Should we listen to Shamima Begum’s verdict on the hijab?

What should one make of Shamima Begum’s appearance on Good Morning Britain? The London schoolgirl left the UK in 2015 to join Isis in Syria, but it appears she’s converted to common sense in recent times. Dressed in a sleeveless top and a baseball cap, Begum made a number of frank admissions, including how she ‘felt very constricted in the hijab. I felt like I was not myself.’

The cynic will suggest it is an act in an attempt to be allowed back to Britain. Perhaps. Or maybe we should give Begum the benefit of the doubt. She was young and naive at the time. Now she understands how an enforced dress code demeans women – a reality that woman in Afghanistan are now living through. 

It takes a brave woman who is willing to speak out against the Taliban’s demands that female students wear hijabs. But some Afghans are willing to do just that: ‘Black attire, burqa, and niqab are not and (have) never been part of the Afghan culture,’ one woman was quoted as saying.