British ISIS bride Shamima Begum fights for repatriation as she leaves cryptic messages on walls of Roj refugee camp

On a dusty wall in one of Syria’s most notorious refugee camps, someone has scrawled a chilling phrase: “Hell is other people.”

It’s a quote from Jean-Paul Sartre’s No Exit, but here, in Camp Roj, its meaning takes on an entirely new weight.

Just outside a tent where British-born Shamima Begum has lived for years, these words sit alongside other despairing messages, offering an unsettling glimpse into the mindset of those detained there.

The Journey That Led Her Here

A decade ago, Shamima Begum was a London schoolgirl who shocked the world by fleeing to Syria to join ISIS.

Her journey turned her into the UK’s most infamous teenager, and now, at 25, she’s fighting to return home to stand trial.

But the British government has refused, stripping her of citizenship and leaving her stranded in Camp Roj—a detention facility for former ISIS members and affiliates.

The Kurdish-led authorities running the camp insist that it’s the UK’s responsibility to take her back, but with no signs of that happening, Begum appears stuck in a legal and political limbo.

A Wall of Messages

In the absence of freedom or certainty, it seems Begum has found an outlet in graffiti.

The wall outside her tent is covered in words that hint at frustration, regret, and hopelessness.

Alongside Sartre’s quote is another from Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot: “Nothing happens, nobody comes, nobody goes… it’s awful!”

It’s a fitting reflection of her current existence—trapped in a place where time stands still.

Some messages are more ambiguous. One phrase, “From a hundred rabbits you can’t make a horse, a hundred suspicions don’t make a proof,” comes from Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment.

It could be seen as a commentary on her fight to reclaim citizenship and the UK’s refusal to see her as anything other than a security threat.

But not all the graffiti carries deep literary meaning.

Scattered among the quotes are crude expletives, haphazard scribbles, and even an oddly placed joke: “PIES Welcome (lol).”

Perhaps it’s an attempt at dark humor in an otherwise bleak situation.

An Unspoken Message

I recently traveled to Camp Roj, hoping to speak with Begum herself.

But when she found out I was a journalist, she refused.

At first, she slammed a door in my face. Later, when I approached her tent again, she gave a final, dismissive response: “No thank you, bye.”

While she wouldn’t talk, her graffiti speaks volumes.

It suggests someone grappling with her past choices, someone keenly aware of the isolation she now faces.

It might also hint at an internal conflict—an attempt to distance herself from the ideology she once embraced.

From Jihadi Bride to Legal Battle

Begum’s story has been anything but simple.

After arriving in Syria, she married Dutch ISIS fighter Yago Riedijk and had three children, all of whom died in infancy.

When ISIS collapsed, she was found in the Al-Hol refugee camp in 2019, where she infamously described the Manchester Arena bombing as “justified.”

That remark sealed public outrage and bolstered the UK government’s decision to strip her of citizenship.

Now, she lives in Roj camp, a facility for women who are believed to have been deradicalized.

She has shed her hijab, adopted Western clothing, and claims she no longer supports extremist views.

She has also acknowledged that returning to the UK would mean facing trial and likely imprisonment.

A Future Sealed by the Courts

Despite her legal team’s repeated efforts, the British courts have refused her appeals.

In August 2024, the UK Supreme Court upheld the decision to bar her from returning.

Her lawyers are now turning to the European Court of Human Rights as a last resort.

If that fails, she may never leave Syria.

Since the ruling, Begum has stayed silent, rarely speaking to Western media.

It’s unclear whether she has accepted her fate or is simply waiting for another opportunity to argue her case.

The Larger Crisis at Roj and Al-Hol

Begum is just one of thousands of people detained in Roj and Al-Hol camps—remnants of ISIS’s global recruitment drive.

Many detainees still adhere to the group’s radical ideology, making the camps breeding grounds for extremism.

Kurdish authorities warn that they lack the resources to contain the growing security threat.

Jihan Hanan, an official overseeing Al-Hol, put it bluntly: “These prisoners are not just our problem.

They should be the responsibility of the nations they came from.”

The Kurds argue that if Western governments continue refusing to repatriate their citizens, the camps will remain a ticking time bomb.

What Happens Next?

For now, Shamima Begum remains in limbo—neither free nor formally imprisoned.

She has no trial, no charges, just an indefinite existence in a place where, as her wall of graffiti suggests, hope is in short supply.

The future of the camps, and the thousands still detained there, remains an open question.

But one thing is clear: as long as repatriation is avoided, the problem won’t disappear.

It will only fester, waiting for the moment when history repeats itself.

This article was published on TDPel Media. Thanks for reading!

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