An Islamic State bride who became a cause célèbre when she asked to return to Britain to raise her child was not the mere “housewife” she claimed to be, according to reports, but a cruel enforcer for the terror state’s morality police.

Born in Britain to Bangladeshi migrants, Shamima Begum became something of a media darling when she was interviewed in what was supposed to be a refugee camp, having fled Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi crumbling caliphate in its dying days.

Heavily pregnant with her jihadist husband’s child, which she later gave birth to and named after an Islamic warlord, there were numerous calls from Labour, left-liberal commentators and even some Conservative politicians to “bring her home” — although polls suggested this was emphatically not the sentiment among the general public.

While a large number of Islamic State volunteers are already back in Britain, with only a small minority facing any criminal charges, Home Secretary Sajid Javid did not give in on this occasion, stripping Begum of her British citizenship.

This earned him heavy criticism from the liberal left when Begum’s son subsequently passed away in circumstances which remain unclear.

The Telegraph has also been shared messages reportedly sent by Miss Begum to a number of girls, including a teenager from Austria, attempting to recruit them.

She used the pseudonym “Umm Asma” online before later changing it to “Umm Ahmed” (meaning Mother of Ahmed). — Josie Ensor (@Josiensor) April 13, 2019

However, sources described as “well-placed” have now told The Telegraph that Begum was “allowed to carry a Kalashnikov rifle and earned a reputation as a strict ‘enforcer’ of [the Islamic State’s] laws, such as dress codes for women” for the al-Hisba morality police during al-Baghdadi’s reign of terror, and was not the passive housewife she has presented herself as.

“There were lots of young European women in the Hisba,” an activist from the Sound and Picture group, comprised of people who had to live under the Islamic State and kept track of its members’ activities, told the newspaper.

“Some of them were very harsh and the local population became very scared,” the activist said, claiming that members of Sound and Picture in Raqqa, Syria, “knew [Begum] well”, and that he believed she was responsible for ordering the imprisonment and lashing of Syrian women whose behaviour was deemed “non-Islamic”.

British ISIS Bride Shamima Begum ‘Bored’ of Brexit https://t.co/1roBdJx9Rh — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) April 2, 2019

The Telegraph also reports seeing evidence that Begum worked to recruit more brides for the caliphate, under the pseudonyms “Umm Asma” and “Umm Ahmed”.

“Don’t believe any of the bad things you hear about [the Islamic State], it’s fake. You have everything you want here,” she is said to have told one prospective bride.

“And we can help find you a good-looking husband.”

The activities the reports allude to are very much at odds with Begum’s own account of her time in the caliphate, backed up by her terrorist husband, in which she suggested she was a simple homemaker who had nothing to do with its many crimes, and was no danger to the British public.

ISIS Bride Vows Son 'Will Grow Up to Be a Jihadist' as Crumbling Caliphate Evacuated https://t.co/eO75y6pRU9 — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) February 23, 2019

Follow Jack Montgomery on Twitter: @JackBMontgomery