LONDON // A British woman who fled ISIL with her five children after travelling to Syria described the experience as “not my cup of tea” in an interview on Wednesday.
Shukee Begum, 33, travelled to Syria with her children to find her husband Jamal Al Harith, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who left Britain 18 months ago to join the group, Channel 4 news reported.
A law graduate from northern England, Ms Begum insists she only travelled to convince her husband to return and never supported ISIL.
“I was seeing on the news at this point that ISIL was going from bad to worse ... So I decided that I was going to try and speak some sense into him,” she told Channel 4 news.
At first, Ms Begum lived in a overcrowded safe house in Raqqa with dozens of other women and children, many “crying” and “sick”.
“There was a gangster kind of mentality among single women there. Violent talk, talking about war, killing,” Ms Begum said.
“They would sit together and huddle around their laptops and watch ISIL videos together and discuss them and everything. It was just not my cup of tea.”
After she was reunited with her husband, who refused to help her leave, ISIL authorities would not allow her to go, she added.
“This is what I want to make clear as well to other women thinking of coming into ISIL territory -- that you can’t just expect to come into ISIL territory and then expect that you can just leave again easily,” she said.
“There is no personal autonomy there at all.”
She was smuggled out of the territory before being held captive in Aleppo, and is now living close to the border with Turkey and hopes to move back to Britain, Channel 4 reported.
Hundreds of Britons are thought to have travelled to join the group.
A report released last month indicated that dozens of fighters have defected from ISIL, often due to disillusionment over killing fellow Muslims and civilians.
* Agence France-Presse
Score
Third Test, Day 1
New Zealand 229-7 (90 ov)
Pakistan
New Zealand won the toss and elected to bat
Squid Game season two
Director: Hwang Dong-hyuk
Stars: Lee Jung-jae, Wi Ha-joon and Lee Byung-hun
Rating: 4.5/5
Company%20Profile
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COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Dolittle
Director: Stephen Gaghan
Stars: Robert Downey Jr, Michael Sheen
One-and-a-half out of five stars
MATCH INFO
Group B
Bayern Munich v Tottenham, midnight (Thursday)
Yuki Means Happiness
Alison Jean Lester
John Murray
Bahrain%20GP
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Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million