The 24-year-old has been fighting against the government’s decision since 2019.
This morning, the Court of Appeal ruled not to overturn the government’s initial decision to strip Shamima Begum of her British citizenship, following her involvement with the Islamic State group.
In her ruling, the chief justice said that while the decision in Begum’s case is “harsh”, it can be argued that Begum is “the author of her own misfortune”.
She added: “But it is not for this court to agree, or disagree with either point of view,”.
“Our only task is to assess whether the deprivation decision was unlawful. We have concluded it was not, and the appeal is dismissed.”
The former East London schoolgirl became known the world over in 2015, when she fled her home in Bethnal Green for Syria to join ISIS.
In 2019, Begum was discovered in a camp in the north-east of the country, and subsequently stripped of her UK citizenship by then-Home Secretary Said David.
During her time in the Middle East, she conceived three children, all of whom died.
For five years, Begum has relentlessly fought back against the decision that was made against her, and her lawyers have consistently argued that she was a victim of child trafficking.
It’s been a long and drawn out process to get to this conclusion.
In February 2020, a semi-secret court that reviews citizenship cases, ruled that Begum could lose her British passport because she could ask Bangladesh to make her a citizen.
A year later, the Supreme Court added to her woes, saying that the government was under no obligation to bring her back to the UK just because she could not take part in her own case.
That main case began in November 2022 – and her lawyers challenged the evidence that she was a threat to the nation. The government won again.
Now, following today’s Court of Appeal ruling, Begum will remain in Syria with no chance of returning to the UK.
