Australian woman was 'Sharia judge' in Syrian ISIS camp, ABC told

Sydney woman Hodan Abby is accused of acting as a "Sharia judge" and enforcer in Syria's al-Roj detention camp, where she allegedly threatened women with a knife and a niqab to enforce Islamic State ideology. Abby, the last known Australian woman linked to ISIS in Syria, faces allegations of arranging marriages and bribing detainees for loyalty.

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She is known in the camps to the people I'm in touch with and they say that she was very radical.

A security source described Abby as a "cunning, threatening figure" and the "driving force" behind camp disturbances. The source claims Abby admitted to taking orders from ISIS commanders and was twice imprisoned in the camp's informal detention facility in 2021 and 2022.

Former US diplomat Peter Galbraith corroborated these accounts, stating his sources also called Abby an IS "true believer." He reported allegations that Abby, along with another woman, forced inmates to repent and recite the Shahada. His sources also claim Abby hit another woman with a hammer in 2021 following an ideological dispute.

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She would try to enforce Islamic dress, that she made people, along with another woman, go to their tents [and] make them repent any supposed sins they committed, to say the Shahada [Islamic declaration of faith].

Galbraith's sources indicated Abby spent significant time soliciting donations online from ISIS men. They found no evidence that Abby was coerced into following ISIS ideology in the camps. Abby was issued a Temporary Exclusion Order in February, which was later revoked and replaced with a return permit.

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In 2021 she allegedly hit a woman with a hammer.