Hoda Muthana. YouTube screen grab
Fri - 15 Nov 2019 - 08:15 PM ،،،
NPR
A federal judge has ruled that a U.S.-born woman who traveled to Syria and joined ISIS is not an American citizen, even though the State Department had issued her a passport when she was a child and later renewed it.
Hoda Muthana, 25, was a student at the University of Alabama at Birmingham when she traveled to Syria. She is currently being held at a detention camp in northern Syria with her young son.
In February, the State Department declared that Muthana “is not a U.S. citizen and will not be admitted into the United States.” The statement from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that “she does not have any legal basis, no valid U.S. passport, no right to a passport, nor any visa to travel to the United States.”
Hoda Muthana’s citizenship was in dispute because her father was living in the U.S. and working as a diplomat for his home country, Yemen, prior to her birth. For families of diplomats, citizenship isn’t automatically conferred on babies born in the U.S. because of diplomatic immunity.
Ahmed Ali Muthana asked the court whether he was legally able to send his daughter money or other forms of support such as jackets while she is detained in Syria. According to Jump, the judge refused to answer that question.
Muthana married an Australian ISIS fighter shortly after she arrived in Syria, according to court documents After that man died, she married a Tunisian man and they had a son. Her second husband also died. In 2018, as ISIS was rapidly losing territory, Muthana fled and was captured by the Kurdish forces.
Muthana has never had any other citizenship. She has never been to Yemen, and it might not be possible for her to obtain Yemeni citizenship. What will happen to Muthana and her child isn’t clear.
It’s worth noting that a group of eight U.S. citizens was repatriated back to the U.S. from Syria in June. They are thought to be the wives and children of ISIS fighters. Separately, a woman named Samantha Sally says she was dragged to Syria by her husband and has now returned to the U.S.