Melbourne ISIS bride, 54, wins her bid for freedom just a week after her daughter was kept locked up

By WAYNE FLOWER, SENIOR NEWS REPORTER, AUSTRALIA Published: 06:15, 26 June 2026 | Updated: 06:28, 26 June 2026 An accused ISIS bride will walk from court after winning her bid for freedom. Kawsar Abbas, 54, looked relieved and her supporters gasped as Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan granted her bail in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Friday afternoon. It comes a week after her daughter Zeinab Ahmad, 31, lost her bid for bail in the same court. The two women were charged in May with slavery offences after they both returned to Australia with other family members of former Islamic State fighters. Prosecutors allege Abbas migrated to Syria with her husband, Mohammad Ahmad, and their children to join ISIS around January 2015.  It is alleged that while in Syria in 2017, Mohammad Ahmad bought a teenage girl, whom he allegedly held as a slave and repeatedly raped and assaulted.  Abbas allegedly agreed to the purchase and treated the girl badly, often threatening her with beatings although she never assaulted the girl herself. In opposing bail, Detective Senior Constable Marc Clendenning told the court Abbas was a risk to the community and there were concerns she would spread extremist ideology if released. Kawsar Abbas, 54, faces charges of enslavement, possessing a slave, using a slave and engaging in slave trading Ahmad's defence barrister, Peter Morrissey SC, argued his client did not support ISIS and that strict bail conditions, including a ban on attending mosques, would reduce any alleged risk. Chief Magistrate Hannan found the risk was low enough that stringent bail conditions could adequately protect the community, and granted Abbas bail.  Abbas will walk from Melbourne Magistrates Court later on Friday. Sorry we are not currently accepting comments on this article.