ISIS bride Shamima Begum spotted in Western outfit
Trendy sunglasses and a striped T-shirt clad Shamima shook hands with The Telegraph journalist on 14 March but politely declined to be interviewed
Shamima Begum, also known as Britain's so-called "Isis bride", was seen at a Syrian camp with straightened hair and Western clothing.
Trendy sunglasses and a striped T-shirt clad Shamima shook hands with The Telegraph journalist on 14 March but politely declined to be interviewed, due to legal advice.
Pictures of Shamima Begum wearing make-up and Western clothes have been released by the Daily Telegraph after the newspaper tracked her down at Roj camp in northeast Syria.
Ms Begum was 15 years old when she and two other east London schoolgirls travelled to Syria to join Islamic State in February 2015.
Shamima was discovered in a squalid detention camp for Islamic State supporters in February 2019, as she was a widow mourning the death of her two children after fleeing the final fighting that marked the collapse of the group's caliphate.
Since then her third child has died and the UK government has stripped her citizenship on national security grounds, citing her as a threat to public safety.
Last month, the UK's Supreme Court ruled that she cannot return to the UK to pursue an appeal against the removal of her British citizenship.
She was reportedly left "angry, upset and crying" after the ruling, with Liberty campaigners saying: "The right to a fair trial protects all of us. Stripping someone's citizenship without due process sets a dangerous precedent."
Now 21 years old Shamima has languished in Roj for two years while her lawyers challenge the decision to revoke her citizenship. During this time her appearance has gradually changed as she first abandoned the black full length gown and later stopped wearing headscarves.
Today she looks more suited to a shopping trip on Oxford Street than life in a camp for hardened jihadists.
Initially Shamima said she had no regrets about joining Islamic State, though she later said that she had spoken while in shock and out of fear of retribution.
Since the frenzied media attention after her early interviews, she has stopped speaking to journalists.
On Sunday she greeted The Telegraph with a handshake and a weary refusal to speak on record, though she did consent to be photographed.
Shamima's case has become emblematic of the fate of several dozen British women living in Roj camp, many of whom have also had their citizenship revoked, and many of whom have children.
Eight other British women declined interviews with The Telegraph, several citing legal advice. All were polite, with one woman saying "thanks for coming all this way".
Another woman said her son urgently needed to return home to seek medical care that was not available in the camp.
"We hope to go back home soon," one said.
Camp manager Nora Abdo said the British women in Roj routinely decline media requests on advice from their lawyers. They are well-behaved and cause no problems at the camp, she added.
"We've noticed the change in their clothing," she said. "They want to come home. They say they're ready to pay the punishment for their crimes. Some are thinking about the future for their kids."
An academic who speaks regularly with Islamic State members and the women in the camps said that a woman forgoing the veil was a genuine sign that she no longer supported the group.
"I don't think it's a strategy, a woman who is pro-ISIS wouldn't take it off to get repatriated," said Vera Mironova, who is a research fellow at Harvard University.
Removing the veil comes at a cost, Mironova said, as committed Islamic State supporters in the camp have better access to money and other contraband such as mobile phones through their networks.
Western women in the camp often have less access to money, Mironova said, due to the threat of Western governments using anti-terror legislation to prosecute families who send funds to relatives in the camp.
One European woman in the camp told The Telegraph, "Some people are still Daesh groupies," using another name for IS.
"But I don't think they're dangerous, and they're very few. People are tired and most have changed."
Camp administrators say the 2,618 people living in Roj are more secure and better provisioned than the 62,000 people living in the sprawling Al-Hol camp, where a string of murders have been reported in recent months.
"There are no tent burnings or violence here," said Abdo, the manager.
Both Roj and Al-Hol are run by a Western-backed militia in a corner of Syria somewhat removed from the fighting that has destroyed much of the rest of the country in the past decade.
But during an October 2019 Turkish-backed military offensive against the Kurdish-led militia, an estimated 750 IS-affiliated women and their children were reported to have escaped from another camp at Ain Issa. Some women in Roj camp now say they pray that similar fighting nearby could offer them a chance to escape.
