London: Two Pakistani-origin sisters from London are believed to be the latest set of mothers to lose their British citizenship for marrying into the Islamic State (ISIS) terrorist group in Syria. Reema Iqbal and her sister, Zara, have five boys under the age of eight between them and are being held in a Syrian detention camp.
Reports of them losing their right to return to the UK after losing their citizenship rights come as it was confirmed that Bangladeshi-origin Shamima Begum lost her three-week-old baby in a Syrian refugee camp days after her British citizenship was similarly revoked. The Sunday Times quoted legal sources to say that the Iqbal sisters, from east London, have had their British nationality rights revoked for marrying into an ISIS terrorist cell.
The newspaper report says the two women headed to Syria from London in 2013 after marrying into a six-man cell of ISIS recruits with close links to the filmed murders of western hostages by British Arab ISIS fighter Mohammed Emwazi, dubbed “Jihadi John” for his UK connection. The sisters’ husbands were later killed in fighting.
Zara, 28, had a son when she made the journey and was pregnant with her second child, to whom she gave birth in Syria. She later had a third boy under the so-called “ISIS caliphate”. Her older sister, Reema, 30, has two sons, one of whom was born in Britain. They are in Roj camp, to which Shamima Begum was reportedly recently transferred.