A Lebanese woman appealed to Britain’s highest court yesterday against a deportation order that would lead to her losing custody of her son under Sharia law to an allegedly violent husband.

The woman, known only as EM, divorced her husband and fled the Lebanon for Britain in 2004 so that she could keep custody of the boy.

She has had her claim for asylum in Britain refused and faces expulsion with her son. Yesterday her lawyers argued before five law lords that their removal by the Government would lead to her human rights being so severely violated in the Lebanon that she should be allowed to remain.

Under Sharia, and the ruling in the Lebanon of an Islamic court, the woman only had custody of the boy, who was born in 1996, until he reached seven. After that, under Sharia, her ex-husband automatically obtained full custody rights.

To escape being bound by the law she fled to Britain on false documents claiming asylum, having obtained a divorce from her husband.

Yesterday she lodged a appeal, arguing that her right to a family life would be so severely violated that she should be allowed to stay.

Two leading human rights groups, Liberty and Justice, have intervened to make arguments in the case, backing the woman’s right to stay.

Liberty argues that the woman’s right to a family life and to gender equality require that she should not be returned to the Lebanon. Alex Gask, Liberty’s legal officer, said: “We cannot deny this child the right to be with his mother. How can the same government which champions equal treatment under British law now deport mother and child to face certain separation under Sharia?”

The two groups argue that the automatic and permanent separation of a mother from her child under Sharia, after her expulsion to Lebanon, amounts to “flagrant breach of the mother’s (and child’s) rights under the European Convention on Human Rights — article 8, the right to a family life, and article 14, which prohibits discrimination”.

Jen Corlew, a spokeswoman for Liberty, added: “The contention that, if returned to the Lebanon, EM would automaticaly lose custody of her child is not in dispute. A written report by an expert in Islamic law and customs relating to marriage, divorce and child custody confirmed that, in accordance with the principle of Islamic law that the ‘male is seen as the leader of the family unit’, legal custody of a child lies with the father.”

She added: “In recognition of the “infant’s need for female care”, physical custody is given to the mother until the age of custodial transfer, generally set at the age of seven, but thereafter reverts automatically to the father.”

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