Shamima Begum was the British teenager who left London at fifteen to join the Islamic State in Syria in 2015. Through October 2023 the opening described her as entering Syria "to join the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL)." Today the opening calls it only "the Islamic State," without the terror label, though the word appears thirteen times in the body. A reader of the opening today does not learn that the organization Begum joined is treated as a terror group.
Read line by line and written up by hand.
Machine-checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01. “terror” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 13.
We saved snapshots of this article over twenty years; you are reading the October 6, 2023 one. Red dashes: removed from Wikipedia since.Pale dots: rewritten; the numbered note shows what it says now.Red text: written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot.1 tap a number or a side note to jump between them
The opening as it read in October 6, 2023
Jihadist and former British citizen (born 1999) Not to be confused with the unrelated Sharmeena Begum who left for Syria two months earlier.1Shamima Begum (born 25 August 1999) is a British-born woman who entered Syria to join the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) at the age of 15.2She was a student at Bethnal Green Academy in London when she and two schoolmates travelled to Syria in February 2015 and became known as the Bethnal Green trio .3Begum's journey was facilitated by an ISIL smuggler who was providing information to Canadian intelligence.4She married a fellow ISIL member 10 days after her arrival and had three children who all died young. The Daily Telegraph reported that Begum had developed a reputation as an enforcer amongst other members of ISIL and had tried to recruit other young women to join the group.5 In February 2019, Begum was discovered alive at the Al-Hawl refugee camp in Northern Syria by war correspondent Anthony Loyd . The following day, British Home Secretary , Sajid Javid , revoked her British citizenship. The British government believed that Begum held dual citizenship due to her Bangladeshi parents but this has been contested by the Government of Bangladesh .6 Javid stated that Begum would never be allowed to return to the United Kingdom. In July 2020, the Court of Appeal ruled that Begum should be permitted to return to the UK in order to fairly contest the Home Secretary’s decision by instructing lawyers properly. This ruling was appealed to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom which, on 26 February 2021, ruled unanimously against her, reversing the decision of the Court of Appeal and preventing her return. In February 2023, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission further ruled that Javid's decision to revoke Begum's British citizenship had been lawful, on grounds of national security.7
This is Wikipedia's own text, saved in our repository. Their copy of it is revision 1175602150.
The opening as it stood in 2020
woman born in London, UK This article is about Shamima Begum who travelled to Syria with two friends in February 2015. She is not to be confused with Sharmeena Begum who is unrelated and left for Syria two months earlier. Shamima Begum (born 1999) is a British -born woman. She left the UK, aged 15, to join the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Syria . Her intention to return to the UK in 2019 resulted in a public debate about the handling of returning jihadists . In February 2019, the British government issued an order revoking her British citizenship . The British government has since clarified that she will never be allowed to return.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 965219886.
The opening as it stood in 2025 7 passages from the previous snapshot no longer appear
British-born jihadist (born 1999) Not to be confused with Sharmeena Begum (not a family relation) who left for Syria two months earlier.Shamima Begum (born 25 August 1999) is a British-born woman who entered Syria to join the Islamic State at the age of 15 in 2015.As of 2024, she is living in al-Roj detention camp in Syria.While enrolled at Bethnal Green Academy , Begum and two schoolmates travelled to Syria in February 2015.The journey was facilitated by an IS smuggler who was providing information to Canadian intelligence .Ten days after her arrival, Begum married a 23-year-old fellow IS member; the marriage produced three children, who all died young. In February 2019, Begum was discovered alive at the al-Hawl refugee camp in Northern Syria by war correspondent Anthony Loyd . The following day, British Home Secretary Sajid Javid revoked her British citizenship , stating that Begum would never be allowed to return to the United Kingdom. Begum initiated legal proceedings challenging the lawfulness of this decision.British courts ruled that Javid's decision had been lawful, with the Supreme Court refusing Begum's final attempt for permission to appeal on 7 August 2024.At the present time, Begum can launch no further legal challenge within the British legal system, but has, through her lawyers, intimated an intention to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights ."Shamima Begum loses final UK court bid over citizenship" . 7 August 2024."Shamima Begum loses final UK court bid over citizenship" . 7 August 2024.
Red text was written in or rewritten since the previous snapshot. Their copy is revision 1297781884. This is our newest snapshot; the live article may have moved again since.
Today
“terror” appeared 1 times in this article's opening at its peak. Today the opening has none; the body has 13. Read the current article and compare.
2020
Oct '23
2025
terror
0
1
0
jihad
1
1
1
Counts in the opening at each snapshot. Green: the word gained ground. Red: it was cut. Grey: no change.
Where the word went
It left the opening. It did not leave the article. Wikipedia moved it down the page, where a reader arriving from a search result will not reach it.
“terror” now appears 6× under See also, 92% of the way down the article
Struck red text is no longer in the article; dotted amber text was rewritten. Every revision id links to Wikipedia's copy; the text shown is our own saved copy. Data: /data. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA; quoted for the record; not affiliated with Wikipedia.
