Shamima Begum: A Very Brit(ish) Example

Since Shamima Begum, the former Bethnal Green schoolgirl was found and interviewed two weeks ago in a camp in Syria, I have been observing the lack of compassion in the debate that has ensued since she expressed her wish to return home and her regret for what she had done. What it confirms to me is that misogynistic white supremacy targets the most vulnerable and most people won't call it out.

I have been deeply troubled by the double standards and disregard that commentators, politicians and some of my friends have shown to the fact that this now dazed and traumatised grieving mother who has recently given birth has been talked about. The ways she has been analysed and used to further political careers, re-confirm racist and misogynistic tropes and fan the flames of the far right is appalling. Populist reactions to her case have led to a disregard for international law and a reconfirmation of the DAESH narrative that Muslims will never ever belong or seen as equal citizens in the West. No matter how 'civil', law abiding and vulnerable or remorseful they are for any wrong doings they have committed as children, especially if they are women.

In both my interviews on Victoria Derbyshire show and BBC Women's Hour, I raise the question of what would the reaction be to her plight and plea to return home had she been a white young woman? I talk about the process of grooming she has undergone which is essentially the same as that of grooming children for abuse and sexual exploitation.

I talk about the possibility of PTSD, post-natal depression, grief at losing two young children and the nature of the relationships she has had with the two men who fathered her children. Were they abusive? Were the children the result of 'marital' rape? Can a 15 year old consent to marriage? 

For the home secretary and those who argue 'she should have thought of that before she left', it seems that all of the above is lost on them when it comes to Shamima. Yet Sajid Javid presides over a department that has strict and stringent guidelines and policies around safeguarding, grooming, child sexual exploitation and violence against women and girls.

From the very little knowledge that I have about her case, it would seem to me that Shamima would qualify for support under all these measures and policies. So why I wonder is she not afforded them? Particularly when the home office is falling over itself to find 'worthy' and successful cases of 'deradicalisation' to bolster its toxically branded Prevent policy? Perhaps she isn't "worthy" enough?

We know that 400 people have since returned to the UK from DAESH misadventures and controlled territories. I am assuming that the overwhelming majority of them are men and because of the misogynistic and violent ideology of DAESH, we can safely assume that men would have been out on the battle field or in the public space partaking in the violence, control, coercion and murder whilst the women would be at home solely responsible for 'women-type' things like caring for the kids, making the dinner and servicing the sexual needs of the men. 

Why is it okay for the men to return home and not have their citizenship revoked but for Shamima to lose hers, denied the return home and to be seen as a security risk when she spent most of her time pregnant and caring for now dead sick children?

I can't help but think that being Muslim, brown and female has something to do with it. Apart from the racialised gendered perceptions of society, its clear that power will not treat you fairly if you step outside gendered norms. Whilst young men her age will be seen as 'troubled' and in need of guidance or have fallen into the wrong crowd, Shamima is seen as the ultimate deviant who is beyond 'saving'. 

How could she lie to her parents and be brazen enough to fly to Istanbul with her two other girlfriends? Show me a child that hasn't lied to their parents and a teenager at that. I remember bunking off school to go to the local shopping centre at the age of 15 and that was literally as bold a step for me to take as getting on a plane. Granted I had no intention of joining a violent and abhorrent death cult but then I didn't grow up in a post 9/11 world, or with Tommy Robinson and Katie Hopkins as the norm.

It seems that Muslim girls and women can't win. When we toe the line and behave 'appropriately' we are told we need to shed the shackles of our culture, the oppression of our community and take risks but when we do make mistakes by taking risks and then being mature enough to deal with the consequences or come back to face the music and try to learn from our mistakes, we are beyond white saviour's reach. The very 'honour' codes that are weaponised against us and our 'community' by white supremacy become the very tools by which white supremacy punishes us.