Mark Langabeer (Hastings & Rye Labour member)
‘This World’, a BBC 2 documentary series, interviewed Shamima Begum, who remains in a refugee camp in Syria, having been stripped of her British citizenship by Sajid Javid, when he was Home Secretary. In 2015, she and two other pupils from East London travelled to Syria and joined Isis. Shamima was only 15 years old and left her family home in Bethnal Green without informing anyone in her family.
Describing herself as a quiet teen, who felt neither British or Bengali (her family background), she became influenced by religion. From a deprived background and with the added experience of racism and Islamophobia, she became influenced by another friend who had already left to join the ISIS ‘caliphate’.
The police were investigating the disappearance of this girl and wrote letters to the families of the other girls alerting them to the danger. But they gave them to the girls, so the parents never actually received or read them. The families of Shamima and the others are very critical of the police for this, as the police involvement prompted Shamima and the others to leave even earlier than planned for fear of being found out and stopped. Also, the families were not warned in time for them to intervene to prevent them from going. The three girls travelled to Raqqa, the self-proclaimed capital of the ISIS ‘caliphate’. They were smuggled across the Turkish / Syrian border and presented as suitable wives for ISIS fighters.
Intelligence services
One interesting feature in the programme was the belief that the people smuggler had links to western intelligence services and had provided information to them. A former Canadian intelligence officer felt that the girls could have been intercepted before crossing the border.
Shamima said that most on-line ISIS propaganda depicted the Islamic state as idyllic in character and that she was not aware of the violent execution videos. Film footage of public beheading and other barbaric acts featured in only 8-9% of their social media content. She accepted her friend’s narrative that the claims regarding barbaric acts were false.
Begun married a guy whose origins were Dutch who believed that a good wife is ‘obedient’ and a good cook. Initially, she was reasonably happy in married life and glad to get away from a crowded and often dirty hostel for over 100 unmarried women. However, her husband was imprisoned for alleged spying but released after seven months. He’d thought that his days were numbered. He decided that it would be safer for them to leave Raqqa. Shamima was expecting a baby and the bombing had already killed her one of her friends.
Lost three children
Begum’s husband was captured and is serving a prison sentence. He still wishes to remain in the marriage. Shamima wants nothing to do with him and wants to go back home. She has suffered the loss of her daughter and two sons because of illness and malnutrition. However, the Tories are refusing to restore her British citizenship on the grounds that she poses a threat to national security.
Begum’s legal team believe that she is the victim of grooming and was trafficked. When this matter first came to light, Diane Abbott, the then shadow Home Secretary, stated that it was illegal for the government to refuse citizenship. After four years, she has remained in a refugee camp in Syria.
She is willing to face trial in the UK and serve time in prison. Whether the authorities have any proof that she was involved in terrorism is another matter. She says she regrets going to Syria to join the Islamic state and denies any involvement in military action.
In my personal opinion, Shamima Begum has suffered enough and should be allowed to return to her family. A Labour government should reverse the ban on her British citizenship and allow her to return, hopefully, to a better life.
