A young
mother who loved the TV show The Only Way is Essex has run away to Syria
with her baby son after becoming obsessed with extremist propaganda she
found online.
Tareena
Shakil, 25 – a one-time Spice Girls fan, school prefect and Girl Guide –
was so fascinated with the ITV reality show that she travelled 150
miles to buy clothes at a shop run by one of its stars.
Yesterday
her parents said she was wearing items she bought there when she set
off for Syria, lying to her family that she was taking her 14-month-old
son on holiday to Spain.
'We can't come back': Tareena Shakil,
25, pictured with 14-month-old Zaheem, has run away to Syria after
becoming obsessed with extremist propaganda she found online
In
terrifying messages home, she told them ‘so many people died’ when they
‘got shot at the border’ but that she and her son Zaheem made it
because she ‘ran across’.
It
is feared Miss Shakil plans to marry a jihadi in the Islamic State
stronghold of Raqqa, in the latest case of a British Muslim woman
joining the group that murdered UK hostages Alan Henning and David
Haines.
Her
father Mohammed Shakil, 42, said: ‘We are absolutely distraught that our
beautiful, bright, intelligent daughter has chosen this path. I have
never cried so much in my life and would do anything to have her and our
grandson back in our arms.’
It is feared Miss Shakil plans to marry a jihadi in the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa
Miss Shakil grew up in Burton-on-Trent in Staffordshire.
‘Tareena did drama and was in the Guides,’ her father told The Sun. ‘She loved the Spice Girls and TOWIE.’
Mr Shakil said she did a psychology degree and got married, although she later divorced.
But
around four months ago she set up a Facebook page under the name
Tameena al Amirah and started posting extremist messages, including
images of Islamist fighters and the IS black flag, and calling herself a
‘slave to Allah’.
Last
week she set off with Zaheem, telling her family she was going to
Spain. In reality she bought a ticket to Turkey, from where she crossed
the porous border into Syria.
‘There
was no reason to suspect,’ her father said. ‘She left wearing jeans and
a top she bought in a shop owned by one of the TOWIE stars. My little
grandson shouldn’t be going through this.’
Miss
Shakil has told her family she is in Raqqa and can never return. One
message reads: ‘I can’t come back there now … we can’t. Tell her don’t
cry. Read the Koran, I love you mummy!’
Of
her journey, she wrote: ‘So many people died coming. They got shot at
the border. But we made it. We ran across the border in the blazing
sun.’
At
their housing association home in Burton-on-Trent yesterday, Mr Shakil
and his wife Mandy, 47, were too upset to discuss the news.
But
in a statement, her father said: ‘We brought Tareena up in a Western
environment, while respecting the culture of Islam, and hoped that she
would take the best of both worlds.’
The 25-year-old grew up in Burton-on-Trent, Staffordshire (pictured) and loved Towie and the Spice Girls
Mr
Shakil, who has served a prison sentence for dealing drugs, said: ‘I,
myself, have made mistakes in the past but it never affected that close,
deep bond that exists in special father-and-his-daughter relationships.
Like any father, I just want the best for my daughter.
‘We want her to know how much we love her and want her back safely as soon as possible.’
Mr
Shakil was jailed for 28 months in 2011 after police stopped his car
and found crack cocaine, heroin and mobile phones he used to deal
drugs.
He
admitted possessing a knife. His son Tazeem, 22, featured regularly in a
local paper which dubbed him ‘Burton’s most prolific persistent young
offender’, with 20 convictions and an Asbo by age 14.
Around four months ago, Tareena
Shakil set up a Facebook page under the name Tameena al Amirah and
started posting extremist messages
One of the posts featured on the Facebook page featuring the chilling black flag of terror group ISIS
This photo of a sunset was also posted onto the young mother's Facebook site
Aged
17, it reported he had ‘turned over a new leaf’ and started work at a
local firm, but three years later he was jailed for crashing a car into a
house and fleeing the scene while banned from driving.
The couple have two younger children. Local MP Andrew Griffiths said he would do ‘whatever he could’ to help the family.
‘I think this news will have shocked everyone across Burton,’ he said. ‘We now need to ensure this does not happen to others.’
Miss Shakil’s disappearance is being investigated by West Midlands Police as she is thought to have been living in Birmingham.
Yusra
Hussein, 15, who left her home to join ISIS in Syria. Right, police
leave Yusra's home in Bristol, where she fled telling her parents she
was off on a school trip
Salma (left) and Zahra Halane (right), have
reportedly married ISIS fighters. They left their parents’ home in the
middle of the night and caught a flight to Turkey, before crossing the
border
A spokesman said: ‘A 25-year-old woman from Sparkbrook was reported missing by a member of her family on October 24.
'We
have since been working to establish the woman’s whereabouts and that
she is safe and well. One of our lines of enquiry is that she may have
travelled to Syria via Turkey.’
She is the latest young woman to travel to Syria to join Islamic State, apparently as a ‘jihadi bride’.
X-Factor
fan Yusra Hussien, 15, flew to Turkey in September with a 17-year-old
girl she met online. They are thought to be in Syria.
Twins
Salma and Zahra Halane, 16, who hoped to become doctors, also ran away
from their home in Manchester to Syria, where social media posts show
them learning to use assault rifles.
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