Tag Archives: british

The sister of the British-Indian bouncy-castle salesman turned spokesperson for Islamic State today testified before the most powerful Parliamentary select committee in Britain, defending her brother as a “good man” who was “brainwashed” by the Islamic terror group Konika Dhar told the Home Affairs Select Committee that Siddhartha – who …

From 10 Downing Street through the Palace of Westminster all the way to the High Street, Britain’s Indian and wider South Asian communities have long been courted and serviced by all segments of British society – from politics to fashion. But it appears that there is one area where British …

Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has divorced his British TV presenter wife Reham Khan after months of speculation that the 10-month marriage was on the rocks. The news was confirmed by a spokesperson for Khan’s political party Tehreek-i-Insaf on Friday. The spokesperson described the split as “amicable” and by “mutual consent”. …

A British-Bangladeshi teen was beaten to death by her own family after undergoing years of abuse when she was forced to lick the toilet bowl and eat her own faeces, a court in has been told. Shahena Uddin, 19, from Watford, was found dead in a bathroom at the family …

A British-Bangladeshi woman who fled the Islamic State group with her five children after travelling to Syria described the experience as "not my cup of tea" in an interview on Wednesday.

Shukee Begum, 33, travelled to Syria with her children to find her husband Jamal al-Harith, a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who left Britain 18 months ago to join the group, Channel 4 news reported.

A law graduate from northern England, Begum insists she only travelled to convince her husband to return and never supported the IS militants, who have carved out regions of control in Iraq and Syria.

"I was seeing on the news at this point that ISIS was going from bad to worse... So I decided that I was going to try and speak some sense into him," she told Channel 4 news, referring to Islamic State by an alternative name.

At first, Begum lived in a overcrowded safe house in the IS-controlled city of Raqqa with dozens of other women and children, many "crying" and "sick".

"There was a gangster kind of mentality among single women there. Violent talk, talking about war, killing," Begum said.

"They would sit together and huddle around their laptops and watch ISIS videos together and discuss them and everything. It was just not my cup of tea."

After she was reunited with her husband, who refused to help her leave, IS authorities would not allow her to go, Begum added.

"This is what I want to make clear as well to other women thinking of coming into ISIS territory -- that you can't just expect to come into ISIS territory and then expect that you can just leave again easily," Begum said.

"There is no personal autonomy there at all."

She was smuggled out of the territory before being held captive in the city of Aleppo, and is now living close to the border with Turkey and hopes to move back to Britain, Channel 4 reported.

Hundreds of Britons are thought to have travelled to join the IS group.

A report released last month indicated that dozens of fighters have defected from the group, which has become notorious for beheadings and blowing up ancient Syrian monuments, often due to disillusionment over killing fellow Sunni Muslims and civilians.

Nadiya Hussain, a British-Bangladeshi mom of three, has this evening been crowned winner of the British institution that is the Great British Bake Off.  The 30-year-old wowed judges with a lemon drizzle wedding cake in the final Bake Off – declaring that it would have been the cake she would …

It appears that the Daily Mail has outdone even itself. A columnist for the shouty right-wing rag has managed to fit racism, sexism and homophobia into a 100-word comment piece over the BBC’s Great British Bake Off. Australian journalist Amanda Platell suggested in the column that the three finalists on …

British Sikhs will no longer face the prospect of disciplinary action for wearing turbans in the work place, after new rules came into force on Thursday. For more than 20 years, Sikhs working in the construction industry have been exempted from rules requiring head protection – but because of a …

On Thursday Google marked what would have been the 168th birthday of an extraordinary woman. Today’s Google Doodle depicts Annie Besant sitting in a chair holding a copy of ‘New India’, the Indian newspaper which she bought in 1914 and through which she campaigned for Indian independence. The daughter of …

Domestic violence and sexual abuse is going unreported within Britain’s South Asian communities because of a “culture of shame”, according to new research. A study, conducted by academics Dr Karen Harrison from Hull University and Dr Aisha Gill from the University of Roehampton, found that many first generation immigrant women …