ISIS bride Hodan Abby launches legal bid to overturn Temporary Exclusion Order blocking her return from Syria

The family of an ISIS bride barred from returning to Australia is preparing an urgent legal challenge in a bid to overturn a federal government order preventing her return from Syria.

According to The Australian, western Sydney woman Hodan Abby has been blocked from boarding a flight to Australia under a Temporary Exclusion Order which will remain in force until February 2028.

Ms Abby’s family has reportedly engaged Birchgrove Legal principal solicitor Moustafa Kheir to challenge the order and attempt to secure the return of both Ms Abby and her young daughter, who suffers significant disabilities caused by shrapnel wounds sustained in Syria.

The Australian reported the girl, aged under 10, has injuries to her head, hip and back and now suffers speech and movement impairments.

Ms Abby travelled from western Sydney to Syria in 2015 when she was 18 years old and later became trapped in Kurdish-run detention camps after the collapse of Islamic State.

The legal challenge comes as another group of Australian women and children linked to ISIS is due to land in Australia tonight.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on Tuesday confirmed seven women and 12 children had boarded a flight in Damascus.

Two women, Kawsar Kanj and Kirsty Rosse-Emile, will land in Melbourne with seven children at 5.15pm.

The other four women – Hyam Raad, Nesrine Zahab, Amina Zahab and Sumaya Zahab – are expected to land in Sydney on a Qatar Airways flight from Doha with their six children at 5.25pm.

The group departed the al-Roj detention camp in northeast Syria earlier this week after urgent negotiations involving Kurdish and Syrian authorities, according to The Australian.

“The government has not and will not provide any assistance to this group,” Mr Burke said in a statement.

“These are people who have made the horrific choice to join a dangerous terrorist organisation and to place their children in an unspeakable situation.”

Mr Burke said any returnees who had committed crimes could expect “the full force of the law”.

“Our world-class law enforcement and intelligence agencies have been preparing for their return since 2014 and have longstanding plans in place to manage and monitor them,” he said.

Earlier this month, four Australian women and nine children returned from Syria.

Three of the women were arrested upon arrival.

Sydney woman Janai Safar was charged with joining a terrorist organisation and travelling to a declared conflict zone.

Melbourne grandmother Kawsar Abbas and her daughter Zeinab Ahmad were charged with slavery-related offences, including allegations linked to the enslavement of Yazidi women while in Syria.

A fourth woman, Zahra Ahmad, was released without charge.

It is unclear whether any of the women returning tonight will face criminal charges.

The effort to bring the remaining women and children out of Syria has reportedly been spearheaded by retired Sydney lawyer and humanitarian campaigner Robert Van Aalst, who is on one of the flights back to Australia, with the women and children, today.

Mr Van Aalst has reportedly played a central behind-the-scenes role coordinating communications between families, intermediaries and overseas contacts during the operation to extract the women and children from the al-Roj detention camp.

Mr Van Aalst, who describes himself online as a human rights advocate with more than 40 years of legal experience, has spent years campaigning for the repatriation of Australian women and children trapped in Kurdish-run camps in northeast Syria.

In a 2022 interview with ABC Radio National, Mr Van Aalst said many of the women had been trying to return home almost immediately after arriving in Syria.

“These young women were very vulnerable when they were convinced to leave Australia and go to Syria,” he said.

“Like so many youngsters that get attracted to cults, they did not know the consequences of what they were doing.

“Most of them were telling us, ‘Please get us home, this has been an awful mistake’.”

He argued the women and children should be viewed primarily as Australian citizens trapped in a dire situation rather than solely as security threats.

“These women have experienced four years of war, they’ve experienced nearly three years of being in internment camps like hell on earth,” he said.

“The one thing that they’ve done is shown complete resilience, compliance to the authorities, and have protected their children.

“The children, one hopes – once they go to school, meet new friends, join clubs – they become just like every other young child.”