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The daughter of so-called ISIS bride Zeinab Ahmad is attending a public school in Victoria after arriving back in Australia from the Middle East with her mother this year.
Ahmad, 31, is seeking to be released on bail after she was arrested on her return to Melbourne and charged with crimes against humanity and using a slave. She had been overseas for more than a decade, including seven years in a “prison” camp.
Melbourne Magistrates’ Court heard Ahmad wanted to be granted bail so she could reunite with her seven-year-old, who cannot be named, after they were separated for the first time when they arrived at Melbourne Airport.
Defence lawyer Grace Morgan said the child was born in the camp and exposed to traumatic stressors including violence, instability and the threat of harm and separation, alongside poverty, disaster and extreme living conditions.
“She lived in a tent. It was a tent and it was cold. She has endured more things in her short life, just turning seven years old, than most Australian adults would endure in their entire existence,” Morgan said.
“My client told her stories of what awaited her in Australia. Things to look forward to, freedoms. Television shows and the like.
“When they arrived at [Melbourne] airport she was separated from her mother.”
Morgan said a child psychologist had since diagnosed the young girl with PTSD and said being separated from her mother was a significant issue. She was known to exhibit clingy behaviour and outbursts which would compromise her developing a sense of safety, making it more difficult for her to settle into a new life.
There was also no suggestion, Morgan said, that the child had any extreme ideological beliefs, telling the psychologist that she thought being Muslim meant that a person cannot lie.
“My client slept next to her daughter in the tent until they left. She was not separated from her daughter for more than a period of a few hours since birth,” Morgan said.
“My client’s daughter’s attachment and need for her mother, and the good features she seems to exhibit, show just how important her mother’s role has been to her.
“She was blameless. She was not born when the alleged offences took place.”
Ahmad told a psychologist that she wanted her daughter to be able to attend a public school and had refused to dress or cover her in traditional clothing.
The “ISIS bride” described her time away from Australia as “11 years of hell” that she wouldn’t wish upon anyone.
Morgan said her client was married three times in four years and subjected to violence, telling the psychologist she was sick of people controlling her and that she did not want “them” to “take any more of me”.
“She wanted to distance herself from others not on the same wavelength as her, so she removed her face covering and started wearing colour [in the camp]. She wanted others to know, ‘I am not like them and I will not be like them’,” Morgan said.
“She wants her daughter to feel free to make her own choices. She’s now attending a public school.”
The court heard that since being arrested on May 7, Ahmad had been placed on antidepressant medication for night terrors and taken to hospital twice for panic attacks.
Ahmad, 31, is accused of travelling to Syria with family and keeping a young Yazidi slave whom they bought for $US10,000 ($14,000) and abused.
Her mother, Kawsar Abbas, 54, has also been charged and is set to apply for bail later this week on charges of knowingly using a slave from June 2017 to November 2018.
The court has heard the complainant was bought by the Ahmad family, with the accused woman’s father telling the girl he had bought her for “the purpose of raping” and housework.
Police have opposed Zeinab Ahmad’s release, saying they are unaware of her current ideological views.
But Morgan said the accused rejected Islamic State and instead carried a deep anger towards it and the men who forced its ideals on her.
She also expressed gratitude for the freedoms she and her daughter have in Australia, Morgan said, noting that Ahmad’s sister Aisha, who was in court after surrendering aged 16 when the caliphate fell, was able to watch the proceedings with her “hair out”.
“My client is an Australian citizen who was born here, went to school here, grew up here. She wanted to come home ... for a very long time,” Morgan said.
“She surrendered to coalition forces and went into the al-Roj camp. She did not stay behind as it appears her father and her husband did. She may not be here today if she had.”
The bail application continues.
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