Customize Consent Preferences

We use cookies to help you navigate efficiently and perform certain functions. You will find detailed information about all cookies under each consent category below.

The cookies that are categorized as "Necessary" are stored on your browser as they are essential for enabling the basic functionalities of the site. ... 

Always Active

Necessary cookies are required to enable the basic features of this site, such as providing secure log-in or adjusting your consent preferences. These cookies do not store any personally identifiable data.

No cookies to display.

Functional cookies help perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collecting feedback, and other third-party features.

No cookies to display.

Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics such as the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.

No cookies to display.

Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.

No cookies to display.

Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with customized advertisements based on the pages you visited previously and to analyze the effectiveness of the ad campaigns.

No cookies to display.

Solace responds to the Supreme Court’s ruling against Shamima Begum’s appeal

The Supreme Court of the UK today ruled against Shamima Begum’s appeal to return home to fight her citizenship case, leaving her in a camp in Northern Syria where the guards won’t allow her access to lawyers.

The Supreme Court of the UK today ruled against Shamima Begum’s appeal to return home to fight her citizenship case, leaving her in a camp in Northern Syria where the guards won’t allow her access to lawyers.

Shamima Begum has been failed over and over by the British state. She was targeted by the Islamic State while living in the UK. She was denied safe passage back to the UK having been married as a child and grieving three lost children. She was stripped of her citizenship and abandoned to a refugee camp and now the Supreme Court has upheld the Government’s decision to stop her returning to appeal for her citizenship with access to legal advice and support.

Shamima Begum was groomed into travelling to Raqqa, becoming a bride within ten days of arriving in Syria as a 15-year-old child. Under UK law she was a victim of forced marriage and sexual exploitation yet she has been treated solely as a criminal and stripped of her citizenship.

When women commit the kinds of crimes Begum has admitted to they are often punished more severely than men because we are, as a society, more shocked that they can have acted out such violence. But as we at Solace know from experience, women who act out violence and aggression usually have a history of being subjected to violence and abuse themselves.

Survivors of violence, abuse and exploitation are rarely perfect victims.

The fact that Begum is of Bangladeshi heritage fits into lazy stereotypes and makes the Government’s removal of her citizenship particularly cynical, because she is already seen as less British than her white counterparts would be. But the removal of her citizenship is a breach of Begum’s human rights.

If Begum has committed offences, and if she poses a security risk, she should be given the right to a fair trial and monitored by our national security services. Instead, she is being used as a warning and perpetuating the myth that victims of grooming, coercion and exploitation have themselves to blame and therefore do not deserve humanity and support.

Share this story: