The British government stripped Begum of her citizenship last year, after her case garnered national attention when she told a Times of London reporter she wanted to return home. She was nine months pregnant at the time, living in a displacement camp in Syria. Her infant son later died in the camp.

The decision to remove her citizenship and deny her and her son’s return to Britain sparked public uproar and debate. Some saw her as an extremist who could pose a national security threat on British soil. Others said that regardless of her affiliations with the Islamic State, which she joined as a minor, she deserved the chance to face justice in Britain.

Begum’s attorney said Thursday that she “is not afraid of facing British justice. She welcomes it,” the Associated Press reported. “But the stripping of her citizenship without a chance to clear her name is not justice — it is the opposite.”

It remains unclear how and when Begum, who is now 20, could return to Britain, a trip that would probably require the assistance of British authorities. The U.K. Home Office said Thursday it would “apply for permission to appeal” the ruling that would allow her admittance, according to the BBC.

Former British home secretary Sajid Javid wrote in a statement that “allowing her — and indeed other terrorists — back into the UK to pursue an appeal would create a national security risk that cannot be fully mitigated.”

Azadeh Moaveni, director of the gender and conflict project at the International Crisis Group, said Thursday that the court’s decision will have implications for other British citizens in Syria who also had their citizenship revoked.

A Syrian militia fighter burns an Islamic State flag in Raqqa, Syria, in 2017.
A Syrian militia fighter burns an Islamic State flag in Raqqa, Syria, in 2017. (Hussein Malla/AP)

In its efforts to prevent women who were recruited to the Islamic State from returning home, Britain took “a really cowardly or craven position … which was just to abandon these women,” Moaveni said.

The approach “offered these woman no right to anything,” she said, noting that lawyers have faced hurdles reaching their clients in Syria, which means their right to representation has been violated. “They didn’t have rights as prisoners and they didn’t have rights as citizens, which was wrong for so many reasons.

“Why should that area of northeast Syria, which has its own troubled recovery and doesn’t have a criminal justice system, be left to deal with them?” she added.

The debate over Begum’s citizenship came amid a broader discussion in Europe over the fate of former suspected Islamic State members held in Syria.

Opponents of a large-scale repatriation effort argued that European courts would struggle to convict repatriated Islamic State members, given the limited options for investigators to gather evidence of wrongdoing in Syria.

Many European governments have hesitated to allow former Islamic State members back in. The German parliament passed a law last year that allows authorities to strip members of militant groups of their German citizenship, unless it is their sole citizenship. Under British law, a similar rule applies: Authorities are required to refrain from stripping individuals of their citizenship if it will make them stateless.

But, while the British government has reportedly argued that Begum is eligible for a Bangladeshi passport, authorities in Dhaka said last year that “there is no question of her being allowed to enter into Bangladesh.”

Begum’s tenuous status prompted warnings from human rights analysts and advocates. “Many of Islamic State’s European recruits are second-generation children of Arab or Asian immigrants,” Moaveni wrote in February 2019. “Abandoning them to their fate or stripping them of citizenship, which the U.K. government has done in some cases, implies that their status as Europeans is contingent.”