British Jihadi bride Shamima Begum has reportedly been delivered of a baby boy in a refugee camp where she is taking abode in northern Syria.
In a report by Metro UK, a statement released by their lawyer said:
‘We, the family of Shamima Begum, have been informed that Shamima has given birth to her child, we understand that both she and the baby are in good health.
‘As yet we have not had direct contact with Shamima, we are hoping to establish communications with her soon so that we can verify the above.’
Begum, 19, has been the subject of a national debate during the past week when she resurfaced in a refugee camp four years after escaping to Syria with two other girls.
She begged to be allowed to return to Britain to have her third child, after her two other children, a one-year-old girl and a three-month-old boy, died of malnutrition.
The former schoolgirl said she would ‘do anything required to be able to come home and live quietly with my child.’
Begum said she understood the consequences of arriving on UK soil, and told The Times:
‘I knew that coming back to the UK wouldn’t be a quiet thing. It’s uncomfortable. ‘If I ever do go back, it’ll be a long time before the cameras stop and all the questions stop.’
Despite her fears, she says she still wishes to return home and for her child to be brought up by her family, who said her child had ‘every right as a total innocent to have the chance to grow up in the peace and security of this home’.
The teenager has shown no remorse for her actions, and told The Times that she does ‘not regret’ travelling to Syria to join the terror group and said she is ‘not the same silly little 15-year-old schoolgirl who ran away.’
But her claim has been highlighted as a cause for concern by some, who say her claims sound ‘unrepentant and cynical’.
Begum was married off to Dutch convert Yago Riedijk, 27, within 10 days of arriving in Syria after reportedly applying to marry a man ‘who spoke English between the ages of 20-25’.
She has been separated from her husband and been in the al-Hawl refugee camp since the couple gave themselves up to Kurdish forces after fleeing Baghuz, the last Isis stronghold in Syria.
Begum has expressed fears that her child would be taken off her if she was to return after a British woman in the refugee camp told her UK authorities would not allow her to keep the baby.
She said:
‘She said she used to be a social worker and children of extremists, they get taken away, to the orphanage.’
If she does return to the UK, she will face an investigation to establish if she has committed any criminal offenses and to evaluate if she poses a threat.
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