by Sabrina Sweeney 

The case of the jihadi child-bride Shamima Begum and the death of her 20-day-old baby Jarrah has divided public opinion.
Many believe she deserves to be left stateless and that her baby’s death in a refugee camp in Syria is a tragic consequence of her bad decisions. Those people talk of her apparent lack of remorse for joining Islamic State, which she did in 2014 when she left her East London home as a 15-year-old and travelled to Syria. Others, including myself feel somewhat sympathetic towards her.
I am abhorred by the views she holds but I don’t believe her decision to leave her home and her family and travel to Syria is a story without complexities. I see a vulnerable child who was radicalised by extremists while on British soil, in an area of East London I used to call home. I see a young teenager who was married to an IS fighter within two weeks of arriving in Syria and has been brainwashed perhaps beyond repair after witnessing levels of violence and destruction that most of us wouldn’t even be able to contemplate. But most tragic of all, I see a young mother who, at just 19 years of age, has lost three children in the space of four years. To me, that’s an unimaginable level of trauma. And no, she doesn’t deserve it. No one deserves such pain.
I’m not condoning her actions or her behaviour. She should face the legal consequences of her actions. She should be tried in a British court for the crimes she has allegedly committed. That is, after all, why we have the rule of law. But wiping our hands of her and failing to act to protect her son before he died of pneumonia in a grim refugee camp, shows just how much, as a country, the UK has lost its moral compass.
I’ve heard a number of commentators conflating her situation with that of the hundreds of innocent people who’ve suffered at the hands of IS, particularly the vulnerable Yazidi women who were captured and are now being used as sex slaves. The difference, of course, is that they did not sign up to be a part of the caliphate, like Ms Begum. I am equally horrified by the plight of these women and their children. 
But why do incidents such as this one always come back to whataboutery? Nothing was ever solved by this derailing and deflection technique. It is hypocritical to suggest we should have cared less about Ms Begum’s three-week-old baby than those captured or indeed killed by IS. Innocent people are innocent people and we should care equally about each and every one. 
Just because there are innocent victims still at the behest of ISIS does not negate the fact that the rights of a baby have been ignored and that child has now died, a death that could’ve been prevented by the Home Secretary, Savid Javid, had he chosen compassion and humanity over appeasement and pandering to rising populism.
Indeed, Ms Begum’s case has highlighted a dilemma facing many countries in Europe, divided over whether to allow IS members or supporters to come home and face prosecution or block them. In the Republic, the Irish government may soon have to decide whether to intervene in the case of Lisa Smith, the Dundalk woman who travelled to Syria a number of years ago to join IS. 
She now has a two-year-old son and the pair are staying in the Al Hawl camp for the family members of Isis fighters.
It is sadly too late for Ms Begum’s son. But there are countless other children in similar circumstances and if nothing else, this story should serve as a timely reminder that children are not to blame for their parents’ actions. 
No country should be absolved from protecting its citizens; as individuals these children have rights and deserve to be safeguarded from further harm, regardless of the beliefs and crimes of their mothers or fathers.