ISIS Bride Bride Shamima Begum has been granted permission to return to the United Kingdom to contest the removal of her citizenship. She was one of the three east London school girls who had left the United Kingdom to travel to Islamic State controlled territory in the Middle East. She was 15 when she left to join ISIS in February 2015.
While the British Prime Minister and others in the government have strongly objected to her return to the United Kingdom, the Court of Appeal ruled that Shamima Begum has the right to return to the country and fight the government’s decision to strip her of her citizenship. She was stripped of her citizenship citing public good as reason.
“I have reached the firm conclusion that given that the only way in which she can have a fair and effective appeal is to be permitted to come into the United Kingdom to pursue her appeal,” judge Julian Flaux ruled. “Fairness and justice must, on the facts of this case, outweigh the national security concerns… I consider that Ms Begum’s claim for judicial review of the decision of SIAC (Special Immigration Appeals Commission)… succeeds.”
Sections of the British citizenry have been supporting her return on the grounds that Shamima Begum is a British citizen and hence, ought to be tried for her crimes in the UK. Commentator Kenan Malik said, “Begum, 20, was born in Britain and brought up in Britain. However monstrous her actions in Syria, she remains someone to whom Britain has legal and moral obligations. Begum should be answerable for her jihadist activities – in a British court.”
Shamima Begum has been trying for quite sometime to return to the United Kingdom. Her efforts started gaining momentum when she became the mother of a baby boy and wanted to leave the Middle East because she believed it was not safe for her baby. However, public opinion was completely against her and she could not return. Her baby eventually died.
Shamima Begum has said in the past that she does not see why British authorities would consider her a threat and claimed that then Home Secretary Said Javid had “no proof” she was a threat “other than that I was in ISIS”. However, she has also said that she does not regret joining ISIS. She has also justified the Manchester Arena terrorist attack and said other extremely disturbing things.
“Mostly it was a normal life in Raqqa, every now and then bombing and stuff,” she had said in the past. “But when I saw my first severed head in a bin it didn’t faze me at all. It was from a captured fighter seized on the battlefield, an enemy of Islam. I thought only of what he would have done to a Muslim woman if he had the chance.”
Now, due to the ruling by the Court of Appeal, Shamima Begum can legally return to the United Kingdom and contest the British government’s decision to revoke her citizenship. She was found in a camp in Syria by Times War journalist Anthony Loyd.