Sharmeena Begum (sometimes transliterated as Shamina; born 1999) is one of the jihadi brides. She left the United Kingdom to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in December 2014. Two months later, in February 2015, school friends Amira Abase, Shamima Begum, and Kadiza Sultana joined her in occupied Syria. Begum is one of the youngest British teenagers to join ISIL.
In February 2019 Begum was described as "missing". However in 2023 she was tracked down by the BBC, currently living in Syria using a different identity.
Background
Sharmeena Begum was born to Shahnaz Begum and Mohammad Uddin who are of Bangladeshi origin. She was raised by her mother until her father joined them in the UK in 2007. Begum's mother died of cancer in January 2014. Her father remarried in September 2014, and Begum left for Syria in December 2014. Begum's father, Mohammad Uddin, said that her behaviour changed; she stopped listening to western music, and started going to her room to pray, but he assumed this was a grief reaction to her mother's death. At the time of her father's second marriage she lived with her grandmother.
Members of her family were sure Begum was targeted for recruitment by a group, known as the "Sisters Forum", within the Islamic Forum of Europe, that met at an east London Mosque.
Women from the group that recruited her have been described as "brainwashing" her, telling her she would meet her recently deceased mother in paradise if she died a martyr. Women from the group are reported to have taken her to the airport, for her departure.
Sharmeena Begum was friends with Amira Abase, Shamima Begum, (unrelated) and Kadiza Sultana who left for Syria a couple of months later. All four attended Bethnal Green Academy.
Joining ISIL
After her mother died, Begum became increasingly interested in religious themes, although her family had previously described her as non-religious. She is said to have begun to pray and stopped listening to western music. Begum was not getting along with her new stepmother, and had gone to live with one of her grandmothers.
According to the police, Begum was encouraged by two unidentified women to join ISIL and that those two had taken her to Gatwick Airport on a flight to Turkey, from where she made her way to Syria. According to reports by the family, she purchased the plane ticket with £500 she had persuaded her grandmother to give her. She used her grandmother's passport for her travels, telling her she needed to borrow the passport for her schoolwork.
The women who encouraged her are thought to be members of the East London Mosque in Whitechapel and that they are members of a group called the "Sisters Forum" within the Islamic Forum of Europe. The mosque, however, denied any involvement in the radicalisation of Begum.
Two weeks after her departure, she reportedly called her father to inform him that she did not intend to return.
Following his daughter's disappearance, Mr Uddin informed the police of his suspicion that his daughter might have been encouraged by Islamists and that her three friends might be at risk as well. Police subsequently approached the three girls to question them about Sharmeena. As they were minors, they gave them letters to pass to their parents to seek permission. The letters were not passed on and police did not follow up.
Two months after her departure, she was joined by her three friends from Bethnal Green Academy who had also made their way to Syria via Turkey. According to reports, they were able to meet up in Raqqa.
It is thought she married a Bosnian fighter who has since been killed. Shamima Begum reported last seeing her in Baghuz in June 2018.
Jasmine Jawhar, author of "Terrorists' use of the internet: The case of DAESH", characterized Begum and her school friends as being "mesmerised by the romantic idea of jihad."
Criticism of the response of security officials
Begum's travel to Islamic State-occupied Syria, followed by the travel of three of her friends, triggered a discussion as to whether UK security officials could have prevented the other girls following her example. The parents of fellow students say they were unaware that Begum had travelled to Islamic State territory. Parents who were aware assumed she had returned to Bangladesh out of grief, following the death of her mother.
Begum's father was critical that his warnings to police regarding his concern that her friends might follow her example, were ignored.