It was an ordinary Tuesday in February 2015 when 15-year-old Shamima Begum and her friends Amira Abase, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, told their parents they were going out for the day. Instead, the girls, described as straight A* students studying for GCSEs at Bethnal Green Academy, made their way to Gatwick Airport and boarded a plane to Turkey. By the time UK authorities realised what had happened, it was too late. The girls later entered Syria.
It was believed they had travelled to Syria with the intention of joining Islamic State. Their concerned families made emotional pleas for them to get in touch. Shamima’s family couldn’t understand what had made the seemingly ordinary teenage girl become involved with a terrorist group. and stuff like that, so there was nothing that indicated she was radicalised in any way.’ But public opinion on the teens was divided.
