TOWIE fan who joined Islamic State with her toddler reveals how she 'HATED' life in Syria
A BRITISH woman who fled to join the Islamic State in order to keep her son away from drugs and crime has described how she "hated" life under the terror group.
I hated it
Tareena Shakil, of Burton-upon-Trent, Staffordshire, moved to Syria in October with 17-month-old Zaheem.
However, she has since escaped the extremists' brutal regime after jihadists tried to force her to take part in an arranged marriage.
Now being held in a detention centre in neighbouring Turkey, she told The Sun: "I hated it, I tried to escape within a few days of getting there.
"It wasn't what I thought it would be.
"Four other girls were thinking of escaping and asked me to go with them, but it didn’t feel right so I said no, and I was right because all four were arrested and are still in prison now."
Where did the Islamic State come from?
Her father, Mohammad - who has travelled to meet his daughter in Turkey - told the newspaper that he and Ms Shakil's mother, Mandy, wept after she first called them following her escape.
Ms Shakil ran from the Islamic State's (IS) self-proclaimed capital in Raqqa carrying her child, and is now facing deportation from Turkey.
She said: "Anyone who goes in from the West to try and rescue their loved ones is facing almost certain death.
“There are IS checkpoints all over the place and you just can’t get through if you are non-Muslim or a foreigner.
“Life is so hard there. There’s no hot water, no electricity for hours on end, none of the comforts we are used to in Britain.
“I escaped death so many times. There were bombs coming down on the street where I lived every night. The house would shake, I didn’t know if I was going to live or die.
“One night there were 30 bombs. The next morning I went out and there were body parts and blood everywhere. It was horrific.”
However, for Ms Shakil - a fan of reality ITV reality show The Only Way is Essex - there was some light relief.
She added: "The foreign fighters were coming up to me and saying, ‘What is this Towie?’"
"They didn’t have a clue but they loved the headline. They kept saying, ‘They are right, Isis is the only way’."
