After the girls left their home in east London in February 2015 and turned up in Syria with Islamic State, authorities were flustered at every turn. The school, the police, security forces monitoring the girls’ communications with IS recruits – every institution charged with protecting him published stories to explain how three working-class girls aged just 15 and 16 had walked out of Britain and crossed multiple national borders into the most dangerous war zone on the planet. To the parents, the authorities’ explanations for why the girls had not stopped did not work. They believed their daughters had been helped to flee, under the noses of the authorities, who were trying to cover up what they claimed were omissions. In early March 2015, news broke that seemed to confirm their suspicions – only to be brushed aside until this week. Turkish officials claimed the man who had met the girls in Istanbul and smuggled them to Syria was a Canadian intelligence asset. Canadian media promoted the story based on Turkish intelligence, suggesting that Mohammed al-Rased was a double agent acting as an IS people smuggler, transporting British nationals into IS territory and passing their identities on to Canadians. If the Turkish authorities’ account is to be believed, an agent with ties to Canada had smuggled three British girls into a war zone. But the story died quickly. Western sources scoffed at the Turkish claims, the Bethnal Green girls disappeared into the clutches of IS and British columnists berated the police for wasting time on these willing “internal prostitutes” for IS, demanding that the authorities return their actions to safety of “our girls”. Khadiza Sultana, still believing she is a British woman who has made a terrible mistake, tried to return home but was killed in an airstrike on the Raqqa building in 2016 before she could escape. Amira Abase, brainwashed, stayed willingly and was reportedly killed in the fighting as the caliphate collapsed in late 2018 or early 2019. As groomed and trafficked teenagers, their deaths are forgotten, seen as a tragedy mostly by their families. The only figure that remains is the lone survivor, Shamima Begum, whose fate may be upended by the details that emerged last week. A new book on the Five Eyes intelligence alliance cites Western intelligence sources who claim to support the involvement of a Canadian intelligence source in the trafficking of girls. The author, Richard Kerbaj, notes that al-Rashed told his handler about the girls only after they had crossed the Syrian border, when it was no longer possible to stop them, but claims that Canada asked Britain to cover up its role in operation and that the British authorities continued. Canada announced an investigation into the allegations on Thursday, while the British government said it does not comment on security matters. While all this was allegedly covered up, Begum had little chance of returning to the UK to face legal proceedings. Ever since she had the misfortune of meeting a British journalist at al-Hawl detention camp in early 2019, Begum has become the exotic object of a dark media fascination. With two of her children dead and heavily pregnant with a third, a traumatized Begum endured multiple interviews with often aggressive British journalists. She was pregnant with them, after she gave birth, and after her baby boy died of pneumonia at three weeks old. He hit the headlines as a black-crowned monster: shiny, unrepentant. Days later, then Home Secretary Sajid Javid stripped her of her British citizenship. The news reached Begum via a British journalist, who handed her the minister’s letter announcing her new statelessness and filmed her stunned, humiliated reaction as she read. During this sensitive period, the Home Office’s decision was tempered by the construction of the media as a monster. A figure worthy of understanding, in a mask that inflamed hateful racial prejudices, based on the feeling that because she was not white and therefore alien, what right did she have to anything but contempt? Access to it was tightly controlled by Kurdish authorities, who appeared to be acting on orders from Western commanders in the global anti-IS coalition. When I traveled to al-Hawl and asked to meet her, a Kurdish official told me with some embarrassment that he had tried repeatedly, but the answer to me was no. For the Daily Mail, it was yes. Since being stripped of her citizenship by the Home Office, Begum has asked the courts to be allowed to return to the UK to appeal against the decision. These efforts have so far failed. The high court, while accepting that Begum could not make a fair and effective appeal from northeast Syria, said it did not mean she should return to her homeland. But because trafficking is a key point in Begum’s case, the new revelations could significantly change her prospects at her next trial in November. Two things stand out in what emerged this week. The first is that the government stripped Begum of her citizenship, removing her from any prospect of due process, without any public acknowledgment or investigation of the role Western intelligence played in her recruitment to IS. Britain and Canada need to come forward and explain fully. Both countries are leading the pursuit of feminist ideals on the world stage, but have taken the hardest line on repatriating their women and children from Syria of any country on Earth. The second is the dominant role of the press in shaping the fate of the Begum. From the beginning, British journalists covering her story served as judge and jury. They traveled in and out of detention camps, interviewing a prisoner who was never allowed to meet with lawyers. At times they gathered information relevant to her legal team and chose not to share it. Even this week, as the media for the first time calls the Begum case a scandal, defends her rights and demands answers from the government, they still seek to control the narrative. Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, please email it to [email protected]
