Shamima Begum: timeline of events as ISIS bride loses bid to regain UK citizenship
Shamima Begum has lost her legal challenge over the decision to deprive her of her British citizenship.
Ms Begum, 23, fled Britain to join Islamic State (IS) in 2015 as a teenager but has since argued that she is stateless and not a threat to the UK.
Ms Begum's barristers Samantha Knights KC and Dan Squires KC said at a hearing last year that she was "recruited, transported, transferred, harboured and received in Syria for 'sexual exploitation' and 'marriage' to an adult male".
They also argued that the Home Office unlawfully failed to consider that she travelled to Syria and remained there "as a victim of child trafficking".
However, Sir James Eadie KC, for the department, said on Wednesday that the security services "continue to assess that Ms Begum poses a risk to national security".
After learning her fate on Wednesday, here’s a timeline of events that saw her go from straight-A student to statelessness.
August 1999
Ms Begum was born to Bangladeshi parents in east London.
February 2015
Ms Begum, then aged 15, was an academic student at London’s Bethnal Green Academy when she became interested in the terrorist group IS — sometimes known as Islamic State, ISIS or Daesh.
She travelled to Turkey from Gatwick Airport to join the group with her school friends Kadiza Sultana, 16, and Amira Abase,15.
Despite her family's warnings that Syria was a "dangerous place", the teenager, described as a "straight A student", crossed the border only days later with the help of a Canadian spy named Mohammed Al Rasheed.
She said in the Shamima Begum Story BBC podcast series she was told to "pack nice clothes so you can dress nicely for your husband".
Spring 2015
Only 10 days after arriving in the city of Raqqa, Ms Begum married a Dutchman named Yago Riedijk, who had converted to Islam.
They had three children: a one-year-old girl, a three-month-old boy, and a newborn son. All three later died from malnourishment or disease.
January 2017
Ms Begum left Raqqa with her husband but they were split up after she claimed he was arrested for spying and tortured.
October 2017
An alliance of Syria and US fighters took Raqqa back from IS control after three years.
Early February 2019
Ms Begum was found in a refugee camp in al-Roj by a Times journalist. She told the reporter it "didn't faze me at all" when she saw her first "severed head", but would "do anything required just to be able to come home".
But the runaway schoolgirl said she did not regret travelling to IS-controlled Syria, saying she had a "good time".
She gave birth to her third child, Jarrah.
The then-Met Police commissioner Dame Cressida Dick said Ms Begum could expect to be "spoken to" if she returned to the UK.
February 19, 2019
She was stripped of her British citizenship after announcing her desire to return to the UK with her then-unborn third child.
The move was deemed permissible under international law only if it did not leave her stateless.
She became embroiled in a battle with the British legal system — with her latest appeal failing on Wednesday.
Ms Begum described the initial move to revoke her citizenship as "unjust on me and my son".
The then-home secretary Sajid Javid said although he would never leave an individual stateless, his priority was the "safety and security" of the UK.
Mr Javid said he believed her Bangladeshi heritage would make her eligible to live in that country.
Ms Begum’s father Ahmed Ali said he did not object to the decision. “If she at least admitted she made a mistake then I would feel sorry for her and other people would feel sorry for her, but she does not accept her wrong,” he added.
March 2019
Jarrah’s death from a lung infection prompted Labour frontbencher Diane Abbott to call the Government "callous and inhumane".
The Begum family started a legal process against Mr Javid’s decision.
June 2019
Ms Begum was refused ‘leave to enter’ permission to come to the UK for a short time — a decision she appealed against.
February 2020
Aged 20, she lost her appeal and was prevented from returning to London.
July 2020
The Court of Appeals judged that Ms Begum should be allowed to return to the UK to challenge the Government's decision.
February 2021
The Government appealed this ruling, sending the case to the Supreme Court for the first time.
September 2021
She appealed for forgiveness and said that IS was “unjustifiable” in killing innocent people.
Her appearance had also changed and she was seen wearing a Nike baseball cap, a grey vest, Casio watch and with her fingernails painted pink.
“I do not believe that one evil justifies another evil. I don’t think that women and children should be killed for other people’s motives and other people’s agendas,” she said.
Ms Begum said there was "no evidence" she was a key player in preparing terrorist acts and was prepared to prove her innocence in court.
She denied her Western physical appearance on Good Morning Britain — in stark contrast to the traditional Islamic dress she previously adorned — was a publicity stunt.
November 2022
Before the Special Immigration Appeals Commission, Ms Begum’s counsel said: “Without seeking to investigate and determine, still less consider, whether she was a child victim of trafficking and whether there were failures by public authorities in the UK to prevent her being trafficked.”
January 2023
In the BBC podcast series, she said she understood public anger towards her, but insisted she was not a "bad person".
She said she accepted she was viewed "as a danger, as a risk", but blamed her portrayal in the media.
February 22, 2023
Ms Begum lost her appeal to overturn the Government’s decision to strip her of her British citizenship.