THE LOST CITIZEN (THE SHAMINA BEGUM STORY)

© Press Association

Of all the stories post 9/11, one of the most cautionary concerns Shamina Begum.

The Londoner was just 15 when she and two friends from Bethnal Green Academy hit global headlines for running away to ISIS controlled territory in Syria.

The schoolgirls became news fodder as they willingly made their way to the caliphate.

However Begum's subsequent efforts to return after fleeing the caliphate and being stripped of her British citizenship have raised awkward questions about her and also how the state should treat those who are radicalised and then publicly recant.

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Begum's story has been brought to the small screen by the documentary filmmaker Josh Baker.

'The Shamina Begum Story' enables audiences in Britain to hear directly from the 23 year old herself and give her account of how she ended up being stripped of her UK citizenship and stuck in a refugee camp in northern Syria.

It's a grim tale compellingly told not just by her in Baker's extraordinary BBC2 documentary but by others including the man she married in Syria, Yago Riedijk - an ISIS fighter from Holland.

Baker doesn't spoon feed the audience with his opinions of Begum.

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Instead he lets the audience decide if she is a naive fool or is a bit more devious and trying to pull the wool over our eyes as she tries to return.

In publicity for the film and an accompanying podcast, Baker has talked about there being three Shamina Begums to interview - the naive 15 year old schoolgirl who fled east London for Syria, the young woman who spent her formative years raised in ISIS extremist environment and a mother of five dead children who has been marooned in the Roj refugee camp and left mulling over the serious consequences of her actions.

Baker lets Begum compellingly set out her story of how she, Amira Abase and Kadiza Sultana were groomed by another girl who fled to ISIS controlled territory and contacted them.

As this contact talked glowingly about the caliphate and contrasted it with their life in a Muslim community in London, they were seduced by the notion that it was their duty to sign up to the caliphate.

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And so they fled their home city and through a series of rendezvous found themselves in Turkey being driven in separate cars to ISIS territory in Raqqa by someone who is believed to have been working for the Canadian intelligence services.

According to Begum, despite their notoriety in Raqqa given the international media attention around their disappearance from east London, they were initially housed with other women and children in grim and very stressful conditions.

The girls quickly realised the only way out of their situation was to marry an ISIS fighter and she describes a meeting where a suitable husband is paired with her.

Paired with Riedijk, she paints the picture of a man who was initially charming but then increasingly abusive and insistent on subjugating her.

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Begum's depiction of the marriage stands in stark contrast to Riedijk who looks back fondly on their time together and talks about them getting back together one day.

She insists that will never happen and that she now hates everything he and ISIS stand for.

During Baker's documentary we get an insight into what life was like in Raqqa - particularly the hardships endured by Begum, Abase and Sultana.

We learn what happened to Abase and Sultana.

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However Baker also peppers his documentary with the observations of intelligence experts, MPs, journalists, a former Islamic State member and a former Canadian intelligence officer which often contradict Begum's account.

With an accompanying 10-part BBC Sounds podcast 'I Am Not A Podcast,' Baker clearly wants Begum to be given the right to tell her side of the story.

However her case isn't helped by her coming across as evasive at times and he doesn't let her solely shape the narrative.

Questions are raised about whether Begum joined the secret police as one woman who lived in Raqqa claimed, challenging any protestations by Begum that she was not involved in the brutality around her.

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An Egyptian neighbour who Begum lived with while Riedijk was detained in Raqqa on suspicion of being a spy is accused in the film of being a ruthless arms dealer.

Begum's cold whataboutery in some media interviews about the Manchester Arena bomb comes back to haunt her.

Begum insists in the documentary these were the words of a brainwashed fool.

She talks about falling "in love with the idea of ISIS" but eventually realising the evil exploitation she was subjected to.

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At the same time, she also speaks rather chillingly of seeing a bucket full of heads in Raqqa.

To watch her in Baker's film is a weird, discombobulating experience.

Dressed in a vest and baseball cap and wearing shades, she looks like she has emerged out of a reality TV competition like 'Big Brother' rather than losing five children in a war zone.

There are no tears shed as she reflects on her time in Raqqa and the heavy price that she has paid.

And her account is challenged throughout.

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By the end of Baker's compelling programme you will probably be none the wiser about whether Begum is a naive victim, a more willing recruit than she lets on or neither.

What is clear from recent days is that her struggle to return to Britain and for acceptance will be with us for many years and will remain controversial and thorny probably for the rest of her life.

The Shamina Begum case will continue to raise uncomfortable questions for her and for the country of her birth.

Despite the inevitable outcry from some about Baker giving her a platform on national television, her story also isn't going to go away.

But taken on face value, it should be a cautionary tale for any teen about the dangers of any form of extremism - political, religious or both.

('The Shamina Begum Story' aired on BBC2 on February 7, 2023)