A group of ISIS bride traitors and their foreign-born offspring have arrived back in Australia after being given passports and allowed to return by the Albanese Labor government.
Three of the radical Islamist women, Kawsar Abbas, her two adult daughters, Zahra and Zeinab Ahmad, and their eight children flew into Melbourne from Doha, while Abbas’ niece Janai Safar and her child went to Sydney, also on a Qatar flight.
A group of black-clad Muslim men were waiting for the arrivals in Melbourne, while Safar, who once vowed never to return to Australia, saying she didn’t want her son to be raised in a place where “women are naked on the street”, was arrested by the Australian Federal Police after landing in Sydney.
Two of the Melbourne brides were also taken into custody while a third was ushered into a van by supporters.
The AFP said charges would be laid against three of the women – a 53-year-old from Victoria for crimes against humanity – enslavement, possessing a slave, using a slave, and engaging in slave trading, a 31-year-old from Victoria for crimes against humanity – enslavement and using a slave, and a 32-year-old from NSW for entering a declared area, and being a member of a terrorist organisation.
The women, who were filmed wearing burqas during the journey by 10 News, all left Australia to live in the ISIS caliphate and married terrorists before spending years living in ultra-violent Syrian refugee camps which became hubs for Islamist radicalisation.
The children were all supplied with Australian passports despite being born overseas to Muslim parents who declared war on Australia and Western civilisation by siding with ISIS.
Group of black-clad Muslim men waiting for three ISIS brides who just landed in Melbourne. pic.twitter.com/DeBuhziny2
— The Noticer (@NoticerNews) May 7, 2026
Abbas is married to Mohammed Ahmad, who police believe funnelled money to ISIS via a charity he ran, and their son Omar joined the terror group. Zahra was the second wife of ISIS recruiter Muhammad Zahab, who was killed in 2018, and Safar also married an ISIS militant.
Labor has repeatedly claimed that it did not facilitate the group’s travel to Australia, but the Syrian government said on Wednesday that they had been delayed in Damascus while the Australian government put “procedures in place”.
A Syrian government official said the Australian government was the “deciding factor” in the departure.
“The Australian government had the ultimate authority. The ball was entirely in the court of the Australians,” the official said.
In February 34 ISIS-linked women and children from 11 families left the camp in northeastern Syria but were turned back, and Mr Burke then blocked one woman with a two-year Temporary Exclusion Order but did not put measures in place to stop the rest from flying to Australia.
A poll conducted after the February departure attempt found that 64% of voters opposed allowing the wives and family members of ISIS brides to to return to Australia, with just 15% in support.
Some of the ISIS brides and children in that cohort had spent time in a different refugee camp, Al-Hol, a radicalisation hub where jihadist women hid teenage boys in tunnels and sexually abused them to get pregnant.
Header image: Left, two of the brides in Doha (10 News). Right, ISIS brides with Australian citizenship in Syria in 2015 (Facebook).
