A woman dubbed an alleged "ISIS bride" has been denied bail in the Victorian Supreme Court after a judge ruled she may still hold extremist views, despite her claim that becoming a mother turned her away from supporting Islamic State. Zeinab Ahmad, 31, was charged with slavery offences and detained in May upon returning to Australia with other relatives of former IS fighters. Justice James Elliott said her past extremist ideology, combined with the brutality associated with IS, meant any influence she might have on others posed a "potentially catastrophic", albeit low, risk.

Ahmad moved to Syria with her family and first husband in 2015; he was later killed in a drone strike while fighting for IS. Police allege her father bought a teenage girl as a slave for roughly $13,000 in 2017, subjecting her to repeated rape and beatings, and claim Ahmad and other family members would have been aware of the abuse given the girl's screams, though Ahmad is not accused of assaulting her directly. Prosecutors cited social media posts from 2015–2017 allegedly calling for violence, while her defence argued she had shown no public support for extremism since February 2017. Her mother, also charged, was granted bail in June, and the judge noted Ahmad's daughter can live with her grandmother in the meantime.