Jihadist bride Zehra Duman regains Australian citizenship after joining Islamic State in Syria and sending threatening messages to Daily Mail reporter

Australia’s first jihadist bride has had her Australian citizenship formally restored, and taxpayers will pay her legal fees.

Zehra Duman, a former student at Isik College Keysborough in Melbourne, became a notorious online supporter of ISIS after moving to Syria in 2014 to marry Melbourne jihadist Mahmoud Abdullatif.

Known as the “playboy jihadi,” Abdullatif was killed in 2015, and Duman is said to have married two other ISIS fighters.

Duman was a leading ISIS recruiter on social media, posing with machine guns and on the hoods of luxury cars stolen by the terrorists as she urged other Westerners to leave civilization and join their deadly Islamist regime.

She also sent a threatening message to a Daily Mail reporter after being approached in 2015 about some disturbing messages she posted on Twitter.

Known as the ‘playboy jihadi’, Mahmoud Abdullatif was killed in 2015 and Duman is said to have been married to other ISIS fighters twice more

In 2019, Duman was told that her Australian citizenship had been reprimanded as a result of her membership and support of ISIS.

She filed an appeal in 2020 for herself and her two children.

The case was not formally resolved until last week, when the Supreme Court signed a consent order stating: “The court declares that the first plaintiff is an Australian citizen.”

The Commonwealth of Australia, as defendant, has been ordered to pay its legal costs, according to The Australian.

It is understood that Duman and her family lived in Turkey after she escaped from al-Hawl detention camp for ISIS families in 2021 and crossed the border between Turkey and Syria.

She was taken into custody but released into the community shortly after.

During her time in Syria, Duman used social media to advocate for attacks against the West, calling for the deaths of opponents of the ISIS regime and launching attacks against Australia, the UK and the US.

In 2015, Duman sent a threatening message to a Daily Mail reporter after she was contacted for comment.

She told Daily Mail Australia at the time: ‘All you need to know is the next time I ever step into Australia is when we come and make it part of the Islamic State bi’thnillah.

‘Oh and do I miss my family? Well, I think you’ll soon miss yours (sic). Thank you and have a nice day!’

Duman sent a threatening message to a Daily Mail reporter on January 22, 2015 (pictured)

Duman was a key ISIS recruiter on social media, posing with machine guns and on the hoods of stolen luxury cars

Duman left Melbourne at the age of 19 to join the terror group. In the photo: Duman next to aid workers

Duman’s reinstatement of citizenship comes nearly a year after the federal government advised her legal team not to contest her claim for her citizenship reinstatement.

It followed the dissolution of the previous coalition government’s termination of citizenship laws in June last year, which were found invalid by the Supreme Court because they relied on ministerial rather than judicial decision.

The collapse of the laws made about a dozen ISIS fighters, members and supporters eligible for immediate reinstatement of their citizenship.

While Duman’s appeal was the first appeal filed against the laws, the case that overturned the legislation involved Delil Alexander, who is imprisoned in the Syrian capital of Damascus.

His family appealed against him and his case was upheld in June last year.

Both Alexander and Duman have dual Turkish-Australian nationality.

The government plans to close the loophole created by ending citizenship termination laws with legislation requiring a court order to strip citizenship from an Australian dual citizen.

Propaganda photos posted on social media showed a series of extremist women standing under an Islamic State banner

In 2015, a Twitter account believed to be operated by Duman posted photos of ISIS women carrying assault rifles and standing next to luxury cars, dressed head-to-toe in Islamic clothing.

In a tweet, Duman said, “USA + Australia, how does it feel that all five of us were born and raised in your country, and now here thirsty for your blood?”

In other tweets, Duman called for violence against “kuffars,” or non-Muslims.

‘Stab them and poison them. Poison your teachers, go to haram restaurants and poison the food in large quantities,” she wrote.

ISIS was finally defeated in 2018 after several years of fighting in Iraq and Syria.

The defeat displaced thousands of jihadist brides who had fled their homeland to fight and marry ISIS soldiers.