Tabish
Khair’s new book like Jihadi Jane is a tale of disaffected second
generation immigrants finding solace in radical Islam. It is a book that traces
the radicalization of young women who willingly go to fight for ISIS and
becoming jihadi brides. The two friends, Jamilla and Ameena are
daughters of Pakistani migrants who moved to Britain. They were as different as
they could be – Jamilla, the hijab wearing religious one, Ameena – the regular
British teenager fooling around.
Problems in school and a bad break up left Ameena down and alone. It was then
she took to visiting the local mosque with Jamilla where they met other women
and talked about religion. Coming from a broken family, Ameena found respite in
Jamilla’s home and family. The changes in Ameena’s outlook were slow and subtle
but could not escape Jamilla’s eyes. Ameena traded her jeans with loose
trousers and started wearing a hijab. Taking part in animated discussions with
Jamilla’s brother Mohammad and his friend Ali, she would often make a case for
doing something against the persecution of Muslims. While Mohammad and his
friend would enjoy a moral high ground talking about such things, Ameena’s
agitation was real.
It
was around this time, that many sympathizers of ISIS started using social media
to reach out to people. And the girls came in touch with someone called Hejjiye
– an entrancing woman working with the ISIS. They cannot pinpoint why they took
to liking her – was it her beautiful cat Batala, her stylish Gucci bags, her
amiable relationship with her co-wives or just her righteous take on the
fight?? She would talk to these girls about their duty – that is to be wives to
the jihadis and support the cause. While Ameena seemed convinced and was even
talking to a fighter Hassan about marriage, Jamilla felt pushed against the
wall by her family who wanted her to give up further studies and get married.
Left
with too few options, they both made their way to Syria to fight for the ‘cause’.
On reaching there they started working in Hejjiye’s Orphanage and school for
young girls. Ameena was soon married off. While the war torn cities of Syria
already took away some sheen from the cause, the conditions in the orphanage
further disillusioned Jamilla. Convincing young girls to become suicide bombers
was one such. When a young teacher Halide mentioned that Quran forbids killing
oneself, she was severely punished. All these paved the way for skepticism.
Ameena’s
own life saw many ups and downs. Hassan’s cruelty knew no bounds and made
Ameena doubtful about her own convictions. For her the breaking point was when
a young servant boy Sabah was beheaded for being Yazidi and Ameena was lashed
for trying to save him. Ten year old Sabah was almost a son to Ameena.
Ameena
comes back to the orphanage and she is left to repent. It is here that she
decides her future course of action. When Kurdish soldiers attack the orphanage,
Ameena decides to become a fidayeen and cause casualty to the Kurdish.
Convinced of his wife’s repentance, Hassan agrees. But at the last moment Ameena
blows herself up killing Hassan and his men – her revenge for Sabah and so many
other things.
This
entire book written in a captivating way is a telling tale of the high costs of
religious fanaticism. However there are few interesting things that Khair’s
book points out. For Jamilla, the escape was an escape from a marriage that she
was not ready for. For Mohammad, who was an orthodox Muslim, jihad was limited
to following a restricting limiting version of Islam. For Ameena, who felt let
down by her own family, her romantic interest Alex, the respite was a new
purpose of life in the form of jihad.
The
book traces radicalization that starts in small subtle ways. And radicalization
that draws relatively privileged women to take extreme steps. This becomes
important at the instances of the entire world witnessing instances like the
Dhaka killings – where educated youths became fidayeens. The book beautifully maneuvers
its way through various paradoxes – the Islamophobia in the west that Jamilla
faces along with the acceptance of her teachers and classmates that she enjoys,
the doubt that creeps into Jamilla’s heart along with her piety about the ‘jihad’,
the disillusionment about Islam in a world under ISIS that both the girls
understand with much loss and much pain.
The
book gives one a peek into the raging debates of the time – what makes young
men and women from the West mainly take up such causes? Is it alienation or
Islamophobia alone? Or is it a dangerous cocktail of religious leaders sowing ideas
in the fertile minds of those looking for an answer to the problems that the
Muslim community is facing?
0 Comments