The BBC was criticised currently for ‘giving terrorists a platform’ just after Shamima Begum contributed to a 10-aspect podcast to ‘retrace her journey’.
The 23-yr-old, who packed mint chocolate for the journey to Syria to join the brutal demise cult, claims ‘I’m just so substantially extra than ISIS’.
Critics accused the BBC of ‘wasting licence price payers’ money’ and explained the people of ISIS victims would be ‘mortified’. In the meantime, commentator Wasiq Wasiq tweeted: ‘While the victims of grooming gangs are nevertheless striving to be listened to and get justice, Shamima Begum manages to land 10-portion podcast on the BBC.’
The BBC claimed the podcast would supply Ms Begum’s ‘full account’ of ‘what really happened’ when she disappeared from London in 2015 to develop into a jihadi bride. But it insisted her story would not be ‘unchallenged’, describing the podcast as a ‘robust, general public curiosity investigation’.
The BBC has produced a 10-part podcast about Shamima Begum in which she tells the tale of how she joined ISIS
In 2015, Begum (centre), then 15, and her college friends Kadiza Sultana (remaining), also 15, and Amira Abase (appropriate), 16, fled their east London properties to be part of IS. Her two companions are considered to have died there
In 2015, a 15-12 months-previous Begum and her college pals Kadiza Sultana, also 15, and Amira Abase, 16, fled their east London households to sign up for IS.
Begum, now 23, was found in a refugee camp in 2019 and before long right after the Uk withdrew her citizenship and banned her from entering Britain.
She now life at the al-Roj camp in northern Syria, run by the Syrian Democratic Forces, which she described as ‘worse than a prison’.
The BBC Sounds podcast follows an investigative journalist who has been speaking to Begum for a 12 months and it gives ‘her total account of what truly occurred soon after she disappeared’.
In the 1st episode, journalist Josh Baker fulfills Begum in the Syrian detention camp to find how she joined ISIS and inevitably finished up stranded.
She instructed him being caught in a camp ‘is, I sense, even worse than a prison I think simply because at minimum with prison sentences you know that there will be an conclude but right here you don’t know if you will find going to be an end.’
Begum explained to the BBC she accepts she joined a terror team, but on the topic of general public anger aimed at her claims: ‘I don’t think it truly is essentially toward me. I believe it’s towards ISIS.
‘When they imagine of ISIS they imagine of me since I have been put on the media so much but what was there to obsess over?
‘We went to ISIS, that was it. It was over, it was in excess of and finished with.’
In the podcast the 23-12 months-previous statements that the refugee camp in Syria where she life is ‘worse than a prison’
Critics accused the BBC of ‘wasting rate payers’ money’ and said the people of ISIS victims would be ‘mortified’. Pictured are some of the essential tweets
Begum also details her journey to Syria, and how she was provided detailed recommendations by IS users.
But she also researched info herself which include hunting for IS customers on the net to assistance her and her good friends plan their journey.
The podcast reveals Begum and her friends hid their baggage in progress and video game-prepared for situations this kind of as remaining quizzed or caught out. She explained: ‘There had been people on the internet… advising us on what to do and what not to do.
‘Just like how to get the cash to get the tickets, wherever to acquire the tickets, which airport to go to, what to bring, what to don, when you’re likely to the airport, who to speak to, who not to talk to, what justification to make if you do get caught.’
When asked how she determined what things to consider, Begum suggests: ‘It’s the identical as when you go on holiday vacation, you are just [thinking] what do I want for a vacation, it can be rather primary goods.’
‘I really don’t know, people today utilized to say… pack great outfits so you can dress properly for your husband.’
She also packed products she knew she would not uncover in Syria, such as mint chocolate: ‘I took sweet. I just like bought candies that I understood I would not find in Syria. Mint Aero, mint chocolate, like a large amount. You can come across a lot of points in this country but you are unable to obtain mint chocolate. It is a tragedy.’
Questioned about how she felt about probably never returning to the Uk, she suggests: ‘Really at that time, I just was not thinking, my mind was like wholly blank but I guess certainly I considered this is the previous time I’m heading to see the Uk. I suggest in a way I felt form of relieved.’
The BBC claimed the podcast is not an possibility for Begum to notify her tale unchallenged but is a ‘robust general public curiosity investigation’
Begum also says: ‘I’ve constantly been a a lot more secluded particular person. Which is why it can be so hard the way my lifetime has turned out getting all more than the media simply because I’m not a individual that likes a great deal of focus.’
‘My household imagined I was far too weak to do a thing so outrageous so they did not assume in a million a long time I could do that since of who I am, mainly because of my character.’
Josh Baker says: ‘There are different means to explain to the Shamima Begum story. You can find the one about a 15-yr-old schoolgirl who was groomed and lured to a war zone by ISIS and now requires preserving from a Syrian detention camp.
‘And you will find the one particular about a traitor, who fled Britain to be a part of ISIS and turned identified the entire world above as a terrorist and ought to be stopped from coming back again to Britain.
‘As Shamima difficulties the removal of her British citizenship by the Uk federal government, I’ve examined her accounts to give listeners a definitive narrative on this sophisticated, nuanced and stunning tale.’
The sequence states it is aiming to ‘separate reality from fiction’ as it tries to reply the question ‘who is Shamima Begum?’
The podcast will also examine how she obtained to Syria and what did she did when she arrived.
The broadcaster also states that the podcast is not an chance for Begum to tell her story unchallenged, but is a ‘robust public fascination investigation’.
- Episode 1 of ‘I’m Not A Monster’: The Shamima Begum Tale is offered to hear to today on BBC Seems. New episodes will be out there and will also be broadcast on BBC Radio 4 from 11am.
