Shamima Begum is one of the three schoolgirls who left east London in 2015 to join the Islamic State group who now wants to return to the UK but does not regret going to join the IS.
Ms Begum was found in a Syrian refugee camp last week after reportedly leaving Baghuz – IS’s last stronghold.
One of her two school friends that she left with had died in a bombing and the fate of her other friend is unknown.
MET POLICE
Kadiza Sultana, Amira Abase and Shamima Begum (l-r)
Bethnal Green Academy pupils Ms Begum and Amira Abase were both 15, while Kadiza Sultana was 16, when they left the UK to join IS in February 2015. They flew from Gatwick Airport to Turkey after telling their parents they were going out for the day, they later crossed the border into Syria. After arriving in Raqqa she stayed in a house with other brides-to-be who had just arrived. Kadiza Sultana was believed to have been killed in 2016 by a Russian air strike. Ms Begum told the Times that her friend died in a house where there was “some secret stuff going on” underground.
19-year-old Shamima has now been stripped of her British citizenship just days after giving birth to her third child (her other two children have died). It was thought that Ms Begums had a Bangladeshi citizenship through her mother but the ministry of foreign affairs said the government was “deeply concerned” she had been “erroneously identified” as a Bangladeshi national.
Shamima Begum says revoking her citizenship is ‘a bit unjust’
In a statement it was said that Ms Begum had never applied for a dual nationality or visited Bangladesh. It added that the country had a “zero tolerance” approach to terrorism and violent extremism.
Ms Begum said: “I wasn’t born in Bangladesh, I’ve never seen Bangladesh and I don’t even speak Bengali properly, so how can they claim I have Bangladeshi citizenship,”
Home Secretary Sajid Javid has suggested Ms Begum’s baby could still be British.
He told the Commons: “Children should not suffer. So, if a parent does lose their British citizenship, it does not affect the rights of their child.”
He added: “I’m not going to talk about an individual, but I can be clear on the point that I would not take a decision – and I believe none of my predecessors ever have taken a decision – that at the point the decision is taken would leave that individual stateless.”
Ms Begum told the BBC: “I was hoping Britain would understand I made a mistake, a very big mistake, because I was young and naive.”
She said she changed her mind about IS after they imprisoned and tortured her Dutch husband.
Under the 1981 British Nationality Act, a person can be deprived of their citizenship if the home secretary is satisfied it would be “conducive to the public good” and they would not become stateless as a result.
Ms Begum said she might try to get a citizenship in the Neverlands where her husband is from.
