Australia Issues Return Permit to Woman Held in Syrian Camp After Revoking Her Exclusion Order

Hodan Abby, an Australian woman held in the Kurdish-run al-Roj detention camp in north-east Syria, received a return permit from Australian authorities in June 2025. Abc reported that a Temporary Exclusion Order issued to her in February 2025 was later revoked. Abc reported that Abby is the last known Australian IS-linked woman remaining in Syria as of July 2025.

A security source inside the camp stated that Abby acted as a Sharia judge, arranged marriages for IS women over the phone, and bribed other women with charity money. The same security source stated that Abby admitted to taking instructions from IS commanders in Idlib and Jarabulus and passing them on, and that she served two stints in the camp prison in 2021 and 2022.

Peter Galbraith stated that his sources described Abby as an IS true believer who enforced Islamic dress and allegedly hit a woman with a hammer in 2021.

Abc reported that Abby is alleged to have been known as Umm Osama in the IS caliphate and to have abused a Yazidi girl enslaved in her home for several months in 2016. Her daughter reportedly has shrapnel injuries and needs surgery unavailable abroad.

The US State Department placed a $5 million bounty on Khadra Essa, also known as Umm Qaqa al-Somali, who the camp security source said was close to Abby.

The State Department stated that Essa advocated violence, served as chief Sharia instructor of an all-female fighting battalion formed in Raqqa in 2016, and held US siblings Yusuf and Zahra Shikee in 2019. As of March 2025, the US State Department reported that 2,454 people remained in the al-Roj camp.