An Australian ISIS bride banned from returning to the country claims she was “underage and brainwashed” when she was trafficked to Syria, according to handwritten letters that have come to light.
Hodan Abby, originally from southwest Sydney, traveled to Syria with a friend at the age of 18 in 2015 to become a so-called “jihadi bride.” She later gave birth to a daughter in the Middle East. However, Abby is now subject to a temporary exclusion order that forces her to remain in Damascus with her child. She has launched an urgent legal challenge after failing to convince Australian authorities that she would not pose a security threat if allowed to return.
The case follows the recent return of 19 Australian women and children from Syria’s al-Roj detention camp, where they had been held for nearly seven years. In handwritten letters from late 2024, obtained by The Daily Telegraph, Abby describes herself as a victim and expresses a desire to return to Australia to pursue a career in midwifery.
Abby’s Claims of Coercion
“My daughter has missed so much … I hope to show her how fun life can be when you are free,” Abby wrote. “She wants to adopt a puppy. I hope to make this dream come true.” She claimed that she traveled to the Middle East at a friend’s request to defy her mother, not to join the Islamic State caliphate. She later alleged that she was trafficked into Syria and forced to marry an ISIS fighter.
“Stupidity is not a crime, but it is a crime to leave my injured daughter who has suffered her whole life in pain without medical care,” she added. “There were men with masked faces, guns and flags. I was so terrified. The friend said ‘we are here,’ but I didn’t know where ‘here’ was. I broke down crying. If ISIS caught you trying to escape, you would be executed.”
Legal Challenge and Security Concerns
Abby’s family has enlisted legal firm Birchgrove to challenge the federal government’s temporary exclusion order, which prevents her return to Australia and is set to remain in force until February 2028. The Australian Security Intelligence Organisation advised Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke that the exclusion order was necessary based on intelligence assessments indicating that Abby allegedly posed a potential risk to the community.
The development adds to a growing series of legal actions involving women who have returned from Syria in recent years after living in territory once held by the Islamic State. Three of the four ISIS brides who returned on May 7 were arrested, with two charged with crimes against humanity and the other with terror-related offenses. However, none of the six ISIS brides who returned on May 26 were arrested or charged upon landing at Sydney and Melbourne airports.
Authorities have been managing a steady flow of returnees since 2022, with multiple repatriation and return events recorded over that period.
