In 2015, 15-year-old Shamima Begum left her home in London and traveled to Syria to join ISIS. In 2020, 15-year-old Rhianan Rudd became the youngest girl in the United Kingdom charged with terrorism. Shamima and Rhianan experienced vastly different outcomes, but both situations raise questions about counterterrorism institutions and justice.
Shamima Begum
- Shamima Begum went to Syria with two school friends in February 2015 after being encouraged by a mutual friend, Sharmeena Begum (no relation to Shamima), who had gone in December 2014. After Sharmeena left, the school notified students’ families that she was missing but did not say she was believed to have traveled to Syria and joined ISIS. Sharmeena’s father claims he warned authorities to watch her friends after she left, but police deny this.
Authorities tried to contact Sharmeena’s friends individually, but when that was unsuccessful, they had the school arrange meetings. School staff were present at the meetings but neither they nor the police contacted the girls’ families. Later, police gave the girls letters asking their parents to give permission for them to provide formal statements about Sharmeena’s disappearance. The girls never gave their parents the letters.
Within days of arriving in Syria, Shamima was married to a 23-year-old. The pair had two children who both died before 2019. When she was found in Al Hol camp in 2019 after the fall of ISIS, Shamima was pregnant again and said she wanted to return to the UK to have the baby. Her request was denied and she gave birth to her third child in Al Hol at 19-years-old; the baby died within a month.
Shamima’s British citizenship was revoked on the grounds she poses a threat to British security and that she is eligible for Bangladeshi citizenship. However, Shamima has never had Bangladeshi citizenship, and Bangladesh has made it clear she will not get it. After multiple appeals, the UK has upheld the decision to deny her citizenship.
Rhianan Rudd
In 2020 15-year-old Rhianan started exhibiting concerning behavior. Rhianan created a shrine to Hitler in her bedroom, she downloaded information on guerilla warfare, white supremacy, and Nazism, and she talked about wanting to kill someone or bomb a synagogue. When Rhianan told her mother she had downloaded a bomb making manual, her mother reported her to the Prevent program.
Prevent allows people to report individuals they believe are at risk of radicalization. Of about 7,000 reports per year, only 500 are deemed a real terrorism threat, others are referred to mental health and educational resources. Counter Terrorism Policing East Midlands (CTPEM) said that Rhianan’s case did not meet the criteria for a criminal investigation at the time of reporting. In September 2020, a CTPEM report noted the need to ascertain her online presence. They discovered that Rhianan was communicating with Christopher Cook, a neo-Nazi in the United States.
In October, police took a USB memory stick containing bomb making instructions and a diary from Rhianan’s home, but she was not arrested because of concerns about her mental health. On October 20, 2020, Rhianan carved a swastika into her forehead, and the next day police arrested her due to “new information and a risk to others.” MI5 took over Rhianan’s investigation and Prevent closed her case, claiming she was beyond the scope of their deradicalization program. Around this time, MI5 received evidence from the FBI that Cook had been grooming and sexually exploiting Rhianan.
Following her arrest, Rhianan’s case should have been referred to the Home Office unit dealing with slavery, exploitation, and trafficking, but she was not referred until her defense demanded it in April 2021, after she was charged with six counts of terrorism. In December 2021, following the Home Office investigation, it was determined that Rhianan had been exploited by Cook and all charges were dropped. Afterward, Rhianan remained in a children’s home, and in May 2022, she took her own life at 16-years-old.
“If she had been recognized and supported as an exploited child rather than being identified as a terrorist, would she still be alive today?” – Sara Spinks, 2023
Justice and Accountability
Shamima and Rhianan’s cases are unique in their notoriety and the number of apparent missteps that occurred, but both cases highlight a breakdown of communication between policing agencies, parents, and schools. They also raise the question of where the line between victim and perpetrator sits. Rhianan was eventually determined to be a victim, and she did not face legal consequences for her actions. Shamima has not been charged for specific crimes she may have committed in Syria, but she has been made stateless despite “credible suspicion” she was a victim of trafficking.
It is difficult to decide what justice looks like in radicalization cases involving children. Rhianan was arrested before she could cause physical harm to others, potentially contributing to the decision to drop the charges against her when she was determined to be a victim. When Shamima first left in 2015, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police said she would not be charged with terrorism if she returned to the UK, but when she did not return, she stopped being seen as a victim. Shamima claims she was a housewife in ISIS, but she has been accused of being part of the hisba, harsh enforcers of ISIS ideology, and sewing suicide bomber vests. These accusations are difficult to verify, but it raises the question of how Shamima can be held accountable for the crimes she may have committed, while also being recognized as a victim of trafficking and child marriage. There is no simple policy solution to address radicalized youth, but early intervention and antitrafficking policies could reduce the number of children who become both victims and perpetrators.
“Such children may be both victims of exploitation and also a threat to others.” – Sara Spinks, 2023