Last week, four women and nine children associated with the Islamic State returned to Australia from Syria. Three of the women have been charged with serious offences, including alleged enslavement of a Yazidi woman. Dr Helen Stenger has provided analysis in The Conversation drawing on her research on what makes rehabilitation and reintegration of ISIS-linked women effective. She is available to discuss the international evidence and what Australia can learn from countries that have already walked this path.
Dr Helen Stenger, Research Fellow, ARC Centre of Excellence for the Elimination of Violence against Women (CEVAW), Monash University
Contact: 0423 513 006 or [email protected] or [email protected]
Comments attributable to Dr Stenger:
"Australia is not starting from scratch. Thirty-one Australian women and children have previously returned from Syria, the majority with government assistance, and none has been linked to criminal acts since coming home. The pressing question is not whether Australia has the institutional capacity to support these returns, but what makes reintegration effective.
"How Australia responds to these returns will be a litmus test for social cohesion. The returns could lead to increased Islamophobia, and failing to confront that risks compounding the marginalisation that Islamist and far-right extremists exploit. Getting this right matters not just for those who returned last week, but for the Australians who remain in the Syrian camps and the children who deserve a path to recovery they cannot have in Syria."
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