ISIS brides find haven in British Terrorism Act loopholes

Menna Abdel Razek

The ISIS women have played a key role for the terrorist organization. ISIS, aka Daesh, is relying on women, especially Europeans, to make up for its losses. Shamima Begum, who had traveled to Syria, was one of those women. There are loopholes in the British Terrorism Act that could provide “jihadi brides” with impunity.

London-based International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism said in a research, released in 2018, that 41,490 people had traveled to Syria and Iraq and 12% of that number were women.

The Carter Center said in a study on Daesh women in February 2017 that women had played a role in luring Western women. Shamima Begum is an example of these women. Begum, a 15-year-old British girl, who returned to Britain in 2019 with a child, had spent some time in a camp in Syria.

Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation Jonathan Hall said in his annual report, published by the British parliament in March, that the British Terrorism Act of 2000 and 2006 has loopholes that could provide jihadi brides with impunity.

For this category of travellers there may sometimes be major extenuating circumstances: for example, girls who are groomed in the United Kingdom and are ultimately persuaded to go out to join Daesh.

But the importance of “emotional help” and “mental comfort” to groups, who “derive encouragement from the fact that they have the support of others, even if it may not in every instance be active or tangible support”, is real.

Under current law, it is an offence to invite such support, but not an offence actually to provide it.  The culpability of those who travel to Syria or Iraq and provide only moral (that is, intangible) support to proscribed organizations such as Daesh is not directly addressed in the criminal offence provisions under the Terrorism Acts 2000 and 2006.