SHE JOINED ISIS AT 21… NOW HER FATHER SAYS SHE SHOULDN’T BE PUNISHED
SHE JOINED ISIS AT 21… NOW HER FATHER SAYS SHE SHOULDN’T BE PUNISHED
Nesrine Zahab’s father has sparked outrage after defending his daughter following her return to Australia, insisting she simply made a mistake when she was young.
But the detail now dividing people is 10 years, 1 flight home, and a father publicly saying his daughter deserves another chance — a claim that many Australians strongly disagree with… 👇🔥
Family of IS-linked woman Nesrine Zahab welcome her return to Sydney from Syrian camp
Nesrine Zahab is one of the IS-linked women who have returned to Australia from Syria. (ABC News: Baderkhan Ahmad)
In short:
Nesrine Zahab was one of four IS-linked women and their children to return to Sydney this week after spending years at the al-Roj camp in Syria.
Ms Zahab has previously said she did not realise she was entering Syria and the so-called Islamic State caliphate.
Her father said she had been subject to intense media scrutiny since her arrival.
The father of a woman linked to the Islamic State group says his daughter is “happy to be home” in Sydney’s south-west but she is exhausted after more than a decade stranded in Syria.
Nesrine Zahab returned to Sydney with her eight-year-old son on Tuesday night, along with three other women and their children.
Two separate groups of women, referred to by media as “ISIS brides”, have returned to Sydney and Melbourne this month along with their children.
They spent years at the notorious al-Roj camp in northern Syria.
Some of the women are believed to have accompanied their husbands to the war zone, but others came with family and married IS fighters once they arrived. Some say they got stuck in Syria by accident.
Ms Zahab has previously told ABC Four Corners she did not realise she was entering Syria and the so-called Islamic State caliphate as a 21-year-old.
Mr Zahab says his daughter is exhausted from her time in Syria. (ABC News: Patrick Thomas)
Her 71-year-old father, Zacharia Zahab, said his family had been together for the first time in years on Wednesday, including with his mother, aged 98.
“The first thing Nesrine wanted to do when she returned was hug us all,” he said.
“You know when people are excited, and they jump up and touch their legs together, that is what she was like, she is so happy to be home.”
Nesrine Zahab, photographed for Four Corners while in Syria. (Four Corners)
Mr Zahab said his daughter, now in her 30s, had also craved Australian fast food during her emotional return.
“I don’t like eating outside food, but she had something like Red Rooster,” he said.
Read more from the ABC:
From 2025: Women who lived under ISIS say ‘it’s not my choice to be here’
From 2019: Australia’s ‘ISIS brides’ in Syria reveal their identities
From 2019: Four Corners meets the Australian families stuck in Syria (video)
Mr Zahab said family was among the things she missed most during her time stranded overseas.
“Family and Australia she missed most, beautiful Australia. Freedom,” he said.
Mr Zahab said it has also been hard coming home with the initial media scrutiny.
“She is scared to go outside because the TV cameras are following her,”
he said.
‘Very happy and excited’
Mr Zahab said his daughter returned to their family home.
“This is the home where she was born. She was very happy and excited. Nesrine has her old bedroom back,” he said.
But he said some things had changed.
“We changed some things, we had to use the bedroom for other purposes, but we have tried our best,” he said.
Ms Zahab lived in the al-Roj camp for years. (ABC News: Baderkhan Ahmad)
Mr Zahab said it was a far cry from the tents his daughter and grandson had lived in for the past decade, with limited facilities.
“The guards at the [Syrian] camps sometimes kept the women and children outside the tents for hours in the hot sun or rain for hours when they were checking things,” he said.
He said his grandson was not used to using drinking out of glasses.
“When my grandson was handed a glass of water yesterday, my daughter said, ‘Don’t give him that’, as he was only used to plastic cups in the camp,” Mr Zahab said.
‘She always wanted to come back’
Mr Zahab said his daughter was still tired, and the family had yet to have a long talk about the future, especially with a family celebration on Wednesday to mark the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha.
“She does hope she can continue studying, she wants to do nursing or community studies — something like that,” he said.
He said she also wanted her son to go to school like any Australian boy.
Mr Zahab said his daughter had made a mistake going to a dangerous area on the Turkish side of the Syrian border to give aid to refugees.
“She tried to come home after being trapped in Syria,”
he said.
“She got caught trying to escape in the first year, but she always wanted to come back to Australia.”
