Shamima Begum, of Bangladeshi descent British schoolgirl who ran away to join Islamic State, has asked the public for forgiveness and said she is sorry “from the bottom of my heart”.
She also apologised for comments about the Manchester Arena bombing and said her only crime was being “dumb enough” to join the terror group.
Speaking from the al Roj camp in Syria, which houses the families of IS fighters, she said she was unaware she was joining a “death cult” and her role with IS was only to be a “mother and a wife”.
Shamima told Good Morning Britain (GMB) she was “groomed and taken advantage of and manipulated”.
“The reason I came to Syria was not for violent reasons,” said the 22-year-old.
“At the time I did not know it was a death cult, I thought it was an Islamic community I was joining,” she added.
“I was being fed a lot of information on the internet by people.”
Interviewed wearing a baseball cap and vest-top, Begum’s appearance was a stark contrast to previous interviews in which she was covered up.
She denied it was a publicity stunt to make her appear more Western.
“I have not been wearing hijab for maybe more than a year now. I took it off for myself, because I felt very constricted in the hijab, I felt like I was not myself,” she said.
Shamima is challenging the decision to take away her citizenship on national security grounds, but has been refused permission to return while the process takes place.
Speaking this morning, Sajid Javid – who took the decision when he was home secretary – said there was information that meant banning her from Britain was necessary to “protect the British people”.
Shamima, who is effectively stateless but has Bangladeshi ancestry, also said there was no way she could try to travel there as she would face the death penalty.
And when asked if she had a message for Boris Johnson, she said she could help “your fight against terrorism because you clearly don’t know what you’re doing”.
