22 March 2023 , 18:20
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The friend who first inspired Shamima Begum to quit the UK and join terrorist group Islamic State has mocked her as a “non-believer who did not even have a suicide belt”.
Sharmeena Begum, no relation, travelled to Syria two months before her namesake arrived with her friends Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana in December 2014.
Shamima, 15 when she left the UK, was married to IS fighter Dutch national Yago Riedijk, 27, with whom she had three children who all died.
In 2019 she was found living in a camp in Syria and was stripped of her British citizenship.
Earlier this year Shamima had an appeal to have it reinstated thrown out by a judge.
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Shamima Begum joined Islamic State in 2014 (James Longman/ABC News)Now the BBC has tracked down Sharmeena who slammed her former friend as a “failed ISIS bride on benefits”.
Describing Shamima as "just another individual, living off the benefits”, she told the undercover reporter: “They’re making her seem too jihadi when she was nothing. She didn’t even have a suicide vest.
"She couldn’t even speak Arabic, so how could she be religious police. The woman could barely speak around people who were European because she was socially awkward.
“She always stayed in her house, her husband didn’t allow her to go out.”
Teenagers Amira Abase, Kadiza Sultana and Shamima Begum in 2015 (AFP/Getty Images)When Begum's British citizenship was stripped by the then Home Secretary Sajid Javid she was banned from entering Britain following being deemed a threat to the nation.
She has been fighting to return to the UK ever since.
Begum's lawyer has said it’s far from over and will be challenging the judgement.
Their statement read: "Regrettably, this is a lost opportunity to put into reverse a profound mistake and a continuing injustice."
Shamima Begum joined Islamic State in 2015 (Getty Images)Bahrain and Nicaragua are the only countries other than the UK to strip citizenship in bulk. Since 2000, the UK has deprived at least 212 people of citizenship: more than ten times as many as France or Australia.
Sayeeda Hussain Warsi, a British lawyer, Conservative politician, and member of the House of Lords said: "In the last decade, the use of citizenship-stripping has been radically expanded by the Government.
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"These extreme powers have been used almost exclusively against Muslims, mainly of South Asian, Middle-Eastern and African heritage, creating a two-tier citizenship system completely at odds with British values of fairness and equality before the law."
In a recent documentary, Begum said whatever happens she does not expect to be let back and regardless of the decision she believes she will remain in Syria.