Shamima was a Child Bride

Jess Helicopter - 23 Sep 21

TW: violence

Shamima Begum is being used by the (mainly right wing) media as a scapegoat. She’s being used as a treasonous beacon of ALL THAT IS WRONG WITH ISLAM. The vitriol I’ve seen written against her on Facebook and Twitter has left my jaw gaping and a feeling of deep disgust at some of my fellow countrymen.

I am the parent of a child just approaching their teenage years. I also know first-hand about the emotional/hormonal upheaval that comes with this time in our lives. I am dreading these years. Teenagers are much more impressionable than adults because their brain is wired that way. They’re primed for learning and craving for stimulation for their busy brains. They are also selfish, there is now scientific evidence that proves this. They find it hard to put themselves in other’s shoes.

It’s super common for teens to clash with their parents / society of course. If you throw into the selfish teen hell-storm a systemic racism, poverty-stricken neighbourhood, experience of societal alienation and living in a culture that doesn’t respect you or your religion …it doesn’t bode well. It’s possible that Shamima watched her family members and friends experience racism on a daily basis. Imagine the anger that that all those triggers could fuel in a teen mind that’s impressionable and looking for stimulation.

None of this justifies joining a terrorist organisation that plans and regularly carried out bombings and beheadings. I’m not trying to excuse teenage Shamima for her involvement in ISIS. But I am trying to understand how it could happen to a young British kid from Bethnal Green.

Obviously, she was brainwashed. She met with a group at her local mosque who prayed on the fact that her mother has recently died. They told her she would meet her again in paradise if she became a martyr. She started following extremists on Twitter and WHATEVER her initial motivation for joining this group… bereavement, trauma, alienation…. she got dragged into its underbelly. As a child. She was a young teen when she started accessing the violent films and posts. That would definitely have had a severe impact on a brain that was still forming. Gradually she got sucked into this world without her family’s or friend’s knowledge. She honestly believed that ISIS were fighting the good fight. Their beheadings and bombings were justified because they were trying to create the perfect state. Enemies of ISIS were scum.

One of the reasons she now, in 2021, says she went was because she wanted to live in a purely Islamic state. She wanted to get married and have kids. She went over to Syria at 15, was married to a Dutch 23 yr. old who she didn’t previously know within 10 days and had 3 kids with him. They’re all dead bar her. Her husband was tortured and killed, her oldest child a girl named Sarayah and her middle child Jarrah both died of suspected malnourishment, the last baby, also named Jarrah, died of pneumonia in the camp she is now in. When interviewed in 2019 she was still espousing ISIS rhetoric. One of the classic signs of radicalisation is repeating phrases drummed into them. Despite all the horrific things she’d endured, she was still supporting the regime that had forced her to harm other women, forced her to carry a gun, married her off as a child then killed her husband and children.

And she has endured horrific things. “One of her fellow “jihadi brides”, Sabina Selimovic, tried to escape ISIL and was beaten to death with a hammer. Ms Begum has seen beheadings – planes flying overhead terrify her – she is used to starving and having an emergency backpack ready.”

Other former ISIS members have returned to the UK and disappeared. Some have been arrested and jailed. None have had their citizenship stripped from them.

How are we leaving a traumatised, formerly brainwashed young woman, who grew up on our streets, alone and starving in a camp where her last baby died? She was A CHILD. What she needs is our help, compassion, and her citizenship. Her treatment by the British Government makes me ashamed to be British.

Jess Helicopter

Jess is a wine-addled, social media tart, *feminist and chronic over sharer. She lives in Cardiff with her husband, children (G-11/J-7) and some cats. Went to art school but after graduation got sucked into working for "the man". Now trying to claw her creative way out by fancying herself as a bit of writer. (*Intersectional/trans incl)

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