This is the moment Shamima Begum snapped at a reporter as she stormed out of her first face-to-face interview in years.
Appearing ‘pale and thin’, the ISIS bride refused to answer questions during the brief sit-down at the grim al-Hol camp in Syria.
Nigel Farage recently said he had become ‘more thoughtful’ about whether Britain should allow Begum to return – after the Trump administration suggested it would have to.
When an interviewer put these comments to Begum, she replied: ‘No comment.’
Asked if she thought America’s intervention could open the door for her to go back to Britain, she gave the same answer, before turning on the reporter.
‘If you guys have anything to tell us but we don’t have anything to say,’ she raged, before leaving in a huff.
Begum, now 26, was born and raised in Bethnal Green, east London, before travelling to Syria to join ISIS in 2015.
She later became a child bride to Dutch Islamic convert Yago Riedijk, with whom she had three children – who all died as infants.
Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped her of British citizenship in 2019, prompting her to launch a long legal and PR campaign in her bid to have the decision reversed.
Appearing ‘pale and thin’, the ISIS bride refused to answer questions during the brief sit-down at the grim al-Hol camp in Syria
Her latest interview, with the Daily Express, was the first she had given to camera since a controversial BBC podcast in 2023.
Mr Farage made his comments about Begum days after a leading Trump ally called for Britain to repatriate its most notorious jihadi bride.
Sebastian Gorka said that any nation that wishes to be seen as a ‘serious ally’ of the US should commit to the international fight against the extremist group by taking back citizens currently in the north east of Syria.
Speaking to ITV News at Reform’s South East England conference in January, Mr Farage said that ‘it’s very difficult for us to think we should take back people, Shamima Begum and others’ and ‘instinctively, it’s not something I want to do’.
When asked whether he thought the UK should consider such a move, he said: ‘I’ve never wanted to. I’ve instinctively never wanted to.
‘But I’m now thoughtful. I’m thoughtful. I don’t classify her as an ISIS, an all-out ISIS killer.’
Mr Farage said that he believes her to be ‘a lesser part of the equation’.
Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said that a Conservative government with her as leader ‘will never take back’ Ms Begum.
She added: ‘Citizenship means committing to a country and wanting its success. It’s not an international travel document for crime tourism.’
The former East London schoolgirl was ‘married off’ to an IS fighter and was stripped of her British citizenship in February 2019
David Lammy, the former Labour Foreign Secretary, Ms Begum ‘will not be coming back to the UK’.
Speaking to Good Morning Britain earlier this year, he said: ‘It’s gone right through the courts. She’s not a UK national. We will not be bringing her back to the UK. We’re really clear about that.’
‘We will act in our security interests. And many of those in those camps are dangerous, are radicals.’
In an interview with The Times, Mr Gorka said: ‘Any nation which wishes to be seen to be a serious ally and friend of the most powerful nation in the world should act in a fashion that reflects that serious commitment’ when asked if the UK should be forced to accept Isis members back.
‘That is doubly so for the UK which has a very special place in President Trump’s heart and we would all wish to see the ”special relationship” fully re-established.’
Tens of thousands of captured members of the terror group are currently being held by the Syrian Democratic Forces, a group allied with the West, in huge camps.
Since ISIS was defeated in 2019, the US has been piling on the pressure for its partners to repatriate their citizens many of whom have been detained for years.
Most European countries, including Spain and France, have also repatriated their citizens so that they can be met with justice.
They have expressed worries about the squalid conditions and that not returning them hinders worldwide attempts to fight terrorism.
The American Justice Department has argued it is their ‘moral responsibility’ to solve to bring the prisoners home and try them there.
Britain has so far taken a hard line on the matter and has refused most repatriation requests- with the most notorious being the Begum case.
