Australian woman linked to Islamic State lived with teenage slave who was repeatedly raped, court told

A court sketch depicts Zeinab Ahmad at Melbourne Magistrates Court in Melbourne on Thursday, 4 June, 2026. Photograph: Anita Lester/AAP Image/AP View image in fullscreen A court sketch depicts Zeinab Ahmad at Melbourne Magistrates Court in Melbourne on Thursday, 4 June, 2026. Photograph: Anita Lester/AAP Image/AP Australian woman linked to Islamic State lived with teenage slave who was repeatedly raped, court told Allegations made in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday as Zeinab Ahmad, 31, applied for bail, a month after she was charged with slavery offences Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A woman accused of marrying Islamic State fighters allegedly lived with a teenage slave who was repeatedly assaulted and raped by the woman’s father. The allegations were detailed in Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday as Zeinab Ahmad, 31, applied for bail, a month after she was charged with slavery offences. Australian Federal Police allege Ahmad left Melbourne to go to Turkey with her husband, Dawod, in November 2014. She told migration officers her plan was to stay there for seven months, but it is alleged the couple instead moved to Syria in January 2015. Dawod became an IS member but died in a Syrian drone strike in May 2016, Det Sen Const Marc Clendenning told the court. After his death, it is alleged Ahmad made social media posts saying Dawod had lived out his dream of becoming a martyr. It is also alleged Ahmad made a post calling on Allah to “destroy the United States and its allies”. Police say Ahmad was living in the family home in Syria in 2017 when her father, Mohammad, bought a teenage girl as a slave for $US10,000. It is alleged the girl was repeatedly raped and beaten by Mohammad, including an incident where she was hit and dragged down two flights of stairs by the hair. The girl told police she had screamed loudly during the incidents so Ahmad and the other family members would have known what was happening, the detective said. It is not alleged Ahmad assaulted the girl but the teen claims she was “treated very badly” by the woman. The girl allegedly lived with the Ahmad family for 16 months before she was sold in November 2018. The teen was sold a further seven times before she was freed from slavery. Ahmad and her mother, Kawsar, 52, were among a group of IS-linked women and their children who returned to Australia in May. She was arrested at Melbourne airport and charged with offences of enslavement and using a slave. Human rights activist Robert Van Aalst, who helped the women and children return to Australia from Syria, attended court on Thursday along with supporters of Ahmad. In opposing bail on Thursday, Clendenning told the court Ahmad was an unacceptable risk of endangering the community. She had married another two IS members and was still married to an Egyptian-born fighter whose location was unknown, the detective told the court. Ahmad had never explicitly renounced IS and she pursued living under the terror group in Syria, Clendenning said. He said she had been employed by IS and had encouraged violence against individuals and governments. The bail application before Chief Magistrate Lisa Hannan will continue on Friday. Explore more on these topics Melbourne Syria Islamic State news Share Reuse this content