Over a matter of weeks, in early 2019, Shamima Begum became a household name. Not because her actions were more horrific or her situation more shocking than those of ‘ISIS brides’ of lesser fame. Rather, it was a result of her very public appeal for help to return home and her government’s very public response of refusing this request and instead withdrawing her citizenship. Her case has been in and out of the headlines ever since, as the media reported on the birth and then death of her third child in al-Hol camp in Syria, and followed her battle to have her British citizenship reinstated.
Begum’s case has sparked much controversy. It is just one of a growing number of instances of instrumentalization of nationality policy as a means to address the so-called ‘foreign fighter’ phenomenon – but her particular situation has provoked more fierce debate than other reported denationalisations. From a human rights perspective, the reasons for this are evident. Begum was still a child (15 years of age) when she was recruited and when she travelled to Syria, where she became a child bride and a child soldier. She had suffered grave trauma by the time she appealed to the UK government to be allowed to go home, at which point she was also heavily pregnant and stranded in a camp under appalling conditions – raising the question of responsibility towards the baby as well. A rights-based approach to these circumstances would dictate that she be offered protection and that the focus lie on restorative justice and social reintegration.
Instead, her government saw reason to strip her of her citizenship and through this, to shirk any responsibility for her – be it to protect her right to life or, in fact, to investigate and prosecute her. It is in respect of the latter of these implications of her denationalisation that the first cracks are revealed in this blind pursuit of ‘security’ or ‘symbolic justice’. If she is a terrorist and she is asking her government to bring her home, where she knows she could face prosecution, why is this not the first priority?
