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Woman regrets time with Daesh in Syria

A woman who returned from Syria after spending three months with Daesh, now says she "regrets everything about it".

Tareena Shakil, from Birmingham was jailed in 2016 when she returned to the UK from Syria.


The 32-year-old says she is now "ashamed" of her actions and "lives with the consequences every day". Now released and has completed a de-radicalisation programme and hopes her story serves as a warning to others.

A former healthcare worker, she travelled to Syria with her one-year-old son in 2014 and lived in a house with other women waiting to be married to foreign fighters.

"Conversations were often listened to and you were generally expected to behave in a certain way," she told the BBC. "You know, you don't cause any trouble.

"There were two girls who didn't act that way, who would just act up.

"I can't even really give an example, they were just unruly and a van came, men came off the van and took the girls away, and we never saw them again."

During her trial, she was found to have encouraged acts of terrorism with posts on social media. After spending three months, Shakil fled to Turkey and then returned to the UK, she was arrested and jailed for six years.

"I regret every last thing in terms of my decision to run away to Syria with my child," she said. "I live with them consequences every day."

"I remember feeling really sad, really bitter, really taken advantage of and duped," she said.

"I remember feeling really ashamed of myself to some degree that I allowed it to happen."

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Martin Parr, who captured Britain’s class divides and British Asian life, dies at 73

Highlights:

  • Martin Parr, acclaimed British photographer, died at home in Bristol aged 73.
  • Known for vivid, often humorous images of everyday life across Britain and India.
  • His work is featured in over 100 books and major museums worldwide.
  • The National Portrait Gallery is currently showing his exhibition Only Human.
  • Parr’s legacy continues through the Martin Parr Foundation.

Martin Parr, the British photographer whose images of daily life shaped modern documentary work, has died at 73. Parr’s work, including his recent exhibition Only Human at the National Portrait Gallery, explored British identity, social rituals, and multicultural life in the years following the EU referendum.

For more than fifty years, Parr turned ordinary scenes into something memorable. He photographed beaches, village fairs, city markets, Cambridge May Balls, and private rituals of elite schools. His work balanced humour and sharp observation, often in bright, postcard-like colour.

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