How a mother-of-three is now languishing in the same Syrian refugee camp as Shamima Begum 


The Mail on Sunday has established that Ferdous Jahan, 31, (pictured) is living in the same Syrian refugee camp as Shamima Begum – and, like her, is hoping to be allowed back to Britain

The Mail on Sunday has established that Ferdous Jahan, 31, (pictured) is living in the same Syrian refugee camp as Shamima Begum – and, like her, is hoping to be allowed back to Britain

The daughter of a computer engineer and a science teacher who grew up in a well-heeled West London suburb can today be revealed as another of Britain’s Islamic State brides.

The Mail on Sunday has established that Ferdous Jahan, 31, is living in the same Syrian refugee camp as Shamima Begum – and, like her, is hoping to be allowed back to Britain.

Interviewed in the Al-Roj camp last month, mother-of-three Jahan, who is believed to have been stripped of her UK citizenship by the Home Office, claimed she was duped by her British convert husband into joining IS and hopes to be allowed back to the UK.

‘If my children can have a good education and establish a normal life… then I’ll be very happy,’ she said. ‘But if the UK decides not to do this, what can I do?’

Her version of events has, however, been questioned by the parents of Terence Le Page, whom she married before they fled to Syria in November 2015. Le Page, who called himself Abu Khalid, was killed by a sniper in the Iraqi city of Mosul.

‘She was the one that convinced Terry to go. She was the driving force. When they went there, he did not like it and wanted to come back,’ said Donna Le Page, 54, at her home in Lewisham, South-East London. ‘She was the instigator. I was raving when I heard that. How dare you take my son away.’

Despite that, Mrs Le Page hopes the family can return to Britain – if only for the sake of her grandchildren, aged six, five and three. ‘They don’t deserve to be there, they didn’t ask to go there,’ she said.

Known as Beena to friends and family, Jahan grew up in Twickenham but joined Al-Muhajiroun (ALM), the banned group led by infamous hate cleric Anjem Choudary. ALM arranged her Islamic marriage to Le Page, a Muslim convert who took part in protests for the extremist group with his brother.

Her version of events has, however, been questioned by the parents of Terence Le Page, whom she married before they fled to Syria in November 2015. Le Page (pictured), who called himself Abu Khalid, was killed by a sniper in the Iraqi city of Mosul

Her version of events has, however, been questioned by the parents of Terence Le Page, whom she married before they fled to Syria in November 2015. Le Page (pictured), who called himself Abu Khalid, was killed by a sniper in the Iraqi city of Mosul

On one occasion, they screamed abuse at British soldiers guarding Greenwich Park during the 2012 London Olympics.

Jahan was eight months pregnant with their second child when the couple travelled to Syria, but she claims Le Page lied to her that it was a romantic trip to Turkey.

‘I didn’t get to have a good honeymoon, so he said he will fulfil his promise,’ she said last month. ‘But little did I know what other plans he had in the end. I barely knew most of the times when we were on the trips as I was sleeping throughout the journey.’

Until shortly before his death, Le Page had lived with Jahan and their two children in Raqqa, the de facto capital of the IS caliphate.

A year later, she married the father of her third child, a Kurdish jihadi who was killed in an air strike in the south-eastern Syrian town of Mayadin. After his death, she fled to Baghouz, IS’s last stronghold, where she was detained by Kurdish forces and sent to a camp.

Her hopes of being repatriated rose when the Red Cross delivered a letter from her family – the first contact with them for six years.

ON THE MARCH: IS fighters at the height of the group’s powers in Raqqa, Syria

ON THE MARCH: IS fighters at the height of the group’s powers in Raqqa, Syria

But her father now says they have stopped their legal efforts to bring her back. ‘We don’t know what decision the Government will take,’ he said at the £900,000 family home in Bow, East London. ‘We’ve stopped the court case. We don’t want to say a single word about her.’

Jahan is of Bangladeshi origin and her citizenship is understood to have been revoked on the same grounds as that of Begum – namely that Britain was not making her stateless because she can apply to live in Bangladesh. The Supreme Court ruled in February that Begum, who was a schoolgirl when she travelled to Syria to join IS in February 2015, could not return to the UK from Al-Roj to fight her case.

The unmasking of Jahan comes as the Government is reportedly planning to overhaul Britain’s 650-year-old treason laws to make it easier to prosecute returning jihadists.

The Times reported yesterday that Ministers could redefine the interpretation of an ‘enemy’ to cover membership or support for groups that seek to harm the UK.

The campaign group Reprieve said last week that Britain had stripped citizenship from at least 19 of the 25 British adults being held in camps in north-east Syria. There are thought to be nine British men in Kurdish prisons, as well as 16 women and 34 children at the Al-Roj and Al-Hol camps.

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