Towie to terrorist: From TV-loving wannabe model to gun-toting jihadi living with ISIS

EXCLUSIVE: Brit girl used student loan handout to fly to terror with tot.

Laid back ... smiling Tareena poses for picture as teenager

THE gun-toting British mother who fled to Syria to join IS maniacs transformed from an aspiring teenage model who loved telly show Towie.

Tareena Shakil can be seen smiling sweetly for photos in a bid to launch a catwalk career aged 18, before later posing in a burka with machine guns among terrorists.

Sombre ... photographed in headscarf

She went to join the jihadist butchers with her 14-month-old boy after becoming radicalised online.
Funding the trip to join ISIS in Syria with a student loan.
 The loan was supposed to pay for a two-year HND in hospitality management at the London School of Business and Finance.

She used £1,215.50 given to her in September 2014 to buy plane tickets from East Midlands Airport the following month.

She was convicted by a jury at Birmingham crown court of IS membership and encouragement of terrorism though messages posted on Twitter. Becoming the first British woman to be convicted.

With IS ... covered-up Shakil has gun

Shakil, formerly of Burton, Staffs, will be sentenced on Monday. The Student Loans Company said they were unable to comment for data protection reasons.

She tried to claim she was a “silly, naive girl” who had been kidnapped by an Arab man but a jury dismissed her “fantasy story”.

Her transformation followed a life growing up in Burton-on-Trent, Staffs, the daughter of a Pakistani and an Australian mum. Bright Shakil got eight GCSEs and three A-levels.

The Towie fan also worked part-time for Morrisons and the New Look fashion chain while dreaming of becoming a model. She went on to study counselling at Wolverhampton uni and met a man who she later discovered had two kids by two different women.

He was also married but after his divorce in 2011 they wed. His drinking led to repeated violence and he forced her to drop out of her course as he was jealous of other men.


In 2013 she had their baby but refused to go with him to start a new life in Yemen. Instead she joined the campaign to Free Palestine, which led to her becoming radicalised by IS terrorists on Facebook and Twitter.

Shortly before leaving the UK she swapped her Apple iPhone for a Samsung smartphone. IS ban iPhones because they have inbuilt GPS tracking devices. She claimed she was told she would go to hell if she stayed in the UK, “the land of the non-believers”, and agreed to travel to Turkey.

From there a man known as Abu T arranged for her to go on to Syria, eventually holing up in Raqqa.
Her family reported her missing to police but she sent them messages saying she had “left to build us a house in heaven” and “if you don’t love ISIS I don’t want to talk to you anymore”.

For over two months she stayed at an IS -controlled mansion in the city with around 40 other would-be jihadi brides. She cowered in the cellar with her son to escape daily bombing raids by Syrian government fighter planes.

She sent pictures to relatives of her boy in an IS balaclava, although she would tell the court it was because he “loved wearing hats”. Shakil also sent pictures of herself posing with pistols and machine guns as well as images of her child standing next to an AK-47.

She bragged she wanted to give birth to the next generation of “Lions” and urged people to take up arms. But then in January last year she crossed back into Turkey after becoming “disenchanted” at life in Syria and was detained by border police. She told British cops she had been kidnapped on holiday.
But yesterday a jury found Shakil, now of Sparkbrook, Birmingham, guilty of all charges she faced. Her husband, who cannot be named, was in the gallery.

After the verdict Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale said: “Our assessment is she was not naive.
“She had absolutely clear intentions when she left the UK, sending tweets encouraging the public to commit acts of terrorism here and then taking her young child to join Daesh in Syria.”
He added: “If anyone is concerned a friend or family member is thinking of travelling to Syria it is crucial they tell us.”

‘Sad boasts’

JUST days after escaping from IS, Shakil boasted: “I’ve had enough adventure to fill a lifetime.”
She seemed to regard it all as one big thrill. Speaking at a police detention centre in the Turkish border city of Gaziantep, she told me: “At least I’ve seen how other people live. Not many from Burton can say they’ve seen what I’ve seen.

“The first thing I will look forward to when I get home is a hot bath. You can’t imagine what life is life without hot water for months and months. “Life is so hard there, there’s no electricity, no television, none of the comforts of home. I escaped death so many times. There were bombs coming down every night. One night there were 30 bombs.”

She cuddled her son and insisted: “He was fine, I made sure he didn’t see anything awful.” The most striking thing about Shakil was how ordinary she was. I had expected to meet an aggressive, western-hating jihadist.

Instead I found a naive young woman who just wanted to return to creature comforts she was used to. It was the western way of life the jihadists despise that persua-ded her to turn her back on IS.