‘I Don’t Understand How She Would Be A Danger’: Dutch ISIS Fighter Wants Himself And His ‘Jihadi Bride’ Repatriated
The Dutch Islamic State (IS) fighter and husband of Shamima Begum, the Jihadi bride who ran away from Britain to join the terrorist group and is now seeking repatriation, has said that he wants to live with her in Netherlands, reports The Hindu.
Shamima is one among three other schoolgirls of Bethnal Green who, indoctrinated into radical Islamist ideology, escaped to middle east to join ISIS. Having lost two children already, and taking care of a new-born, Shamima wanted to return to Britain from the Syrian refugee camp where she is currently staying, but her requests were turned down by Britain. A dispute over her citizenship has also surfaced based on Bangladeshi-origin parents.
After the incident came to light, the citizenship of Shamima was revoked and she is deemed as a security threat by United Kingdom (UK) government.
A Dutch convert to Islam and husband of Shamima, Yago Riedijk, who is being held in a Kurdish-run detention centre in northeast Syria has said that he hopes to live with his wife in his ‘home country’. Expressing reservation against the UK government stance, he said “I don’t understand how she would, in any form, be a danger. All she did was she sat in the house for three years, took care of me and my children”.
Riedijk got married to a 15-year-old Begum soon after she arrived in ISIS territory. When asked whether he felt it was right to marry someone so young, Riedijk said it was her own choice to get married, acknowledging that she had been “very young”.
As the last ISIS stronghold comes under pressure, Shamima and other such cases point to the question of the future of several foreign-born recruits who travelled to the middle east to fight for the radical Islamist group.
Shamima’s interview invited a lot of backlash as she seemed remorseless and dismissive towards her actions. Britain's counter-extremism commissioner Sara Khan called her “a remorseless supporter” of Islamic State.
“I think a lot of people should have sympathy towards me for everything I’ve been through,” said Shamima. “I just was hoping that maybe for me, for the sake of me and my child, they let me come back. Because I can’t live in this camp forever. It’s not really possible,” she added.