British citizen Shamima Begum, who shows no signs of regret for joining ISIS, says the caliphate is over now and is calling for her return to the United Kingdom to raise the third of her children — two of whom reportedly died of malnutrition and sickness in Syria. Instead of taking responsibility and prosecuting these ISIS wives, the United Kingdom stripped her of citizenship on Tuesday.
As Begum notes from the detention camp in al-Hawl, the caliphate may be over, but we all know that the radical extremist groups could flourish in the future, if we do not take any precautions beyond military means. During and after wartime, we often focus on the victimization and the vulnerability of women. It is thus no surprise that these ISIS wives, once used as propaganda tools to draw supporters from the Western countries, now talk about the hard conditions of the camp life and the sound of bombings.
An American woman from Alabama once posted, “Soooo many Aussies and Brits here, but where are the Americans, wake up u cowards.” According to the CNN, she also urged terrorist attacks against civilians in the US, calling on supporters to rent a truck and run over civilians. These women were actively involved in the jihadi war, they might have played different roles; nevertheless, they were a backbone of the caliphate.
One investment in the future to prevent these radical thoughts from flourishing — at least in Western countries — is to educate the public on what really happened with ISIS. Unless these ISIS wives are tried in Western courts, we will not be able shed light on what happened, how these women became radicalized, and what triggered them to join ISIS. This is not about sympathizing with any of the evil things they have engaged with. It is essential to bring them back to their home countries, try them, and use their testimonies as educational material to understand what sparks people in the West to join ISIS.
Otherwise, people in the West would only have the memories of the terrorist attacks, but not the actual perpetrators of these horrific incidents, like the one took the lives of teenagers who went to listen Ariana Grande in Manchester, UK.
Another key issue is to hold ISIS wives accountable for what they did to the Yezidi people in Iraq. Those women should have first-hand accounts of what happened to Yezidi women, since they must have accompanied them in the households or in women’s circles— remember, the so-called ISIS caliphate had a clear-cut gendered structure. What roles did those women play in enslaving Yazidi women, and how did they treat them? This is the first time these ISIS wives are becoming visible.
US President Donald Trump has appealed to Western countries to take ISIS captives back to their countries of citizenship. The United Kingdom’s last move to revoke Begum’s citizenship suggests that the United Kingdom is reluctant to take up any responsibility in prosecuting these ISIS members.
I asked one of my contacts in Northern Syria whether these ISIS captives are kept in detention camps, and what the likelihood of ISIS captives escaping from these camps is. His response: “Most prisoners are in Al-Hawl camp near Hasaka. While it’s probably unlikely that they would escape, I do not want to say it’s impossible. Either way, the cost of feeding them and guarding them is expensive…and a lot of these prisoners have more than a lot of civilians in Rojava (Northern Syria) do…”
Ruken Isik is a doctoral candidate in Language, Literacy, and Culture PhD Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, focusing on Feminist Theory, Women’s Movements, Knowledge Production, and Feminist Oral History. Her research focuses on Kurdish women’s activism in Turkey, Syria, and the diaspora.
The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the position of Rudaw.
