Australian woman faces slavery charges over ISIS-era enslavement of Yazidi teenager

05 June 2026 , 10:57

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An Australian woman accused of marrying Islamic State fighters in Syria allegedly lived with a teenager who was bought for $10,000 and then repeatedly assaulted and raped.

Zeinab Ahmad, 31, applied for bail in a hearing at Melbourne magistrates’ court on two slavery charges on Thursday. This was reported by Financial Times

She was arrested at Melbourne airport last month, along with her mother, Kawsar Ahmad, 53, when they returned from Syria, having been held in a detention camp there for women and children linked to Isis.

The women are alleged to have traveled to Syria in 2014 with Mohammed Ahmad, Zeinab’s father and Kawsar’s husband, and other family members, and then being complicit in the purchase of a Yazidi woman as a slave.

An Iraqi-born Yazidi, who cannot be named, said in a police statement that Mohammed bought her for $10,000 in 2017 in Raqqa, the capital of Isis’s so-called caliphate in Syria, Detective Senior Constable Mark Clendenning told the court.

Illustration of Zeinab Ahmad at Melbourne Magistrates Court. dqxikeidqkikdinv

Clendenning alleged that Kawsar was involved in buying the teenager as a slave, which was rare for a woman.

“Mohammed and Kawsar had status and privileges within Islamic State usually not afforded to others that allowed exceptions to their usual practices,” Clendenning said.

The witness was brought to a house that the couple shared with their five daughters, including Zeinab, with whom the witness shared a room, Clendenning alleged.

Mohammed allegedly told the witness: “I bought you for the purpose of raping and at the same time serving the home.” He is then said to have introduced her to the family and told them: “I bought her for sex and to do housework.”

Zeinab’s first husband was killed in a drone attack in 2016, and she had remarried an Egyptian Isis fighter who had lost an arm in combat, police said.

Zeinab was present when her father hit the witness and dragged her by her hair down two flights of stairs, police alleged. They said Mohammed, who is in prison in Iraq, beat the witness two or three times a month while the family was present.

The witness said Mohammed sexually assaulted her “many times” despite her resisting, police said. The witness said Zeinab “did not physically hurt her, although she did threaten her very badly and ordered her to do things around the house”, Clendenning alleged.

Mohammed sold the witness for $10,000 in 2018, 16 months after she was bought, police said. Mohammed told the witness she was “bad” and did not do as she was told, according to police.

Under its regime Isis persecuted thousands of Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking minority who mostly live in Syria, Iraq and Turkey.

The witness said she was 15 when she was among 6,800 Yazidi women and children enslaved and was traded between Isis members 17 times over five years before she was freed by Kurdish forces in 2019.

Three generations of the Ahmad family moved from Melbourne to Syria via Turkey in 2013 and 2014. Zeinab flew there with her husband in 2014, police alleged.

Clendenning said releasing Zeinab from custody would pose an unacceptable risk of endangering the safety and welfare of the public.

He said that she had married multiple men involved with Isis and was currently married to an Egyptian Isis member, whose whereabouts were unknown.

“The accused has never explicitly renounced or stated that she no longer supports Islamic State since her surrender to Kurdish forces,” Clendenning said.

She is charged with two crimes against humanity: enslavement and use of a slave. Her mother, also known as Kawsar Abbas, is charged with four crimes against humanity. Each carries a maximum penalty of 25 years in prison.

The hearing will continue on Friday.