Chaotic scenes have unfolded at Melbourne Airport after a group of ISIS brides and their children arrived from Syria on Thursday night.

After being held in customs for several hours, ISIS bride Zahra Ahmad was shielded from the media by a large group of men dressed in black as she was escorted through the airport terminal with a distressed young child clinging to her side.

While Ms Ahmad was making her way to a waiting mini bus, a TV reporter asked her ‘why did you marry an ISIS terrorist?’, to which a male member of Ms Ahmad’s entourage responded: ‘Shut up you s***.’

A journalist also claimed that she was punched in the stomach during the scuffle.

‘Get out of my way,’ another member of the entourage repeatedly told the media pack.

Ms Ahmad, 33, made no comment when asked if her children had been radicalised and what her plans were in Melbourne.

She arrived in Melbourne with her mother Kawsar Abbas, 54, sister Zeinab Ahmed, 31, along with eight children, almost two weeks after leaving the Al-Roj detention camp in northeastern Syria.

Abbas and Zeinab were arrested by AFP officers and formally charged on Friday morning.

 
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A male member (above) of ISIS bride Zahra Ahmad’s entourage told a female reporter ‘shut up you s***’ at Melbourne Airport

 
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Zahra Ahmad was the only one of four ISIS brides to not be arrested upon landing in Australia

Only Ms Ahmad was allowed to walk free without any charges laid.

Abbas was charged with four crimes against humanity – slavery charges, including keeping and using a slave, and engaging in slave trade.

These offences carry a maximum penalty of 25 years’ imprisonment.

Police will allege she travelled to Syria in 2014 with her husband and children, and was complicit in the purchase of a female slave for US$10,000, and knowingly kept the woman in her home.

Zeinab faces two slavery charges. Both offences carry a maximum penalty of 25 years’ imprisonment.

Zeinab travelled to Syria in 2014 with her family and knowingly kept a female slave in the home.

The pair are expected to face Melbourne Magistrates Court later on Friday.

The widow of a notorious Islamic State recruiter Muhammad Zahab, who died in a 2018 air strike, Ms Ahmad had previously pleaded with Australians not to ‘judge’ the ISIS brides.

 
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Zahra Ahmed made no comment to reporters as she was whisked through the airport terminal by supporters

 
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Ms Ahmad got into a waiting minibus as the media pack surrounded the vehicle

‘I didn’t make this bed,’ she said in 2024.

‘We are now forced to suffer for the decisions that other people – other male influencers – have made on our behalf, and now they’re all gone and we are left to suffer with our kids.’

While Ms Ahmad did not speak to reporters as she left the airport on Thursday, she previously said she understood Australians’ scepticism to accept her return.

‘I think I would have the same concern if I was back home,’ she said.

‘But what I would like to say is don’t be so quick to judge. Try and look at it from our perspective. We are also mothers.’

The latest cohort travelled to Australia with Janai Safar, 32, and her nine-year-old son, who were escorted off a plane by AFP officers shortly after landing at Sydney Airport on Thursday night.

Safar was later charged with entering or remaining in declared areas, and being a member of a terrorist organisation.

Police will allege she travelled to Syria in 2015 to join her husband, who had previously left Australia to join ISIS.

Safar is due to face Downing Centre Local Court on Friday, where she is expected to apply for bail.

Australian law enforcement agencies have been planning ‘for this day for more than a decade.’

‘As we had been warning these women for some time, if they made their own way back to Australia, they’d face the full consequences of their actions,’ Health Minister Mark Butler told Sunrise on Friday.

‘Including legal consequences, they have already been charged, in a matter of hours, with enslavement offenses, membership of a terrorist organization and being in a declared area.

‘And that really follows more than a decade of intelligence and evidence gathering by our national security agencies.’