ISIS Bride Shamima Begum to Lose UK Citizenship

Shamima Begum, the teenager who fled four years ago from the UK to become an ISIS bride in Syria recently attracted widespread public attention for her effort to return home with her new baby. But Britain has made it clear that it is revoking her citizenship.

The UK government’s decision has come at a time when the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, is losing its ground in Syria and countries across Europe and the members who are considering surrender and wish to return their home country are countering similar fates.

The British Home Office has recently informed Shamima Begum’s family in the UK about their decision in a letter and asked them to inform their daughter about the potential for her to appeal.

19-year-old Shamima Begum in a TV Interview reacted to the decision of UK government saying, “It’s kind of heartbreaking to read. My family made it sound like it would be a lot easier for me to come back to the U.K. when I was speaking to them in Baghouz. It’s kind of hard to swallow”, a teary Begum said.

Begum is presently staying in a refugee camp in Syria, where she gave birth to a baby boy last weekend.

Her baby also has potential claims of British citizenship. British Home Secretary Sajid Javed has told the Parliament, “Children should not suffer, so if a parent loses their British citizenship it does not affect the rights of their child”.

According to British law, the home secretary of the country can revoke citizenship if it is conducive to the public good and if it does not make a person stateless. In the year 2017, more than 100 dual nationals in the UK were stripped of their British citizenship.

Immigration experts have suggested that as Begum’s parents are from Bangladesh, they can claim their citizenship there.

But Bangladesh has clarified its stand on Shamima saying, “she is not a Bangladeshi citizen”. Bangladesh’s Foreign Affairs Minister Shahriar Alam has said in a statement, “She is a British citizen by birth and never applied for dual nationality with Bangladesh. Thus, there is no question of her being allowed to enter into Bangladesh”.

Last week, a reporter of Times of London has tracked down Shamima Begum at a refugee camp in Syria. Shamima has then said that she didn’t regret going to Syria when she was only 15 years old, but that she now wants to return home and lead a quiet and simple life. She also argued that she was merely a housewife in Syria and that she has not committed any kind of crimes.

Now if she returns to Britain, she may face prosecution for joining a terrorist organization.