using social media to recruit volunteers for jihadism
Zehra Duman (born 1993) is an Australian-born Turkish[1] woman who travelled to Daesh territory where she married a jihadi fighter.[2] Born in Melbourne, Duman is reported to have been a friend of Tara Nettleton and Khaled Sharrouf, who travelled from Australia to Daesh territory, with their five children, in 2014.[3][4] Duman's online recruiting activities have been the subject of scholarly attention.[5][6][7]
Duman married an Australian jihadist named Mahmoud Abdullatif, who was killed in action five weeks after their marriage.[8]
Duman was described as an active recruiter of volunteers, who taunted Australian authorities to "catch me if you can".[9] In "Fatal Attraction: Western Muslimas and ISIS", Anita Perešin identified Duman as a female jihad supporter who claimed to want to personally undertake suicide mission or engage in combat.[5]
Photos Duman tweeted, of herself and four other women, clad head to toe in black, holding AK-47 rifles, and posing over an expensive sports car, have been widely republished.[7][10]
In February 2019, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation obtained a video of Duman, where she described herself as the best friend of late Tara Nettleton, who died in 2015.[11] In the video she said that Nettleton's three surviving children, Zaynab Sharrouf, Hoda Sharrouf and Hamzah Sharrouf, remained in the Daesh-occupied territory, but that they were "fine", the last time she saw them.
On 28 February 2019, Dateline interviewed Duman's mother, who had recently heard from Duman.[12] Duman's mother told Naima Brown of Dateline that, by 2017, Duman had grown disenchanted with Daesh, and wanted to come home to Australia, but could not because of Daesh's intense scrutiny of those living in its territory.
On 14 March 2019, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that an Australian woman who declined to identify herself, but who was believed to be Duman, was staying in the al Hawl refugee camp, trying to return to Australia with her two children.[13] She described a significant shortage of food, and she feared her six-month-old daughter would starve to death. On 7 October 2019, Duman's Australian citizenship was revoked.[14][15]
The New Daily reported that Duman, and other Australian citizens, had been taken from the Al Hawl camp, in mid 2019.[16] The Australian citizens were hooded, so they would not know where they were. They reported that the other Australians were taken to Iraq, where they met with Australian officials, while Duman was detained in an unknown location. There was speculation that she was removed for her own protection as the most devout followers of the ISIS philosophy in the camp disapproved of signs she had abandoned radicalism. In particular, she had stopped covering her head, and had taken up smoking cigarettes. She was returned to the camp without any explanation.
In December 2019, the Herald-Sun cited Duman as an example, when it quoted an American official who called on US allies, like Australia, to repatriate their citizens instead of stripping them of citizenship.[15] he official argued that stripping citizens of citizenship can backfire, and trigger them to acts of violence.
In February 2020, The Australian discussed what was known about the citizenship of Duman's two children, who were born in Daesh controlled Syria.[17] It questioned whether these children, who had Australian grandparents, should be denied Australian citizenship because their mother had been stripped of citizenship.
The Guardian reported that Duman and her children were still in the Al Hawl refugee camp, in June 2020.[18] Duman was reported to have mounted a challenge over the legality of the law that stripped her of Australian citizenship.[19]
^Andrea Hamblin (14 December 2014). "Jihad bride spouts hate on social media". Herald Sun. Archived from the original on 17 May 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2019. The former Isik College Keysborough student declared she would burn her Australian passport as she travelled to meet Mahmoud Abullatif, a former Melbourne party boy-turned Muslim extremist who earlier this year joined the barbaric IS terrorist fighters in the Middle East.
^ abAnita Perešin (2015). "Fatal Attraction: Western Muslimas and ISIS". Perspectives on Terrorism. 9 (3). Archived from the original on 13 April 2018. Retrieved 22 February 2019. The same intention was expressed by Umm Layth who told her father, shortly after she arrived in Syria, that she wanted to become a martyr and would see him again on the "day of judgment," while Zehra Duman often tweets about her own personal wish to undertake istishad-operations [suicide missions].
^ abAnne Speckhard (20 October 2015). "The Hypnotic Power of ISIS Imagery in Recruiting Western Youth". International Center for the Study of Violent Extremism. Zehra Duman, a female ISIS bride from Melbourne, Australia for instance posted this photo with the media caption, 5 Star Jihad. M5 in the land of Sham, he he. She was alluding to the BMW the women were seated upon implying that life is good for women in ISIS.
^Sally Rawthorned (28 February 2019). "'They are safe, that's the main thing': Sydney ISIS children reported alive". Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 28 February 2019. Retrieved 14 September 2022. A video obtained by the ABC shows Australia's first ISIS bride Zehran Duman, who left Melbourne in 2014 to live under the Caliphate where she married Melbourne man Mahmoud Abdullatif, claiming that the three children are 'fine'.
^Naima Brown (28 February 2019). "Mother of Australian 'IS bride' begs government 'please bring my daughter home'". Dateline. Archived from the original on 12 March 2019. Retrieved 13 March 2019. Now, she is believed to be waiting alongside fellow former IS brides British Shemima Begum and American Hoda Muthana in Al-Hol, a makeshift camp for displaced people in Syria and is hoping to come home to Australia.
^Samantha Maiden (13 October 2019). "Labor calls for return of ISIS wives and children from Syria". The New Daily. Retrieved 22 July 2020. But while the other mothers and children were taken to Iraq, where they met Australian officials, Ms Duman was detained with her two children in Syria. She does not know where she was imprisoned, why she was imprisoned or why she was released and returned to the camps.
^Rodger Shanahan (21 February 2020). "ISIS brides made their bed; do we let them lie?". The Australian. Retrieved 22 July 2020. For mothers who are no longer citizens, the situation is even more complex. Zehra Duman is now only a Turkish citizen and presumably will never be allowed to return to Australia. To the best of our knowledge she has two children to two Australian jihadists, both dead. Are they Australian or Turkish children, or both? Can the Australian government be granted or exercise custody of those children and what rights do two sets of Australian paternal grandparents have regarding custody of their respective grandchildren? Would the children be better off in Turkey with their mother or in Australia without her?
^Paul Karp (9 June 2020). "Woman stripped of Australian citizenship over alleged Isis role launches bid to overturn law". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 July 2020. Duman's case is the first of its kind, challenging laws passed by the Abbott government in 2015 creating powers to strip Australian citizenship from dual nationals convicted of terrorist offences or deemed to have renounced citizenship by their own conduct, even without a conviction.
^Beattie, Tracy; Crichton-Standish, Hal; Impiombato, Daria; Pascoe, Alexandra; Zhang, Albert (12 June 2020). "National security wrap". The Strategist. Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Retrieved 22 July 2020. Zehra Duman, who was stripped of her Australian citizenship for alleged ties with the Islamic State terror group in 2016, has lodged a High Court challenge to the decision from Syria. Duman, who was born in Australia and also has Turkish citizenship, claims legislation that allows for the removal of Australian citizenship from dual nationals does not apply to her.
