reveals Begum and her friends hid their luggage in advance and game-planned for scenarios such as being quizzed or caught out. She said: ‘There were people online… advising us on what to do and what not to do.
‘Just like how to get the money to buy the tickets, where to buy the tickets, which airport to go to, what to bring, what to wear, when you’re going to the airport, who to talk to, who not to talk to, what excuse to make if you do get caught.
‘When asked how she decided what items to take, Begum says: ‘It’s the same as when you go on vacation, you’re just [thinking] what do I need for a vacation, it’s pretty basic items.
‘I don’t know, people used to say… pack nice clothes so you can dress nicely for your husband.’
