tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/shamima-begum-66742/articlesShamima Begum – The Conversation2024-02-28T16:52:40Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2244192024-02-28T16:52:40Z2024-02-28T16:52:40ZBy not repatriating Shamima Begum, the UK is washing its hands of continuing Islamic State terror<p>Shamima Begum is <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/Begum-v-SSHD-CA-2023-000900-2024-EWCA-Civ-152.pdf">not coming home</a>. The Islamic State (IS) poster girl <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-68372112">lost her latest appeal</a> against the British government’s 2019 decision to strip her of her citizenship on grounds of national security. </p>
<p>The ruling meant a brief return to the British headlines for both Begum and the jihadist terrorist group. When the then 15-year-old and two friends ran away from London for IS in 2015, the group held land <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2014/09/12/heres-how-the-islamic-state-compares-to-real-states/">almost the size of Britain</a> in Iraq and Syria. </p>
<p>Now, IS has no territory in the region. Begum is the only one of the young women left alive. And there is neither the public nor political will to bring Begum or others like her home. IS is yesterday’s news – at least in Europe.</p>
<p>Islamic State’s newsletter al-Naba tells a different story. Each week it reports on successes in <a href="https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violent-extremism-sahel">Africa</a>, the centre of its global activities. The <a href="https://www.visionofhumanity.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/GTI-2023-web-170423.pdf">Global Terrorism Index report</a>, published annually by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a thinktank, noted that IS was the world’s most deadly terror group in 2022, and 43% of deaths from terrorism were in the Sahel. Both IS and rival jihadist factions are thought to be responsible. </p>
<p>War between IS and rivals al-Qaeda blazes across sub-Saharan Africa. In Mozambique, thousands of civilians <a href="https://www.opendoorsuk.org/news/latest-news/africa-jihadist-violence/">are on the move</a>, forced from their homes by an IS affiliate. As in Iraq and Syria, women are often targets. In one brutal incident in Mozambique, fighters reportedly <a href="https://www.opendoorsuk.org/news/latest-news/africa-jihadist-violence/">trapped Christian women in a house</a> and set it ablaze. </p>
<h2>Trafficking, violence and IS women</h2>
<p>Jihadist targeting of women, such as the rape and <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/jan/24/yazidi-women-islamic-state-slaves-appeal-to-un-to-intervene-in-their-fight-for-compensation">enslavement</a> of Yazidi women in Iraq and Syria, or the <a href="https://ctc.westpoint.edu/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Boko-Haram-Beyond-the-Headlines_Chapter-2.pdf">abductions of women in Nigeria</a>, are central to their violence. Recognising this, the UN security council in 2019 passed a resolution emphasising the need to see gender-based violence <a href="https://www.un.org/sexualviolenceinconflict/press-release/landmark-un-security-council-resolution-2467-2019-strengthens-justice-and-accountability-and-calls-for-a-survivor-centered-approach-in-the-prevention-and-response-to-conflict-related-sexual-violence/">“as a tactic of war and terrorism”</a>. In Nigeria, IS west Africa fighters have <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-45876440">explicitly targeted women</a> working with humanitarian organisations, even executing them on video. </p>
<p>Trafficking has been an important IS tactic. At its height, IS <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/30671634.pdf">propaganda techniques</a> resembled those of organised child sexual exploitation. Recruiters, <a href="https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/mca/vol1/iss1/4/">like predators</a>, sought out the vulnerable to gain their trust, encouraging them to keep this secret. </p>
<p>The group needed women. Without them, there was no one to birth the next generation, no one for the “heroic” jihadists of IS propaganda videos to fight to protect. Women were at the heart of the IS governance project, its recruitment and trafficking, and of its violence.</p>
<p>Lawyers for Shamima Begum have argued she was a minor who was trafficked to Syria, and was therefore a victim of IS, lacking agency. A UN special representative stated in a 2018 report (the year before Begum’s citizenship was stripped) that armed groups’ “recruitment and use of children nearly always constitutes trafficking”. </p>
<p>By removing Begum’s citizenship, the UK has essentially <a href="https://law.duke.edu/sites/default/files/humanrights/Huckerby-Opinion-Appeal-July2022.pdf">blocked any attempt</a> to understand if and how that trafficking took place. </p>
<h2>Repatriation and justice</h2>
<p>The UK’s stance on repatriating IS women is one of <a href="https://terrorismlegislationreviewer.independent.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/KCL-Speech-final1.pdf">“strategic distance”</a>. In the words of former Met police counterterrorism chief <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/shamima-begum-threat-neil-basu-antiterrorism-b320306.html">Neil Basu</a>, “if you have chosen to go … you shouldn’t be allowed to come back”. This approach <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2023/dec/12/britain-to-repatriate-woman-and-five-children-from-syrian-camps">sets the UK apart</a> from other western countries.</p>
<p>In 2023, according to US state department data, <a href="https://www.state.gov/progress-in-repatriations-how-foreign-assistance-is-addressing-the-humanitarian-and-security-crises-in-northeast-syria-part-1-of-2/">14 countries repatriated more than 3,500 of their nationals</a> from north-east Syria. In France and Germany, some IS women have gone through the domestic courts. </p>
<p>While IS women were mainly not permitted to fight, not all violence took place on the battlefield. France has prosecuted female jihadis for <a href="https://www.icct.nl/sites/default/files/2024-01/Female%20Jihadis%20Facing%20Justice.pdf">association with “terrorist wrongdoers”</a>. </p>
<p>Germany has prosecuted some IS women under war crimes and genocide legislation. In one case, a woman was sentenced for her role in the <a href="https://www.doughtystreet.co.uk/news/german-court-delivers-third-genocide-verdict-against-isis-member-enslavement-and-abuse-yazidi">enslavement of a Yazidi woman</a>. In another, for the death of a Yazidi child, <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12456659/German-ISIS-bride-jailed-14-years-crimes-against-humanity.html">left in the sun to die</a>. Repatriation and trials go some way not just to punishing wrongdoing, but providing the Yazidi people with justice. </p>
<p>Returned to countries of origin, IS members can be managed. <a href="https://www.icct.nl/sites/default/files/2024-02/Female%20Jihadis%20Facing%20Justice.pdf">A new report</a> published by the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism found that in Belgium, Germany, France and the Netherlands, most imprisoned women do not appear to pose a threat.</p>
<p>The 2023 <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/63e26a08d3bf7f172f6ce87f/Independent_Review_of_Prevent__print_.pdf">Shawcross report</a> into the British counter-radicalisation strategy Prevent concluded that Islamism terrorism is the largest terrorist threat facing the UK. British Islamism is not isolated, it is influenced by wider trends of transnational jihad. </p>
<p>In leaving Shamima Begum stateless in Syria, the British government sends a message, not just to a <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/shamima-begum-78-of-britons-support-revoking-is-brides-uk-citizenship-sky-data-poll-11643068">Britain that does not want her</a>, but to the Middle East and Africa: Islamic State is no longer our problem.</p>
<p>The truth is, <a href="https://theglobalcoalition.org/en/">IS violence is not over</a>, even if the theatre of conflict has shifted. Begum has become a symbol of British unwillingness to take this seriously. Her lawyers say <a href="https://www.eastlondonlines.co.uk/2024/02/shamima-begums-lawyers-will-keep-fighting-after-judges-reject-citizenship-appeal/">they will fight on</a>. Perhaps next time Britain will recognise that IS violence remains a global threat.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/224419/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Pearson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Islamic State has fallen out of the public attention in the UK and Europe but remains active in Africa.Elizabeth Pearson, Programme Lead MSc Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism Studies, Royal Holloway University of LondonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1955242023-02-28T14:53:22Z2023-02-28T14:53:22ZShamima Begum case shows how little power courts have to check government national security decisions<p><em>Shamima Begum, who left the UK as a teenager to join Islamic State in Syria, has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-68372112">lost her latest appeal</a> to have her British citizenship reinstated. This means that Begum, now 24, remains in Syria – though she could appeal again and bring her case to the Supreme Court.</em></p>
<p><em>The Court of Appeal’s decision upheld that of a lower court that specialises in national security cases. This piece, published in February 2023, explains what happened in that decision.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>The Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), a court that specialises in national security cases, has upheld the home secretary’s decision to cancel Shamima Begum’s citizenship. The 23-year-old was deprived of her citizenship in 2019, four years after leaving the UK aged 15 to join Islamic State in Syria. </p>
<p><a href="http://siac.decisions.tribunals.gov.uk/Documents/Shamima%20Begum%20Judgment%20Summary%20-%2022.02.2023%20(003).pdf">The court found</a> “credible suspicion” that Begum had been trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation, as her lawyers had argued. It also found that there were “arguable breaches of duty” by state authorities in having allowed her to make the journey to Syria. </p>
<p>In its decision, the SIAC states that the case is “about fundamental principles, rights and obligations”. It also says that “the rule of law is non-neogtiable”. But ultimately, national security seems to take precedence over any of these considerations. And the court appears to have very little power to scrutinise the home secretary’s assessment of the security situation.</p>
<p>It is possible that there is overwhelming evidence finding Begum a national security threat that has not been made available to the general public – the SIAC is highly reliant on secret evidence, and has closed judgments (in addition to open ones). But there is a bigger question here about whether specialist national security courts like the SIAC are able to give full and proper consideration to human rights issues. </p>
<p>Begum’s case has divided the British public between those who consider her a terrorist and <a href="https://www.counselmagazine.co.uk/articles/shamima-begum-the-court-of-public-opinion">national security risk</a> and those who see her as a <a href="https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/02/23/shamima-begum-ruling-dark-stain-uk-justice-system">trafficking victim</a> whose rights were violated.</p>
<p>Her case will have implications for other minors who are trafficked out of the country. This decision shows that as long as the Home Office says there is a national security threat, that may now trump any questions of human rights of children.</p>
<h2>A controversial court</h2>
<p>The SIAC was initially set up in 1997 mainly as a forum where foreigners could appeal against deportation orders. Later, it took over other national security cases, such as detention of those who could not be deported and cancellation of citizenship. </p>
<p>In its early years, the legal community criticised the SIAC’s use of secret evidence and proceedings which were closed to the public. Many lawyers who served as special advocates at the SIAC <a href="https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v26/n06/brian-barder/on-siac">resigned in protest</a> because they were unhappy with how it operated. </p>
<p>Since then, its procedures have been fine tuned (for example, those who appeal to it have to be given the gist of the evidence against them). Its remit has also expanded to include more immigration and nationality issues. </p>
<p>It is not unusual for the SIAC to disagree with the home secretary on human rights issues. For instance, in a <a href="http://siac.decisions.tribunals.gov.uk/Documents/outcomes/1_OpenJudgment.pdf">2010 case</a>, the court decided that the UK could not deport a number of suspected terrorists to Pakistan, as they faced a real threat of torture there. This was despite the UK receiving diplomatic assurances from Pakistan that they would not be subjected to torture. </p>
<p>However, in recent years it appears that the tide has turned on human rights issues. Higher courts have been steering the SIAC away from reconsidering the secretary of state’s assessment of the country’s national security needs using its own lens. </p>
<p>One example is a <a href="https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/2021/1642.html">2021 case</a> where a person was deprived of their citizenship and then denied entry to the UK by the home secretary. The SIAC overturned the home secretary’s decision, so the home secretary appealed. </p>
<p>The court of appeal sided with the home secretary, ruling that the specialist court could not substitute its own evaluation of the interests of national security. </p>
<p>This is remarkably close to the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2020-0156-judgment.pdf">supreme court’s view in 2022</a> as well in an earlier round of Begum’s case. Here too the supreme court said that on a deprivation appeal, the SIAC is not entitled to re-evaluate the home secretary’s discretion using its own standards of review.</p>
<p>It appears that the SIAC’s power to scrutinise what the home secretary has considered when cancelling a person’s citizenship is very limited. In the absence of proper judicial oversight, it is nearly impossible to correct for (or even know of) any mistake or misuse in a minister’s exercise of power. </p>
<p>Given this background, it is unsurprising that this court is unable to grapple with the complicated issues of trafficking, even while accepting that someone like Begum was likely trafficked.</p>
<p>Where can questions of trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors similar to Begum’s case be heard if not in the SIAC? This latest ruling suggests that whenever national security is involved, important human rights questions will remain unanswered, if they are considered at all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195524/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Devyani Prabhat received funding from Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) for a research project on British Citizenship. </span></em></p>This case shows how national security is taking precedence over human rights concerns.Devyani Prabhat, Professor of Law, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1756972022-01-28T13:13:05Z2022-01-28T13:13:05ZLack of data on citizenship-stripping goes against the Home Office’s duty of transparency<p>A group of lawyers found that <a href="https://www.freemovement.org.uk/how-many-people-have-been-stripped-of-their-british-citizenship-home-office-deprivation/">at least 464 people</a> have had their citizenship removed by the government over the last 15 years. They pieced together the data using freedom of information requests and other publications – a challenge, because the Home Office does not publish the information regularly.</p>
<p>Citizenship-stripping for conduct – when a person’s citizenship is removed because of their behaviour – has been a government power <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/61/section/40">for decades</a>. Previously, citizenship could only be removed if the individual had done something “seriously prejudicial to the vital interests” of the UK. But the power was expanded in 2006, allowing the government to remove citizenship if the secretary of state believes the deprivation is “conducive to the public good”. </p>
<p>The nationality and borders bill, which is currently going through parliament, expands this further. It would allow the government to strip people of their British citizenship <a href="https://theconversation.com/stripping-british-citizenship-the-governments-new-bill-explained-173547">without notice</a>.</p>
<p>Knowing how often, and in what manner, these decisions are made is important because citizenship-stripping affects the lives of individuals, their families and their communities. The decision to strip people of British citizenship is based wholly on <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/61/section/40">ministerial discretion</a> – the satisfaction of the minister. Like decisions by all public bodies, ministerial decisions cannot be arbitrary, must operate within reasoned parameters and be just and fair in application.</p>
<p>Citizenship deprivation is ordinarily done for national security or counter-terrorism reasons, so it is possible that lack of transparency is due to a need to protect sources and details of operations. However, operational details are different from providing bare statistics on the use of power. </p>
<p>While it is true that the law recognises the need for some use of exceptional state powers in the area of counter-terrorism, it still requires fairness. For example, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, which hears appeals from citizenship cancellation orders, has provision for extraordinary <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2003/1034/contents/made">closed court sessions</a> which are not open to the public. Yet there is still a process in place for sharing information and providing legal representation to those who appeal, for the sake of fairness. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/jan/21/hundreds-stripped-british-citizenship-last-15-years-study-finds">In response</a> to this article, a Home Office spokesperson said: “The Home Office is committed to publishing its transparency report into the use of disruptive powers and will do so in due course. Removing British citizenship has been possible for over a century, and is used against those who have acquired citizenship by fraud, and against the most dangerous people, such as terrorists, extremists and serious organised criminals.”</p>
<p>Without more information from the government, it is impossible to evaluate whether the citizenship-stripping decisions have been objectively reasonable and based on evidence. This is also rarely scrutinised in appeals cases, as most citizenship deprivations occur when someone is outside the country. As has been seen in the <a href="https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/uksc-2020-0157.html">Shamima Begum case,</a> it is nearly impossible for people to adequately represent their situation in court from conflict areas.</p>
<p>There is legal precedent for government transparency in immigration cases. Courts <a href="https://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/1996/946.html">have directed</a> that people should be told the reason why their naturalisation applications were denied. And more generally, courts have <a href="https://vlex.co.uk/vid/r-v-secretary-of-806937757">directed</a> that Home Office decision-makers must record their reasoning at the time decisions are made.</p>
<p>Secrecy can also prevent courts from clarifying less clear aspects of the law. Well-reasoned decisions help public bodies withstand legal challenge if they are robust and easily explained.</p>
<h2>Duty of care</h2>
<p>Public authorities generally owe the public a <a href="https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/lexispsl/publiclaw/document/393870/55KG-FP91-F18H-K2Y7-00000-00/Claims_against_public_authorities_overview">duty of care</a> to protect individuals from harm.</p>
<p>The government owes a heightened duty of care towards children who are in conflict areas such as Syria and unable to leave because their British parents have had their citizenship cancelled. The <a href="https://globalcit.eu/repatriating-the-forgotten-children-of-isis-fighters-a-matter-of-urgency/">duty towards children</a> is based on their welfare in national laws, as well as best interests in international human rights conventions. Yet, the lack of transparency on citizenship-stripping means not much is known about how many children are affected or what, if anything, is being done to bring them to safety.</p>
<p>Ministerial power should only be exercised for the public good, and negligence can put lives at risk. Public officers acting in bad faith, knowing it would probably cause harm, could be committing <a href="https://www.lexisnexis.co.uk/legal/guidance/misfeasance-in-public-office">misfeasance in public office</a>. Actions for misfeasance require proving intentional misbehaviour and would be difficult to establish for cancellation of citizenship. Nevertheless, it shows that there are limits to ministerial power and discretion. </p>
<p>Given these serious consequences, ministerial discretion must be exercised objectively and with transparency. Oversight bodies, parliament and the public must be able to scrutinise their actions.</p>
<p>It is possible that the lack of available data is just poor recordkeeping or delay on the part of the government. But this secrecy hampers wider public responses to human rights abuses which may take place during counter-terrorism operations. NGOs and investigative journalists can only go so far to bring about accountability while relying on freedom of information requests, personal contacts and anecdotal evidence for data.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/175697/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Devyani Prabhat does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Knowing the number of people who have had their citizenship removed is crucial to holding a powerful government to account.Devyani Prabhat, Professor in Law, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1572812021-04-07T11:07:54Z2021-04-07T11:07:54ZShamima Begum: what the media’s fixation on her ‘western’ clothing means for Muslim women<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392607/original/file-20210330-19-1rpixpf.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=13%2C0%2C1500%2C1032&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shamima Begum recently lost her appeal to return to the UK after a Supreme Court ruling in February</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMVpaDP_4l0">ITV/YouTube</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Europe’s fascination with Muslim women, their bodies and their clothing choices – as seen in the passing of <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-56314173">discriminatory face covering bans</a> in several countries – shows no sign of abating. Throughout the western world, Muslim women have become expendable commodities, with offensive tropes dominating news coverage on a regular basis. In recent years in the UK, the most high profile victim of such rhetoric has arguably been Shamima Begum.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, the Supreme Court ruled Begum could not return to the UK to challenge the government’s decision to revoke her citizenship in 2019. As a result she would have to remain in Syria, where she had travelled to in 2015. </p>
<p>When she was first pictured, as one of three London schoolgirls suspected of <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/03/18/found-the-bethnal-green-schoolgirls-who-ran-away-to-syria/">being groomed to join Isis</a>, she looked no different to many young Muslim women in the UK at the time.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="CCTV image of three young girls in an airport" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392606/original/file-20210330-23-1y3qd9i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392606/original/file-20210330-23-1y3qd9i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392606/original/file-20210330-23-1y3qd9i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392606/original/file-20210330-23-1y3qd9i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392606/original/file-20210330-23-1y3qd9i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392606/original/file-20210330-23-1y3qd9i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392606/original/file-20210330-23-1y3qd9i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">CCTV image from ITV News report on the Bethnal Green schoolgirls who’d fled the country to join Isis in 2015.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMVpaDP_4l0">ITV/YouTube</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>She then reappeared on our screens in 2019 following an interview with <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/Begum-begum-bring-me-home-says-bethnal-green-girl-who-fled-to-join-isis-hgvqw765d">the Times</a>. In a picture used for the interview, Begum appeared in a black jilbab (long outer clothing worn by some Muslim women), black hijab (headscarf) and a niqab (face veil), which she had lifted over her head. </p>
<p>This image aligned with western media’s portrayal of so-called “Isis brides”, often clad in all black. Images like these flooded the media at the height of Isis’s activity, playing into <a href="http://clok.uclan.ac.uk/16653/1/16653%20Tassadaq%20Hussain%20Final%20e-Thesis%20(Master%20Copy)%20March%202016.pdf">established Islamophobic views</a> about a perceived correlation between Islamic clothing and extremism.</p>
<p>In the summer of 2020, another article with images of Begum appeared. This time, reports pointed out her change in style, chiefly that she had “<a href="https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/12145658/Begum-begum-pictured-refugee-camp/">ditched her Islamic dress and instead [was] donning western clothes including jeans, a shirt and a blue hat</a>”. In <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/14/exclusive-shamima-begum-seen-make-up-western-clothes-seeks-break/">March 2021</a>, another article highlighted how Begum was seeking to move away from her Isis past with “western clothing” and “straightened hair”.</p>
<p>Aside from the bizarreness of suggesting jeans and t-shirts (clothes popular across the globe) are exclusively “western”, this comparison with Begum’s previous Islamic garb implies that only in the west can Muslim women be liberated.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Shamima Begum walking across sand with detention camp buildings in the background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392600/original/file-20210330-21-job4d5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392600/original/file-20210330-21-job4d5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392600/original/file-20210330-21-job4d5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392600/original/file-20210330-21-job4d5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392600/original/file-20210330-21-job4d5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392600/original/file-20210330-21-job4d5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392600/original/file-20210330-21-job4d5.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=379&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An ITV News report in February 2021 showed footage of Shamima Begum wearing ‘western’ clothing in a Syrian detention camp.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMVpaDP_4l0">ITV/YouTube</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/behind-veil-study-how-west-imagines-muslim-women">The obsession with her clothes</a> and whether they signal how much of a threat she is has its roots in colonial history. The lands east of Europe have historically been portrayed as lacking in civilisation, too concerned with the fantastical world to ever really understand what it means to be free, as succinctly articulated by philosopher Edward Said in his seminal book, <a href="https://bookshop.org/books/orientalism/9780394740676">Orientalism</a>. In this picture, Begum’s emancipation, as signified by her change of clothing, is intimately tied to Europe.</p>
<h2>The dangerous Muslim woman</h2>
<p>The construction of the Muslim woman as “dangerous, yet in need of saving” is characteristically European in its racism. For example, in colonised Algeria in the 1950s, Muslim women were unveiled in public to showcase their “<a href="https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9780719087547/">liberation</a>”. </p>
<p>Journalists actively “<a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2021/03/14/exclusive-shamima-begum-seen-make-up-western-clothes-seeks-break/">tracking down</a>” Begum, taking photographs of her and projecting them to the world is no different than the Algerian example as a ceremony of unveiling and revealing a Muslim woman. As much as Muslim women continue to argue that we exist beyond the paradigm of liberation versus oppression, <a href="https://www.middleeasteye.net/opinion/coronavirus-how-media-scapegoats-muslim-women">the voyeurism just never stops</a>. </p>
<p>Such depictions of Muslim women have serious implications. Research on gendered Islamophobia has found that Muslim women bear the brunt of <a href="http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/76134/3/Misogyny%20paper%20revised%20versionaccepted%20versionMArch2018.pdf">physical attacks</a> after derogatory, infantilising comments have been made about them in the media or following a terrorist attack. This was evident when <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/boris-johnson-muslim-women-letterboxes-burqa-islamphobia-rise-a9088476.html">Islamaphobic incidents rose</a> sharply in the UK after Prime Minister Boris Johnson referred to niqab-wearing Muslims as looking like <a href="https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/uk/2019/10/how-it-feels-be-branded-letterbox-street-because-boris-johnson">“letterboxes”</a> in August 2018. Using Muslim women for politicking in this way is common in the UK and it shapes how the wider, dominant society views them.</p>
<p>The media’s focus on Begum’s choice of clothing is part and parcel of this consistent obsession with Muslim women, illustrating the pervasive and intrusive ways Muslim women are presented to the public: either as dangerous or oppressed.</p>
<p>Such depictions trickle down and impact Muslim women in their everyday lives, with many faced with intrusive questions based on this perceived lack of freedom among Muslim women. As the pandemic continues to <a href="https://www.bcu.ac.uk/about-us/coronavirus-information/news/covid-19-sparks-online-islamophobia-as-fake-news-and-racist-memes-are-shared-online-new-research-finds">fuel Islamophobia</a>, it’s increasingly important for these narratives to be tackled and stopped in their tracks. The sooner that happens, the easier it’ll be for Muslim women to get on with their lives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157281/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Fatima Rajina does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Comparisons between Begum’s Islamic garb and her new wardrobe suggest that Muslim women’s “liberation” depends on westernisation.Fatima Rajina, Legacy in Action Research Fellow, Stephen Lawrence Research Centre, De Montfort UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1428602020-07-17T13:06:19Z2020-07-17T13:06:19ZShamima Begum: what the legal ruling about her return to the UK actually means<p>Shamima Begum, who left the UK as a 15-year-old schoolgirl for Syria in 2015, should be allowed back so that she can effectively challenge the removal of her British citizenship, the <a href="https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/WP-Begum-Judgment-NCN.pdf">Court of Appeal ruled</a> on July 16.</p>
<p>The decision – which the Home Office <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/jul/16/shamima-begum-wins-right-to-return-to-uk">announced it would appeal</a> – has been portrayed as a victory for Begum and a <a href="https://www.justsecurity.org/71460/judgement-in-the-begum-case-a-good-day-for-the-protection-of-human-rights/">win for human rights</a>. Opponents, such as the former home security Sajid Javid, <a href="https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/sajid-javid-deeply-concerned-shamima-begum-ruling-a4500471.html">criticised it</a> as a “lightning rod for both Islamist and far-right extremists”. </p>
<p>But neither portrayal of the case is wholly accurate. There is very little that Begum has actually gained from this decision – although it does have the potential to change the way in which counter-terrorism cases are reviewed by British immigration courts.</p>
<p>Despite the <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-47286935">tens of thousands</a> of European and British nationals who travelled to Syria, Begum has been the prominent face of the British policy of removing British citizenship from those it suspects of joining Islamic State.</p>
<p>In February 2019 it emerged Begum was in a camp in Syria, soon after which the Home Secretary <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2019-02-19/shamima-begum-has-uk-citizenship-revoked-by-british-government-itv-news-learns/">removed her citizenship</a>, arguing that she has eligibility for Bangladeshi citizenship and would not be left stateless. Her newly born child <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47500387">died soon after</a>. According to the new ruling, no substantial evidence has so far been presented to the courts of her engagement in terrorist activities while in Syria.</p>
<p>This case is actually an appeal about an appeal. Begum, who is still living in a camp in Syria, was appealing against a decision in June 2019 that refused her entry to the UK to make a separate appeal at the UK’s Special Immigration Appeals Commission.</p>
<p>Any gains she makes in the case will not automatically help her to restore her British citizenship – rather they will allow her to participate in an effective and fair manner in the immigration appeal.</p>
<p>In reality, the decision to give, and implement, a “leave to enter” order – which means somebody can enter the country – rests with the Home Office immigration officials <a href="https://www.lexisnexis.com/uk/lexispsl/immigration/document/393826/55KG-8PB1-F18H-62S5-00000-00/Leave_to_enter_and_remain_overview">who can refuse entry</a> even when somebody arrives at a British airport. So despite the new ruling, Begum has no guaranteed right of entry. Should she be refused entry or deported on arrival, the only recourse would be to bring yet another judicial review against the decision.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Letter with Home Office logo" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348123/original/file-20200717-29-1ctr1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/348123/original/file-20200717-29-1ctr1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348123/original/file-20200717-29-1ctr1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348123/original/file-20200717-29-1ctr1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348123/original/file-20200717-29-1ctr1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348123/original/file-20200717-29-1ctr1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/348123/original/file-20200717-29-1ctr1c4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Home Office is trying to block Shamima Begum’s return to the UK.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Ascannio/Shutterstock</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Immigration court responsibility</h2>
<p>In their decision, the judges reinvigorated the role of the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) in national security matters. The Court of Appeal reminded Siac that it is an appeals court which should conduct a full review by assessing all the facts in a case itself, rather than relying on the decisions of other courts or bodies. </p>
<p>In the past, Siac has rarely engaged with full factual analysis, at least in rulings which it makes public. My own research has shown how several human rights issues, such as the right to life, right to be free from torture and right to family life <a href="https://research-information.bris.ac.uk/ws/portalfiles/portal/102519926/rtfDefinitelyFinaldeprivationmay26submission.pdf">have not been fully evaluated</a> on their merits by Siac. Perhaps this new ruling could change this in future. </p>
<p>The new ruling points out that Begum should be allowed to enter the UK – and she could be arrested and tried should this be considered necessary for national security. She could also be placed under any necessary national security monitoring measures. However, if she is not allowed entry, her lawyers argued she remains unable to even communicate with her counsel from the camp where she’s living. The judges clearly found this convincing evidence that Begum would not be able to obtain a fair appeal in such circumstances.</p>
<h2>Not the end of the story</h2>
<p>But there is little else for human rights advocates to celebrate. The decision accepts the legal route taken by the government to cancel a person’s British citizenship for national security reasons. Human rights challenges to such laws are unlikely to be straightforward in this context. The judges were also clear that just because there may be lack of fairness if she is not present in the UK, Begum cannot win her Siac appeal solely on that basis.</p>
<p>There were, however, some guarded but sympathetic observations from the judges about how a teenager, who is likely herself a victim, had her citizenship removed. The Court of Appeal found that Siac is the best place to fully assess that, and also fully assess the risks that Begum faces after being deprived of her citizenship, such as to her life and liberty.</p>
<p>Begum’s immigration appeal is far from over – the proceedings are complicated and not easily resolved. But the ruling indicates that simply cancelling someone’s British citizenship will no longer be the end of the story for the Home Office. The government may have to answer additional legal questions about how the person is affected by such removal of citizenship.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142860/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Dr Devyani Prabhat received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council UK 2014-2017 for a project on British citizenship. </span></em></p>A legal expert analyses the significance of a Court Appeal ruling allowing Shamima Begum to return to the UK from Syria to fight an appeal against the removal of her British citizenship.Devyani Prabhat, Reader in Law, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1203112019-08-19T14:39:41Z2019-08-19T14:39:41ZJack Letts: why revoking citizenship from IS recruits hasn’t caused an outcry – even from those who object<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/288498/original/file-20190819-123731-saaogz.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=6%2C6%2C1069%2C553&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jack Letts: no longer a British citizen. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeBab40Ooe8">'Jihadi Jack' makes appeal to come home via SkyNews on YouTube</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jack Letts, a man from Oxford who joined Islamic State (IS) and is currently in a Kurdish-run prison in Syria, was <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/jihadi-jack-stripped-of-uk-citizenship-sky-sources-11788024">stripped of his British citizenship</a> by the former home secretary, Sajid Javid, reportedly in one of his final acts before becoming chancellor. In June, Letts admitted in an interview <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48624104">with the BBC</a> that he had been ready to become a suicide bomber and to being an “enemy of Britain”. He said: “I made a big mistake.” </p>
<p>Letts has dual Canadian nationality through his father and so has not been left stateless, but Canada said it <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/jihadi-jack-citizenship-uk-canada-1.5251437">was disappointed</a> by the decision to revoke his British citizenship. Two former British ministers have also <a href="https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/foreign-affairs/news/105978/sajid-javid-facing-tory-backlash-and-canada-rift-after-stripping">spoken out against</a> the decision, on the grounds that it sets a bad example and could potentially undermine anti-extremism work. Such reactions may be partly driven by international perception and the potential of damaged relations with <a href="https://www.news18.com/news/world/canada-slams-uk-decision-to-off-load-islamic-state-fighter-jihadi-jack-2275597.html">Canada, a traditional British ally</a>. </p>
<p>The issue of nationality is crucial. It is <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/british-citizenship-removal-isis-terrorists-extremists-stateless-illegal-blocked-court-bangladesh-a8645241.html">illegal</a> to leave a person stateless by stripping them of their citizenship. Crucially, Letts has never been tried in a British court.</p>
<p>His case has similarities with that of <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/may/31/sajid-javid-accused-shamima-begum-case-syria">Shamima Begum</a>, the British teenager whose citizenship was revoked in February 2019, although her family has <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/aug/10/lawyer-for-uk-isis-woman-shamima-begum-says-police-building-criminal-case">lodged an appeal</a>. The decision to revoke her citizenship was partly taken on the basis that she had dual Bangladeshi nationality and so would not be made stateless – but this point has yet to be challenged in court. </p>
<h2>No outcry</h2>
<p>Begum’s case gained widespread media attention, but there was little, if any, public outcry over the decisions to revoke her British citizenship. A <a href="https://yougov.co.uk/opi/surveys/results#/survey/f6385dae-34fd-11e9-af57-67fad969c339">YouGov poll</a> in February found that 76% of those surveyed supported the decision. It is early days, and therefore too soon to tell the public reaction to the Letts case. </p>
<p>But why are potentially unjust decisions or actions by governments readily accepted by their populations? It’s a question that my colleagues and I have considered as part of our wider research <a href="https://www.uclan.ac.uk/research/explore/projects/the-peace-and-justice-studies-network.php">into peace and justice</a>. </p>
<p>Our interest in public acceptance of the state’s action doesn’t ignore the potential difficulties in challenging acts of parliament. These can only be <a href="https://www.leighday.co.uk/Human-rights-abuse-claims-judicial-review/Further-insights/Judicial-review">challenged by judicial review</a>, and on limited EU or human rights grounds. The challenger must have “sufficient interest” in the outcome – conditions which are not simple to meet – and few would have the legal knowledge to undertake such action. </p>
<p>The public can still mobilise support for reviews or appeals, or make their disquiet known via political protest, or <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/pops.12478">social media</a>. But there hasn’t been a widespread social media campaign against the UK’s decision to revoke British citizenship of IS fighters. </p>
<h2>Not an ‘ideal’ victim</h2>
<p>Even if observers doubt the legality or morality of abandoning a fellow citizen in a Syrian camp, they may justify such actions via the technique of what’s called “<a href="https://www.oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780195396607/obo-9780195396607-0140.xml">neutralisation</a>”. The term was originally applied to offenders, but is a technique used to neutralise any guilt we may experience for our action or inaction. It refers to the practice of denying responsibility, appealing to higher loyalties such as UK interests, asserting our own good character, and claiming ourselves to be potential victims – in this case, of terrorism. </p>
<p>The claim by Begum’s lawyer that she was a <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-48444604">victim of grooming</a> gained little public support, perhaps because of a perception that she is not innocent, nor an “<a href="http://criticallegalthinking.com/2015/08/05/nils-christies-ideal-victim-applied-from-lions-to-swarms/">ideal victim</a>”. </p>
<p>When Begum was interviewed by journalists, she showed neither weakness nor repentance and appeared antagonistic to a British way of life, despite her desire to access British <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/feb/14/shamima-begum-friends-kadiza-sultana-amira-abase-joined-isis-syria">medical care</a> for her son, who later died. Public opinion is scathing of those who reject perceived <a href="https://esol.britishcouncil.org/content/learners/uk-life/life-uk-test/values-and-principles-uk">British values</a> and related responsibilities, yet seek the benefits that come from British rights, such as medical care and education. </p>
<p>This linking of rights and responsibilities feeds into wider research showing that citizenship is increasingly <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14782804.2017.1397503">framed in terms of a privilege</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/mar/09/terror-suspects-british-citizenship-european-ruling">not a right</a>, by those countries stepping up removal of it, and seeking to legitimise doing so.</p>
<h2>Fear enables actions to go unchallenged</h2>
<p>Both Begum and Letts stoke fears about potential terrorism attacks in Britain, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/40971987?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents">and research</a> has long argued that fear enables the restriction of civil liberties. </p>
<p>It’s possible that part of the vitriol against Begum is because she’s seen as an “<a href="https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2017/1/28/14425658/fear-of-refugees-explained">outsider</a>” – a non-white British Muslim. Such fear of “the other” can be interpreted as <a href="https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/english/xenophobia">xenophobia</a>. But these fears don’t operate in a vacuum. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-45784642">Recent research</a> also suggests that young people living in the UK also have extreme fears about terrorism, reportedly fuelled by social media reports on extreme acts. </p>
<p>In a fearful climate, seeing others you believe may harm you can evoke considerable anxiety and animosity. Both these emotions can enable illegitimate actions to go unchallenged. And even those people who have serious concerns about the actions of their government may not publicly protest, offer support, or challenge the decision, perhaps <a href="https://www.brainfoodblog.com/blog/2017/9/13/bystander-effect-and-sending-help">believing others will</a>, or fearing repercussions if they do so. </p>
<p>If people are challenged about why they didn’t speak out about a particular case, they may admit that justice was miscarried and express a hope that the mistake will be corrected on appeal, or claim that the <a href="https://academic.oup.com/icon/article/12/1/35/628590">law provided for an exception</a>. </p>
<p>While governments may not always keep to the strict letter of the <a href="https://www.dictionary.com/browse/rule-of-law">rule of law</a> – a fundamental British value – public opinion is often driven less by such concerns, than by emotional, if irrational, responses in perceived emergency situations.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/120311/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kim McGuire does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Why do people readily accept potentially unjust decisions by their government?Kim McGuire, Senior Lecturer, Lancashire Law School, University of Central LancashireLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1123222019-02-28T11:10:46Z2019-02-28T11:10:46ZWhat rights do the children of Islamic State have under international law?<p>The case of Shamima Begum, the British teenager who, aged 15, left her home in London and travelled to Syria to join Islamic State, is not a one off. It’s now reported that <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47276572">a number more</a> women who left the UK to live in the Islamic State caliphate are now in refugee camps in Syria.</p>
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<p><em>You can listen to more articles from The Conversation, narrated by Noa, <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/audio-narrated-99682">here</a>.</em></p>
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<p>The UK dealt with the <a href="https://theconversation.com/shamima-begum-legality-of-revoking-british-citizenship-of-islamic-state-teenager-hangs-on-her-heritage-112163">Begum case by stripping her of citizenship</a>, a measure only possible because she appears eligible for Bangladeshi citizenship through her parents – despite a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/20/rights-of-shamima-begums-son-not-affected-says-javid">denial of this</a> by Bangladesh. While the UK may hope this action absolves it of responsibility for Begum, the wider problem hasn’t gone away. </p>
<p>It’s unlikely that all of the other British women and girls involved in Islamic State will have dual citizenship. This makes it impossible to side step the difficult questions around how to deal with them by removing their citizenship – as rendering a person stateless contravenes international law. </p>
<p>The children of these women and girls – such as <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47270857">Begum’s new baby boy</a>, born in a Syrian refugee camp – were born to British citizens. This means they fall under the jurisdiction of the UK, raising further issues around how the UK will ensure the children’s international legal rights and fulfil its international legal obligations.</p>
<h2>Child soldiers</h2>
<p>Under international standards, there’s a strong case that girls who joined Islamic State before they turned 18 were, in fact, child soldiers. The <a href="https://www.unicef.org/emerg/files/ParisPrinciples310107English.pdf">2007 Paris Principles</a>, formally endorsed by 105 states worldwide, including the UK, define a child soldier as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Any person below 18 years of age who is or who has been recruited or used by an armed force or armed group in any capacity, including but not limited to children … used as fighters, cooks, porters, messengers, spies or for sexual purposes. It does not only refer to a child who is taking or has taken a direct part in hostilities. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>These girls may not fit the stereotypical image of the child soldier as small, vulnerable, and forcibly abducted from their home by ruthless warlords and forced to fight. But they travelled to join Islamic State after being radicalised and recruited through the internet and social media machinery of a brutal terrorist group. Since then, many will have been sexually exploited by that group as the “wives” of Islamic State fighters, bearing multiple children, while still children themselves. Applying the definition of the Paris Principles, they can be considered child soldiers. </p>
<p>International law, under Article 39 of the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/crc.aspx">Convention on the Rights of the Child</a> (CRC) and Article 6 of the <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/opaccrc.aspx">Optional Protocol on Children in Armed Conflict</a>, advocates approaching children who commit crimes while associated with armed groups as victims, with a focus on restorative justice and social reintegration. It’s those who recruit and use children as soldiers who should be prosecuted, as these actions constitute war crimes under international law. </p>
<p>Such an approach would require the UK to take all appropriate measures to promote the physical and psychological recovery and social reintegration of former child soldiers, including any children associated with Islamic State, in an environment which fosters health, self-respect and dignity. The situation becomes more complex when those concerned are no longer children, as the international legal protections cease to apply when the age of 18 is reached. This means that those such as Begum who spent the majority of their time with Islamic State as children, but are now adults, now fall outside the legal regimes protecting children. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261405/original/file-20190228-106353-2old47.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/261405/original/file-20190228-106353-2old47.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261405/original/file-20190228-106353-2old47.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261405/original/file-20190228-106353-2old47.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=267&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261405/original/file-20190228-106353-2old47.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261405/original/file-20190228-106353-2old47.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/261405/original/file-20190228-106353-2old47.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=336&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Shamima Begum (right) being interviewed by Sky News in a Syrian refugee camp in mid-February.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EWcJHxmXD1Q">Sky News via YouTube</a></span>
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<h2>Children born of Islamic State</h2>
<p>Still, the international legal protections of the CRC will continue to apply in the cases of many of the children born to women and girls who are British citizens. </p>
<p>The UK is under binding, legal obligations to consider the best interests of these children, to ensure their rights to life, survival and development, to be legally registered with a name and nationality. As far as possible, they have rights to know and be cared for by their parents, and to the highest attainable standards of health and education. It seems unlikely that the best interests of these children will be served and their rights ensured if they are left in refugee camps or at the mercy of the Syrian state. </p>
<p>Difficult questions remain over what can and should be done with girls who joined Islamic State and their children. Other countries, such as Sierra Leone, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Sri Lanka and Colombia, haven’t had the luxury of washing their hands of the thousands of child soldiers, and the children born to them, whose actions during conflict were unlawful, socially destructive and morally reprehensible. Instead, they have worked within international frameworks to <a href="https://childrenandarmedconflict.un.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Reintergration-brochure-layout.pdf">find solutions</a> that have incorporated disarmament, demobilisation, rehabilitation, reintegration and education. </p>
<p>The UK may have dodged the Begum issue through the removal of her citizenship, but the real challenges around how to respond to child soldiers without dual nationality and how to ensure the rights of the children born to Islamic State “wives” have yet to be addressed.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112322/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alison Bisset does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>With more cases of women such as Shamima Begum expected, the UK is under legal obligations to protect the rights of any children involved.Alison Bisset, Associate Professor in International Human Rights Law, University of Reading, University of ReadingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1121632019-02-20T16:07:01Z2019-02-20T16:07:01ZShamima Begum: legality of revoking British citizenship of Islamic State teenager hangs on her heritage<p>Sajiv Javid’s decision to <a href="https://www.itv.com/news/2019-02-19/shamima-begum-has-uk-citizenship-revoked-by-british-government-itv-news-learns/">revoke the citizenship</a> of Shamima Begum, the 19-year-old from Bethnal Green who left to join Islamic State in 2015, has been met with mixed reaction. While some <a href="https://twitter.com/MathewsSonya/status/1097985438319607810">supported</a> the home secretary’s decision, others have <a href="https://twitter.com/RunnymedeTrust/status/1098152004239675392">expressed concern</a> about its implications.</p>
<p>In these debates, there is much confusion about what cancellation of citizenship entails: whether this is just the cancellation of Begum’s passport, whether she is becoming stateless or whether she could be sent to Bangladesh because she comes from a family of Bangladeshi heritage. </p>
<p>In reality, cancellation of British citizenship means people can be left in limbo in war zones because they lose the right to re-enter the UK and to receive any diplomatic protection. </p>
<p>Begum’s case, while high profile, is not unique, and in 2017, there was a large spike in cases and the citizenship of <a href="https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/727961/CCS207_CCS0418538240-1_Transparency_Report_2018_Web_Accessible.pdf">104 people</a> was revoked on grounds where it was deemed “conducive to the public good”.</p>
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<h2>Preventing statelessness</h2>
<p>Policies around cancelling British citizenship have evolved. Over the years governments have tailored national laws to fit the UK’s commitments two UN conventions in <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/wp-content/uploads/1954-Convention-relating-to-the-Status-of-Stateless-Persons_ENG.pdf">1954</a> and <a href="https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/wp-content/uploads/1961-Convention-on-the-reduction-of-Statelessness_ENG.pdf">1961</a> designed to prevent statelessness. </p>
<p>The British home secretary has, however, long held the power to cancel the British citizenship of dual or multiple nationality holders. In such situations there were no concerns of statelessness, as the person would have another surviving nationality once their British citizenship was taken away. So far, all cases of people being stripped of their citizenship have involved <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2016-06-21/citizenship-stripping-new-figures-reveal-theresa-may-has-deprived-33-individuals-of-british-citizenship">dual or multiple nationals</a>. </p>
<p>Since 2010, successive home secretaries have attempted to remove the citizenship of naturalised citizens – people who are not born in the UK but whose only nationality is British. Each time, the courts have <a href="http://ukscblog.com/case-comment-secretary-of-state-for-the-home-department-v-pham-formerly-known-as-b2-2015-uksc-19/">stepped in</a> to prevent such stripping of citizenship and concerns have been raised about making somebody stateless. In each of <a href="http://ukscblog.com/case-comment-al-jedda-v-sshd-2013-uksc-62/">these cases</a> the courts have examined foreign nationality laws at great length to determine if the person had another nationality or not. </p>
<h2>The power to cancel citizenship</h2>
<p>Because of these defeats in the courts, in 2014 an amendment changed Section 40 of the <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1981/61/section/40">1981 British Nationality Act</a> to introduce a new power for the home secretary to cancel the citizenship of single nationality holders even at the risk of creating a stateless person. This was specifically tailored to fit the UK’s obligations under international law, and can only take place for conduct that is deemed seriously prejudicial to national interests. </p>
<p>The then home secretary, Theresa May, was grappling with two cases involving naturalised citizens born in Vietnam and Iraq who became British through legal process, so the amendment was limited to cases of naturalised citizens who held only British citizenship. </p>
<p>After strident opposition to the amendment from the House of Lords, <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=11&ved=2ahUKEwjZ_fHAxMrgAhWLSRUIHQBMARAQFjAKegQIBxAC&url=http%3A%2F%2Fresearchbriefings.files.parliament.uk%2Fdocuments%2FSN06820%2FSN06820.pdf&usg=AOvVaw2fjeZhN8sfat_AWOhx9b4n">a safeguard against statelessness</a> was added to it. This required that even if the person being stripped of their nationality didn’t have another nationality, the home secretary must reasonably believe that they could acquire one. </p>
<p>As Begum was born in the UK, she was presumably not naturalised as British, so the 2014 amendment would not seem to apply to her. In her case, the home secretary has to establish that she has another actual nationality in place. </p>
<p>Whether or not her heritage confers Bangladeshi nationality on her depends on Bangladeshi nationality law. On February 20, Bangladesh <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2019/feb/20/rights-of-shamima-begums-son-not-affected-says-javid">issued a statement</a> saying Begum did not have Bangladeshi nationality and would not be allowed into Bangladesh. Ironically, this means that whether a cancellation measure survives a court challenge by affected people largely depends on the text and interpretation of Bangladeshi nationality provisions and case law. But the fact that Bangladesh says she has no claim to Bangladeshi citizenship now means that she is at real risk of statelessness.</p>
<p>Should her family challenge the decision to strip her of her citizenship, her appeal will come up before a special secret court, the <a href="https://www.gov.uk/guidance/appeal-to-the-special-immigration-appeals-commission">Special Immigration Appeals Commission</a>, where the focus will be on whether or not Bangladeshi nationality exists for a British-born person of Bangladeshi heritage. </p>
<h2>Your heritage or your citizenship</h2>
<p>Somebody who has lost their citizenship has no right to re-enter the UK, or to seek diplomatic protection from the British government. In the past those who were stripped of citizenship have subsequently <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2013-02-27/former-british-citizens-killed-by-drone-strikes-after-passports-revoked">lost their lives</a> in drone attacks in war zones. Some have been sent to foreign countries <a href="https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2014-03-17/my-british-citizenship-was-everything-to-me-now-i-am-nobody-a-former-british-citizen-speaks-out">for trial</a>. </p>
<p>The extent and seriousness of this power to strip somebody of their citizenship means it is kept under review from time to time. The mechanism should not be used if there are other means available, such as criminal trials or the cancellation of travel documents (such as passports) to prevent travel.</p>
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Read more:
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<p>Yet, the home secretary’s power to strip somebody of their citizenship creates different kinds of effects for different citizens. While those British by birth and descent are unaffected, naturalised citizens are at greater risk of statelessness. This undermines the concept of equal citizenship in a diverse and democratic society.</p>
<p>The fallout of this situation should be greater awareness in British communities of naturalised citizens that their heritage may continue to matter in the UK – even if they don’t have another passport or citizenship certificate from another country. In this way, citizenship rights appear to have become conditional on the heritage of British citizens.</p>
<p><em>This article was updated on February 21 to reflect Bangladesh’s statement on Shamima Begum’s nationality.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112163/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Devyani Prabhat received research funding from the Economic and Social Research Council Grant No. ES/L010356/1 for research on British Citizenship </span></em></p>What the law says about stripping people of their British citizenship.Devyani Prabhat, Reader in Law, University of BristolLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1120482019-02-20T13:45:48Z2019-02-20T13:45:48ZShamima Begum: how Europe toughened its stance on women returning from Islamic State<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/259915/original/file-20190220-148530-jh0lt0.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Shamima Begum being interviewed by the BBC at a refugee camp in Syria. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppyDfm-yyl8">BBC News via YouTube</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Around a year before Shamima Begum <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/is-bride-shamima-begum-gives-birth-in-syria-11640060">called for public sympathy</a> for her return to the UK, another young woman was <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/linda-wenzel-german-teenager-who-joined-isis-is-too-young-to-be-executed-in-iraq-snwlw9wns">jailed in Baghdad</a> for her role with the so-called Islamic State. Linda Wenzel is German and, like Begum, was 15 years old when she joined Islamic State in 2016.</p>
<p>In 2016 I was in Germany, trying to understand young women like Wenzel, for a <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03071847.2017.1353251">five-country study</a> on the gender dynamics of violent extremism with my colleague Emily Winterbotham, a senior research fellow at the RUSI think tank. We talked to communities and families affected by radicalisation in the UK, Germany, France, the Netherlands and Canada. </p>
<p>These countries had diverse approaches to radicalisation. France produced counter-radicalisation strategies after the Paris attacks of 2015, while the UK and Netherlands have worked on policy to counter violent extremism since the mid-2000s. Both the Netherlands and UK permit deprivation of citizenship without criminal conviction – which is what has <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47299907">now happened to Begum</a>. </p>
<p>We heard stories of people prevented from travel by police, as well as of both women and men who left for Syria and Iraq. Across the five countries we noted differences in how men and women were recruited, such as more cases of online approaches to women. We also saw how Muslim community anger was often reserved for the young men who fled to join Islamic State. Focus groups within Muslim communities often told us women were “naïve”, lacking in self-esteem, “tricked” by “lover-boys” they met online. They were seen as victims.</p>
<p>Back in 2015-6 this sentiment was mirrored in government policy. France, Germany and the Netherlands tended to treat women jihadists as “victims” of Islamic State. Recent <a href="http://www.egmontinstitute.be/returnees-assessing-policies-on-returning-foreign-terrorist-fighters-in-belgium-germany-and-the-netherlands/">research</a> on returning foreign fighters in Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands noted that back then women were “treated with more clemency” and routinely not prosecuted.</p>
<p>That position has changed, with <a href="http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/STUD/2018/621811/EPRS_STU(2018)621811_EN.pdf">toughening measures for both men and women</a> across Europe. Countries including the UK, Netherlands, Germany and France now investigate and risk-assess both men and women returners. From a position where women and their agency in joining Islamic State were not recognised, the pendulum swung firmly in the other direction. </p>
<h2>Hardening attitudes</h2>
<p>The first reason why this shift happened was numbers. Countries have had to evolve to catch up with events on the ground. From the Islamic State’s announcement of a “caliphate” in 2014, Europe saw a significant minority of women travel – and women made up around 16-17% of the <a href="https://icsr.info/2018/07/23/from-daesh-to-diaspora-tracing-the-women-and-minors-of-islamic-state/">approximately 6,000 people</a> who left Europe to join the caliphate. </p>
<p>In the case of France, which was new to counter-radicalisation strategies at home and where women made up around 28% of its returners, the shift in policy meant sharp changes to the law and procedures. Canada, which had fewer fighters, adopted a liberal response <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-canada-must-prosecute-returning-isis-fighters-105198">with few prosecutions</a> of returners – both fighters and others. This prompted accusations from Canada’s opposition Conservative Party of a policy of “<a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/plan-to-deal-with-returning-isis-fighters-sparks-fiery-exchange-between-scheer-pm-1.3698183">group hug sessions</a>”.</p>
<p>A second reason for the hardening of attitudes to women who joined IS was increased knowledge of women’s role in Islamic State. Women were <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1057610X.2015.1025611">active propagandists</a>, recruiters, ideologues, supporters of current warriors and producers of the next generation. They were involved in the abuse of other women, whether enslaved Yazidis, or in the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-uncovered/how-all-female-isis-morality-police-khansaa-brigade-terrorized-mosul-n685926">al-Khansaa brigade</a>, which policed women. Both Begum and Wenzel suggested they were only housewives. But for Islamic State, the wife is the <a href="https://ctc.usma.edu/app/uploads/2018/05/Boko-Haram-Beyond-the-Headlines_Chapter-2.pdf">key to the endurance</a> – or <em>baqiya</em> – of both ideology and “caliphate”.</p>
<p>The perception of women’s threat was also explicitly influenced by cases involving women and a seemingly new phenomenon: the all-female jihadist cell. In 2016, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/sep/09/cell-of-french-women-radicalised-by-isis-behind-failed-notre-dame-attack">three women were arrested</a> in France after a failed attack near Notre Dame. This proved a game-changer for both public opinion and policy regarding returners, despite the fact that these women were radicalised in France. In the UK, another <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44359958">all-female plot</a> was uncovered in 2017. </p>
<p>An increase in threat levels linked to male returners also had an influence on how women were viewed. In 2015, male returners were involved in the <a href="https://ctc.usma.edu/the-paris-attacks-and-the-evolving-islamic-state-threat-to-france/">Paris attacks</a> and the following year in attacks in Brussels. While women have not yet returned in large numbers, the fear is that women, newly recognised as ideologically committed, might also carry out an attack. </p>
<h2>The gender dimension</h2>
<p>Both policy and public opinion are shifting from ignoring women in jihadist movements, to “adding” them in to counter-extremism strategies, and increasingly treating the threat they pose as equal to men. There is now an increased assumption in France, the Netherlands and Germany of parity in male and female potential for violence. However, it’s not enough to just to “add women” into existing strategies – governments must recognise the ways in which terrorist groups understand men and women differently.</p>
<p>This means acknowledging two important facts related to power. First, compared to men, instances of women perpetrators of jihadist violence are rare, not because women are “naturally” less violent, or do not support jihad, but because patriarchal jihadi ideology judges female violence <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00396338.2017.1282675">highly transgressive</a>. The second relates to the power imbalances in women’s radicalisation. Islamic State ran a systemised online recruitment campaign targeting women, with parallels to child sexual exploitation and grooming. Often older men sought out teenage girls. Women desperate to return <a href="https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/949872/isis-news-german-jihadi-brides-syria-terrorism-returning">emphasise their own victimhood</a>. Some women radicalised to join Islamic State report experiences of <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/networks/radicalisation_awareness_network/ran-papers/docs/issue_paper_gender_dec2015_en.pdf">sexual abuse, domestic or honour-based violence</a>.</p>
<p>This doesn’t deny women agency or excuse them from complicity in Islamic State atrocities, but recognises the context within which their choices were made. It is more important now, in the current chaos of the end of the caliphate when many women may return to their countries of origin, including within Europe and North America, to recognise the complexity of what it meant to be involved in Islamic State.</p>
<p><em>Correction: This article originally stated that Linda Wenzel had been jailed in Baghdad a few days after Shamima Begum. It has been corrected to read that she was jailed in 2018, a year before.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/112048/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Elizabeth Pearson has previously received funding for her research from the Economic and Social Research Council and Kanishka, Canada. </span></em></p>Women used to be largely ignored by counter-radicalisation strategies. Why that changed.Elizabeth Pearson, Lecturer at the Cyber Threats Research Centre, Swansea UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1118752019-02-15T13:28:08Z2019-02-15T13:28:08ZShamima Begum: why the IS teenager should be allowed to return to the UK<p>One of the so-called “<a href="https://theconversation.com/bethnal-green-girls-need-to-know-there-is-a-way-out-of-islamic-state-cult-38004">Bethnal Green Girls”</a>, Shamima Begum, is <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/shamima-begum-bring-me-home-says-bethnal-green-girl-who-fled-to-join-isis-hgvqw765d">looking to return home to the UK</a>. After nearly four years living with the so-called Islamic State (IS), the 19-year-old who is nine-months pregnant, was interviewed by The Times newspaper in a refugee camp in Syria. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47248555">Coverage has focused</a> on whether or not she should be “allowed” home, but there is little legal basis to deny her – and her unborn child – that right. The security minister, Ben Wallace, told the BBC she <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-47237051">could face possible prosecution</a> if she returned to the UK. Now the debate needs to move forward, and consider how best to treat her if she does return. </p>
<p>Part of the argument against letting Begum return to the UK, or for locking her up indefinitely if she did, is the idea that once someone becomes a terrorist, they are always a terrorist. This reaction stems from a fear of her carrying out a violent or criminal act in the future. Fear is what <a href="https://theconversation.com/islamic-state-hates-what-ariana-grande-stands-for-thats-why-we-should-celebrate-her-78551">terrorist groups like IS want</a>, because it undermines core British values and the way of life in the UK. </p>
<p>But let’s look at the risks. A study by researchers Thomas Hegghammer and Petter Nesser estimated that the rate of attacks by IS fighters returning to the West between 2011 and 2015 appeared to be just <a href="http://www.terrorismanalysts.com/pt/index.php/pot/article/view/440/html">one in 360</a>. An earlier study looking at jihadis returning to the West between 1980 and 2010 revealed that <a href="http://hegghammer.com/_files/Hegghammer_-_Should_I_stay_or_should_I_go.pdf">11% became</a> involved in domestic terror plots – and this was a maximum likelihood estimate due to the availability of the data. Such threats also reduce after <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09546553.2018.1497987">one year of returning home</a>. Another study found <a href="http://roar.uel.ac.uk/4820/1/Risk%20assessment.pdf">that rates of reoffending were lower</a> than for those convicted of other types of crimes. </p>
<p>Rather than succumbing to the politics of fear, we must focus on the rule of law. While prosecuting transnational terrorism is difficult for practical and jurisdictional reasons – it is nevertheless possible.</p>
<p>In 2016, the Home Office <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/05/21/only-one-in-eight-jihadists-returning-to-uk-is-caught-and-convic/">estimated</a> that one in eight “foreign fighters” returning home were prosecuted. Other women, such as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2016/feb/01/british-woman-tareena-shakil-convicted-being-isis-member-jailed-xx-years">Tareena Shakil</a>, have returned to the UK from IS and been convicted. Shakil is currently serving a six-year jail sentence.</p>
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<p>The UK must allow Begum a fair trial and allow the justice system to work. A fair trial would also uphold her human rights, and acknowledge that these mean that she should be supported in her journey towards reintegration and rehabilitation.</p>
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<h2>Rehabilitation and reintegration</h2>
<p>The challenge of reintegrating, demobilising and rehabilitating former terrorists is not new. The UK has a track record of doing so in <a href="https://academic.oup.com/ijtj/article/6/2/274/2357091">Northern Ireland</a>, and in Germany and Scandinavia, “<a href="https://www.exit-deutschland.de/english/">exit</a>” programmes have been set up to help people leave neo-Nazi groups. </p>
<p>The difficulty is that such programmes often work on the presumption that people want to abandon violent extremism and voluntarily leave terrorist groups. The pathways to leaving an extremist group are as diverse as the radicalisation process – sometimes the motives can be practical and pragmatic, such as battle fatigue or disillusionment with the group, while other times they are ideological, with people no longer believing in the cause. </p>
<p>From the interview she gave to The Times, it appears Begum hasn’t abandoned the cause and only left because of the scale of fighting and her side was losing. She criticised IS, saying it could no longer claim to be a “caliphate”, as it could not support her and her unborn child, but she maintained that she has “no regrets”. From these words she appears unrepentant and so the reintegration and rehabilitation process will be harder – but not impossible. </p>
<p>There are examples from former rebels in <a href="https://www.inclusivesecurity.org/publication/engaging-women-in-disarmament-demobilizaton-and-reintegration-ddr-insights-for-colombia/">Colombia</a> and members of the <a href="https://peacekeeping.un.org/en/disarmament-demobilization-and-reintegration">Al-Shabab</a> terrorist group in East Africa of successful rehabilitation and reintegration efforts despite participants still believing in “the cause” and still being in a conflict zone. </p>
<p>Yet disarmament, demobilisation and reintegration programmes face <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/jan/14/woman-boko-haram-nigeria-militant-group">challenges too</a>. These include issues around recognising women’s roles in terrorism, which can leave them without the appropriate support, and issues in not addressing the reasons somebody joined a terrorist group. Participants in such programmes can also face stigma and a backlash from their home communities. </p>
<p>Lessons must be learnt and future programmes adapted accordingly, for example to recognise the importance of addressing all three core components of radicalisation: <a href="https://blog.bham.ac.uk/cpur/2018/03/22/women-and-radicalisation/">beliefs, behaviours, and modes of belonging</a>. Practically, this means providing skills for a better future, counselling to address trauma and beliefs and carefully monitoring who a person interacts with.</p>
<h2>Restorative justice</h2>
<p>The UK has to uphold and promote the rights of victims of terrorist attacks as well, which includes treating them fairly and supporting their needs. This means that Begum and other returnees from IS territory must be held accountable for their actions. Given the challenges of a successful prosecution, any rehabilitation and reintegration programme must also consider a restorative justice component. </p>
<p>Restorative justice, such as that seen in <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/two-decades-after-genocide-rwandas-women-have-made-the-nation-thrive">Rwanda</a> after the genocide, includes working to redress some of the harms caused by terrorism through community or advocacy work. For example, some “<a href="https://ec.europa.eu/home-affairs/sites/homeaffairs/files/what-we-do/networks/radicalisation_awareness_network/ran-best-practices/docs/exit_strategies_en.pdf">formers</a>” of extremist groups work with young people, those at risk of radicalisation, and those who are already radicalised. Some “formers”, such as <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/World/Europe/2016/0306/From-IRA-to-Islamists-former-radicals-unite-to-become-a-force-for-peace">Yasmin Mulbocus and Abdullah X</a>, are forces for peace who actively counter the ideologies and activities of extremists. </p>
<p>A fair trial, rehabilitation, and restorative justice, as a combined response to Begum’s return could minimise her risk of joining a different extremist group and of carrying out a future attack. This three-pronged approach is also a powerful antidote to terrorist messages and their violence because it’s rooted in core British values: human rights and the rule of law.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/111875/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Katherine E. Brown does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A schoolgirl who left Bethnal Green to join Islamic State in Syria is now in a refugee camp and wants to return to the UK.Katherine E. Brown, Senior Lecturer in Islamic Studies, University of BirminghamLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.