Shamima Begum said her life ‘fell apart’ when she was stripped of UK citizenship.
The former UK schoolgirl, 20, was one of three east London schoolgirls who travelled to Syria to join so-called Islamic State in February 2015.
She was found, nine months pregnant, in a Syrian refugee camp in February last year, prompting then home secretary Sajid Javid to strip her of her British citizenship.
Pictured at the weekend without her usual black burka, which has been banned from the al-Roj camp in Northern Syria where she is living, Shamima said she was sharing a tent with US-Canadian Kimberly Polman.
Their tent, which is currently decorated for Valentine’s Day, has heating, a TV and cooking appliances.
Speaking to ABC News, she said that her ‘whole world fell apart’ when she was stripped of her citizenship last year.
She said: “When my citizenship got rejected, I felt like my whole world fell apart right in front of me.
“You know, especially the way I was told. I wasn’t even told by a government official. I was told by journalists.
“I thought I would be a bit different because I had not done anything wrong before I came to Isis.”
Lawyers for ISIS bride Shamima Begum said at the time that they would immediately launch an appeal against a decision that ruled revoking her British citizenship did not render her stateless.
Ms Begum took legal action against the Home Office at both the High Court and the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (SIAC), a specialist tribunal which hears challenges to decisions to remove someone’s British citizenship on national security grounds.
Her lawyers argued that the decision was unlawful as it rendered her stateless, and said the move breached the Home Office’s “extraterritorial human rights policy by exposing Ms Begum to a real risk of death or inhuman or degrading treatment”.
But, in a ruling earlier this month, the tribunal – led by SIAC president Mrs Justice Elisabeth Laing – found that, at the time Ms Begum’s British citizenship was revoked, she was “a citizen of Bangladesh by descent” and was therefore not rendered stateless.
The tribunal found that the decision did not breach the Home Office’s policy on the extraterritorial application of human rights.
It stated: “The appellant was in that situation as a result of her own choices, and of the actions of others, but not because of anything the Secretary of State had done.”
The tribunal also found that Ms Begum “cannot play any meaningful part in her appeal and that, to that extent, the appeal will not be fair and effective”, but ruled that “it does not follow that her appeal succeeds”.
Categories: Arab World, Asia, Europe, Europe and Australia, Islam, Syria, UK
Just to point out that of course The Muslim Times has absolutely no sympathy for ISIS and considers this criminal organization has absolutely nothing to do with ‘Islamic’. On the other hand personally I feel Shamima Begum has suffered enough, 3 children died. I suppose she must have realizedby now that she made an enourmous mistake. From the humanitarian point of view therefore I feel all nations should take back their citizens and not play games as they are doing with Shamima Begum.
You do not consider that ISIS has caused suffering of millions people in the world—now you support the isis families to come back into the peaceful society??
Are you in your mind Rafiq?
All nations should reject all terrorist families to cone back to their countries— put them all in Jail.
Again you are assuming stuff. Of course I am completely against all that Daesh did and stands for. I thought that was clear enough. I did not even say that they should not be put in jail, but the burden should be on the ‘birth country’ not the Kurds in Syria who happened to ‘inherit’ them
Actually, they already burned theur own paspors—
Right. Stupid girls. Should they pay for their mistakes for the whole life? Anyway, leaving them with a temporary Kurdish not even authority is no final solution to the problem.
Rafiq! They are the true killer even they kill our children with bomb, dont forget that!😂
of course you are right on this one. Crazy world…
Also, the fact that she was a minor and therefore not making an ‘adult’ decision when joining Daesh.
And would the British govt. do the same to a white also born in the UK, but who joined Daesh?
To day they are kids but tomorrow they are adult Extremist Muslim!! They maybe retaliate the death of their fathers who got killed in Syria or Iraq.
One extremist Muslim can kill as many as innocent people—Right— how dangerous they are!
I thought you believed in the rule of law where a ‘suspect’ is considered innocent till proven guilty. In this case, this girl was a minor and all her children have died (therefore not paranoid thinking like yours that they will retaliate), therefore, why make her stateless and/or try and make her go to a country where her family originated from and where she’d be a total stranger.
It would be like for example if you (I believe you’re an immigrant to the USA), were extradited to the country of your origin for an imagined crime, though you are a citizen of the USA!!!! Ever think in terms of yourself as an immigrant which most people, especially in the USA, are?!
Somi, the more you write in this forum about anything, mostly negative, you let us know how IGNORANT you are about so many things.
Especially about Islam, the Holy Prophet (pbuh), and many other things. Your only aim is to pick on one of your favourite topics and keep on and on harping on it despite having others give you very satisfactory answers. In the process, people like me usually IGNORE your useless comments, but sometimes you go a bit too far in your IGNORANCE and though given a response, you still revert back to your litany of nasty and ignorant comments!
thanks for your help. Yes, Somi is tiring …