Shamima Begum, the young British woman we have left in a camp for the women and children discarded by Islamic State, is back in the news. The 22-year-old spoke of how she is scared that she will be executed after being told that she will face trial in Rojava in Syria for terror offences.
When I tweeted about how horrific this situation is and how I think Shamima should be back in the UK, I of course faced a backlash from those who believe she somehow deserves everything she is getting. It would be so simple to say all this would be different if Shamima were white. And I think it would. But what shocks me the most is the lack of understanding about how Islamic State — like all male-led extremist organisations — groom women and children. Shamima was 15 when she left London for Syria. She, like countless others, was groomed online by men trained to recruit young women as sex slaves for those who were committing the horrors in the Middle East that we saw unfold so vividly. They are still unfolding to this day.
She was a child who was radicalised, raped and exploited. She has lost three children. We are corroding our international standing as a democracy by treating someone who is ultimately a victim with such inhumanity.
I don’t say any of this lightly. I have lived through war. I have lost loved ones to terrorists. And I have held the hands of mothers who have lost their children to these groomers. But the reality is that if we in Britain seek to be better than those who would do us harm we need to uphold the laws that make us better than Islamic State and their like.
That starts with accepting that Shamima should come back to the country where she was born and grew up. This does not mean that if there is evidence that she committed any crimes that she should not be charged. If she did, she should and she should face the punishment given to her by a real court. I am not making a case for absolution — I am making the case for civility. If we keep acting the way we are then we will be the ones who lose in the end. Picking and choosing when we do the right thing or when we uphold international law will have a terrible impact. The truth is when you care about those whom the majority want to ignore that is when you truly are at your best. The UK is a great country. But that greatness is based on not bowing to mob rule and instead doing what is right. In this case that means we must stop demonising a victim. Instead we should give her the opportunity to rebuild her life, something we have done before and can easily do again.
I know the silent majority agree with me on this. I hope that we will soon see Shamima and other British victims of Islamic State back in the UK getting the help they need. They should have got it years ago.
In other news...
I can’t believe I’m saying this but some people think Page 3 should make a comeback. There was a “debate” on TV yesterday where Samantha Fox, a former Page 3 girl, talked about the need to cheer the country up by bringing back this relic.
For those of you unfamiliar with Page 3 — and I hope, since the successful “No more page 3” campaign run by Lucy-Anne Holmes, that a whole generation will have no idea what I am talking about — it was a daily image of a topless woman on Page 3 of The Sun. That paper reduced half of the UK’s population to boobs.
I remember the then managing editor of The Sun and others trying to use my campaign to end FGM as a deflection, saying “we should be worried about real issues” like FGM. So I joined the movement to end Page 3. I believe there was a line from that to the abuse and oppression of women. Those thinking about bringing Page 3 back should re-think. We all still have the energy to take you on again.
