British jihadist woman escapes ISIS to Turkey
A British woman who left the UK with her baby to join ISIS in Syria is believed to have fled to Turkey after going through “a living hell.”
Tareena Shakil, 25, reportedly told her family she was going on holiday to Spain, but instead took her then-14-month-old boy Zaheem to the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa in October.
She had set up a Facebook account under the name Tameena al Amirah and posted extremist messages, including images of Islamist fighters and the black flag of Islamic State (also known as ISIS, or ISIL), and called herself a “slave to Allah.” The account has since been deleted.
However, Shakil, from Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire, seems to have regretted her decision to go to Syria after she was forced to become a jihadist’s bride.
She reportedly bribed a taxi driver to take her to Syria's border with Turkey and climbed over a 10-foot barbed wire fence while carrying her son, according to The Sun.
A family friend said: “Her hands were hurt and her feet cut to ribbons climbing the fence.”
She begged Turkish border officials not to shoot her, saying she was “desperate.” The young mum is reportedly being held and questioned at a Turkish detention center in Gaziantep.
“It's a miracle she escaped alive. Tareena realized when she got to Syria she had been a victim of false propaganda from IS,” a family friend told the Sun. “She hoped to escape to an idyllic lifestyle. Instead she found a living hell.”
“They tried to force her to marry a man and when she refused he attacked her,” the friend told The Sun.
“She decided she couldn't take it anymore, broke into a property and stole her passport.”
The Daily Mail reports that her father, Mohammed Shakil, has now flown to Turkey to try to bring his daughter and grandson back to the UK.
“We are aware a missing British woman traveling from Syria has been detained by Turkish authorities for immigration matters,” a spokesman for West Midlands Police told the Mail Online.
“Police are working with the Turkish authorities to ensure her safe return the UK.”
@David_Cameron Leave this girl Tareena Shakil in Syria. Or you are sentencing UK tax paying citizens to death. She made her choice.
— Underground Tattoos (@WatfordTats) January 16, 2015
Social media users have since taken to Twitter, urging David Cameron to “not let her back into the country.”
Can't let Tareena Shakil back in the country. Now claiming she's scared and wants to come back, she still left to I.S in the first place.
— Tony Forrester (@tfratman) January 16, 2015
