Shamima Begum has been banned from the UK forever after losing her Court of Appeal challenge over the removal of her British citizenship.
Dubbed the ‘ISIS Bride’, Shamima was only 15 years old when she ran off from her home in the UK. She went to Syria to join the terror group with two school friends in 2015 during the February half-term holidays. In Syria, Shamima married a notoriously hardline Islamic State member.
Today, Feb. 23, 2024, a court threw out Shamima Begum’s bid to overturn the decision to strip her of UK citizenship. On Friday, three judges, including the chief justice, Sue Carr, unanimously dismissed the appeal.
Dismissing her appeal against the removal of the British passport Lady Chief Justice Baroness Carr said: “It could be argued the decision in Ms Begum’s case was harsh. It could also be argued that Ms Begum is the author of her misfortune. But it is not for this court to agree or disagree with either point of view.”
After the judgement Begum’s solicitor Daniel Furner said he had promised her and the Government “We are not going to stop fighting until she does get justice and until she is safely back home”.
Begum was one of three bright straight-A students from Bethnal Green Academy – along with Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase, 15 – who fled east London and travelled through Turkey to join one of the most savage terrorist gangs in history.
The roles the three played in the caliphate remain uncertain with Begum claiming she was simply a housewife and has lost three children during her time there.
Intelligence sources have said she was involved with stitching explosives into suicide vests. She denied having witnessed executions but admitted having seen severed heads discarded in a bin.
Sir James Eadie KC, for the Home Office, said the “key feature” of Ms Begum’s case was national security.
“The fact that someone is radicalised, and may have been manipulated, is not inconsistent with the assessment that they pose a national security risk.”
Begum married IS member Dutch national Yago Riedijk, 27, when she was 15 and had three children with him who all later died. She was stripped of her British citizenship in 2019 and lost her appeal to get it back in 2023. She reportedly now sells food parcels she has been given in a detention camp by aid agencies to make enough money.
