Bethnal Green trio

[1] According to the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, they were among an estimated 550 women and girls from Western countries who had travelled to join IS[2]—part of what some[3] have called "a jihadi, girl-power subculture",[4] the so-called Brides of ISIL.

On 17 February 2015, Abase, Begum, and Sultana flew via Turkish Airlines from Gatwick Airport in West Sussex, England, to Istanbul, Turkey.

Begum married Dutch Islamic convert and IS jihadi fighter Yago Riedijk just days after arriving in Raqqa.

[13] At a 2015 Home Affairs Select Committee, then Metropolitan Police Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe stated that they would not face criminal charges if they returned to the United Kingdom.

[14] In the UK, the disappearance resulted in the Metropolitan Police giving evidence to the Home Affairs Select Committee of the House of Commons on its circumstances in March 2015.

[18] It was reported that the Bethnal Green Trio were married to foreign jihadists, and that they then moved into the homes of their new husbands in ISIL's de facto capital of Raqqa.

[19] Sultana was said to have married an American ISIL fighter with Somali heritage, but wanted to return to the UK after he was killed in battle.

During the interview, Begum said the last time she saw her husband was when they fled the village of Baghuz, Isis' final stronghold, at the beginning of February that year.