Ex-ISIS supporter dubbed ’Towie jihadi’ warns of new generation of young extremists
Tareena Shakil became the first British woman to be jailed for the joining Islamic State in 2016. Now deradicalised, she is making amends by persuading others not to make the same mistakes as her
A former terrorist dubbed the “Towie jihadi” warns that a new generation of youngsters is being lured into extremism like she was.
Tareena Shakil became the first British woman to be jailed for joining Islamic State in 2016. Now de-radicalised, she is making amends by persuading others not to make the same mistakes as her. Tareena, 33, says Israel ’s war in Gaza plays into the hands of Muslim fanatics trying to groom UK teens.
“What’s going on in Palestine now is a gold mine for a recruiter,” she says. "It’s so easy to recruit and groom people when an event like this is taking place because people are hot-headed about what’s going on. They don’t like it and they want to help, but they don’t know how to." Tareena, who has thousands of followers on social media, has now set up a YouTube channel to spread awareness about grooming. And she says she has been contacted by other young women reaching out for help and thanking her.
She says: “I want to raise awareness about being groomed on the internet and online safety. It is a major issue. The youth now are addicted to the internet and I’ve found they are quite vulnerable to what they see online. I say to people now, ‘I went down that road so you don’t have to’. It’s a nasty road to come back from and a lot of people never made it back. I have purely good intentions and I want to be a force for good.”
Image: Handout
Tareena, a former healthcare worker from Birmingham, was one of hundreds lured to Syria by Isis. In 2014 she used a £400 student loan to go there with her toddler son and lived in a house with other women waiting to be wed to foreign fighters. Police found photos on her phone of her in Raqqa posing with an AK47.
Weeks later Tareena realised she had made a mistake and fled. She served half of a six-year sentence for joining IS and encouraging terror. Tareena said: “I regret what I did, but I have learned from my mistakes and I’ve gone back to being the Towie, Spice Girls-loving girl I was before all this happened. At the time I was groomed I was in a very vulnerable position. I was really lost and a new life in Syria felt like a lifeline. I felt ashamed because I thought I was clever.” Tareena is now working in the beauty industry and wants to be a human rights lawyer.
And she would be willing to help Shamima Begum, the notorious jihadi bride who is stuck in Syria after losing her UK citizenship for travelling there to join IS when she was 15 nine years ago. Tareena added: “It’s a really tricky situation but I believe in second chances. I think Shamima’s age is massively overlooked because someone at 15 is still so young and I would accept she was groomed. Having been in the same situation, I think it was probably an adventure to her and her friends.”
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