Sharmeena Begum

Sharmeena Begum (born 1999) is a jihadi bride who left the United Kingdom to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in December 2014. Two months later, in February 2015, her school friends Amira Abase, Shamima Begum, and Kadiza Sultana joined her in occupied Syria. Begum is one of the youngest British teenagers to join ISIL.

In February 2019, she was described as missing. Begum was tracked down by the BBC in 2023, and is living in Syria under a different identity.

Background

Begum was born to Shahnaz Begum and Mohammad Uddin, who are of Bangladeshi origin. She was raised by her mother until her father joined them in the UK in 2007. Begum's mother died of cancer in January 2014. Her father remarried in September 2014, and Begum left for Syria in December of that year. Begum's father said that her behavior had changed; she stopped listening to Western music and began going to her room to pray, but he assumed that she was grieving her mother's death. At the time of her father's remarriage, she lived with her grandmother.

Members of Begum's family were certain that she was targeted for recruitment by a group known as the Sisters Forum within the Islamic Forum of Europe" her, telling her that she would meet her recently-deceased mother in paradise if she died a martyr, and reportedly brought her to the airport for her departure.

Sharmeena Begum was friends with Amira Abase, Shamima Begum (unrelated) and Kadiza Sultana, who left for Syria few months later. All four attended Bethnal Green Academy.

Joining ISIL

Begum became increasingly interested in religious themes after her mother died, although her family had previously described her as non-religious. She is said to have begun praying, and stopped listening to Western music. Begum did not get along with her new stepmother, and had gone to live with one of her grandmothers.

According to police, she was encouraged by two unidentified women to join ISIL. They brought Begum to Gatwick Airport for a flight to Turkey, from where she made her way to Syria. According to reports by her family, she purchased the plane ticket with £500 that she persuaded her grandmother to give her. Begum used her grandmother's passport for her travels, telling her that she needed to borrow the passport for her schoolwork.

The women who encouraged her are thought to be members of a group known as the Sisters Forum, part of the Islamic Forum of Europe

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