16 July 2020; MEMO: Shamima Begum, a UK woman who joined Daesh in 2015 as a teenager, has today won her appeal to be allowed to return to the UK.
Dubbed a “Daesh bride” for having left the UK to marry a member of Daesh, British-born Shamima was 15 years old at the time of her departure. She was stripped of her British citizenship on national security grounds four years later.
She claimed the decision to strip her of citizenship was unlawful and took legal action against the Home Office, arguing she had been left stateless.
Now 20, Shamima today won a court ruling allowing her to return to the UK to contest the government’s decision to revoke her nationality.
During her time in a Syrian refugee camp, while unable to return to the UK, Shamima’s newborn son died, he was the third of her children to die since she arrived in the war-torn country in 2015.
