Different Sides of The Shamima Begum Case
If you have not heard of the name “Shamima Begum”, she has been in the news for several years now, on and off because she was born in a Muslim family in London to parents who left Bangladesh and are official citizens of UK, she fled London when she was 15 years old along with two other young girls to Syria to join ISIS. During her stay there, she has become pregnant, has given birth to a few children, and all of them died young. She has expressed her interest to return to UK in 2019, and this case has raised a lot of attention. She has been stripped off her UK citizenship and many different perspectives have been raised in this period, for and against her.
To understand the case better, you can read more here.
There are a few problems here. One, Shamima was a minor when she left her home country to join ISIS. Terrorist and rebel organizations like the ISIS are often known to target the naive and innocent people, giving them false ideas and convincing them to believe in fierce religious and political opinions of right and wrong, classic brainwashing.
Two, she is now stateless, as her British citizenship has been revoked and Bangladesh continues to maintain its stance that she was never a citizen and will never be permitted to enter the country.
Shamima Begum, a Victim of Trafficking:
Those who argue in favour of Shamima and ask that she be granted citizenship in the UK, including her lawyers say that this is a case of trafficking.
What is trafficking? While sex trafficking is one of the biggest forms of trafficking, there are other motives for trafficking, too, which may or may not involve sexual abuse and people of different age groups are subjected to these criminal acts. According to the UN’s definition, “Human Trafficking is the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of people through force, fraud or deception, with the aim of exploiting them for profit. Men, women and children of all ages and from all backgrounds can become victims of this crime, which occurs in every region of the world. The traffickers often use violence or fraudulent employment agencies and fake promises of education and job opportunities to trick and coerce their victims.” So one is right in arguing that Shamima is indeed a victim of trafficking, and yes, she was also a minor when she went to Syria. Can a minor have the capacity to understand what is right and what is not when it comes to complicated issues such as religion, interpretation of religious scriptures, international politics, history, and war? Are they not easily influenced?
Begum, a Possible Threat for National Safety and Security?
Well, when looked at from this perspective, one does feel empathy for this woman, but it becomes problematic for her lawyers and others who advocate for her because she has openly said that she does not regret doing what she did, joining ISIS. While this comes as a shock to many, that this woman wants to go back to the UK and live there as a citizen, while still agreeing with ISIS’ values or holding ISIS in high regard, how will this play out in court? Evidently, this opinion of hers went against her, and she was denied citizenship for “national security reasons”. That is understandable as well.
Remorseful or Not?
But what exactly does she want? How does she see herself? Does she see herself as a victim of trafficking and extremism? If that is not how she sees herself, how could any government be sure that she could possibly not be a threat to the country, if she still believes in and practices values of an extremist organization? These are all just different interpretations of her words. Her own father had said that he could feel sorry for her and the public would feel sorry for her if she felt some remorse, but she does not. This also brings up other questions, if she does not regret joining the ISIS, then why does she want to get back to UK? IS she an innocent woman who is still not able to understand the world and what her well-wishers want for her? Is she confused and does she need help? Well, she has been living in a refugee camp for years now!
But according to a few other reports, Begum has spoken differently. For example, according to this one by Al Jazeera, she regrets joining the terrorist group and feels ashamed, and according to this one by BBC, Shameena believes that her friend who convinced her to join ISIS, Sharmeena Begum, who is quite an extremist and strong believer of the values of ISIS is also a victim.
Should one take into account the race factor here?
According to this report by The Telegraph, while several Britons, both Muslim and non-Muslim residents of Bethnal Green believe that the woman deserve a second chance, some even argue that she is being punished because of her race and religion.
How is gender a problem here, for those who leave their country to join terrorist groups, then want to come back?
An interesting report by The Hindu reveals that gender is clearly a factor here, when it comes to how many men vs how many women get to return to their home countries after they decide to leave the country/group they chose to affiliate with earlier. This report also explains that women have a much lesser chance of leaving ISIS and getting back to their country because women are not allowed to travel alone, without a male accompanying them according to these extremists, and trusting a male to accompany them to leave ISIS when they have to also take their children along with them can be a big risk for the safety of their children and themselves.
As expected, Islamophobic groups and ‘activists’ enjoy watching this woman being punished. This woman is now stateless, has to live in the refugee camp for long now, can’t speak to her family’s lawyer either because the group would not permit either the lawyer to interact with her or for her to speak against ISIS.
The war between the west and Islamist extremists is not going to end anytime soon, but what liberal Muslims must understand and frequently remind themselves of is that in a world where Muslims are villainized in the minds of millions of people everyday, every small action by any Muslim anywhere in the world that goes against liberal values will be used to strengthen Islamophobia, and what liberal non-Muslims must understand and frequently remind themselves of is that even if they could have all the means to do so, most Muslims in the world would not join and have not joined these extremist organizations, that not every Muslim has contacts with these extremists, that Islamophobia is very much real, and the world won’t judge non-Muslims the same way they do their Muslim peers.
There are truths and selfish lies propagated on both sides: yes, the west actively supports and encourages terrorism, as we can see in the ongoing war between Israel and Palestine, and yes, Islamist extremism is also extremism that reeks of oppression and violence in many different forms. Neither side is to be fully believed and fully accepted because that will make us blind to the wrongs they must be held accountable for.
