- Thursday, April 25, 2024
By: Keerthi Mohan
A FORMER Daesh (Islamic State) bride has blamed Islamophobia at British schools for driving her to marry a Syrian Jihadi.
Fatima, 30, spent two years in Syria before cutting all ties with them and returning to her family in 2017. Her family took her back on the condition she cut all ties with her husband — a man she met online who pointed her in the direction of articles about “Islamic justice” — and any extremist connections.
In an interview with Stylist, Fatima has opened up about seeking solace in extremist beliefs after being singled out due to her headscarf.
She has revealed how as an 11-year-old, a gang of girls pushed her into a corner of their playground and ripped off her headscarf.
“The whole time, they were screaming that I was a Paki b***h,” she recalled.
“Men would come up behind me, groping me, threatening to pull off my headscarf and jeering that I would be a sl** without it. I have also been punched and kicked. I never felt safe.”
Experiences like these made her take the decision to marry a Syrian jihadi, said Fatima.
Fatima has blamed Islamophobia in Britain for creating an environment where where “female terror recruits can thrive.”
“When someone ties you to a stereotype for years, eventually you get tired of trying to prove people wrong, and out of anger, you start living up to that stereotype,” she said.
“People thought we were bad anyway – in my mind at the time, we might as well just match their expectations.”
During the interview, Fatima also spoke about Shamima Begum, the teenager who left the UK in 2015 to marry a Dutch jihadi.
Speaking at the lack of regret Shamima expressed in her interview with Sky News in February, Fatima said it was possible that Shamima had been threatened with consequences “if she dares to be publicly disloyal to the Islamic State.”
“Once you’re too far in, for some, it can be difficult to get out,” said Fatima.
