Walking through Al-Hawl camp in northeastern Syria, the women pass in a sea of black.
Most women wear a niqab - the Islamic dress that covers everything but the eyes - either because they're affiliated with Islamic State, or afraid of the women who are.
One Australian woman emerged from the camp to talk to AAP wearing a coloured hijab, which shows the complete face. She is not wearing the black gloves required under IS, and she has nose and eyebrow piercings.
It's a brave move. A number of people have been murdered recently by women in the camp still who remain affiliated with IS, for not adhering to their radical form of Islam.
She had to move to a section of the camp monitored by cameras after being threatened with having her tent burnt down.
Children gather inside the Al-Hawl camp which houses relatives of Islamic State (IS) group members. Source: AFP
"I tried to escape ISIS for years and now I come here and I'm still not safe," the woman told AAP.
"It's a little Islamic State, you're still between the same people, they're still trying to imply their laws in the camp."
Though not wanting to declare her name, she appears to be Zehra Duman, the Melbourne woman who travelled to Syria in 2014.
Around 72,000 people are now residing in Al-Hawl camp, according to the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
Among them are are about sixty women and children from Australia, who arrived from the last IS stronghold in Baghouz six months ago.
Now 24 years of age and the mother of two small children, the woman lit a cigarette - also forbidden under radical IS ideology - before telling AAP that she wants her story to be told.
She spoke hurriedly, knowing there was limited time to talk.
"Two weeks before I came here I was clubbing. I wasn't religious," she said.
The catalyst for her travelling to Syria was an ex-boyfriend in Australia who threatened and stalked her. Another friend of hers, who had travelled to Syria from Melbourne, took advantage of that vulnerability.
"This guy I used to like from high school, he was good looking and stuff, he said: 'Look, I'm in Syria and it's not what you think, come and get married to me and I can give you a nice life'," she said.
Women living inside Al-Hawl camp which houses relatives of Islamic State group members, walk inside the site in al-Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria. Source: AFP
She understood at the time that IS was active in the region, but this man - previously reported to be Mahmoud Abdullatif - told her not to believe the news in Australia.
She arrived in Syria, and the pair married in November 2014 in the north of the war-torn country. A month-and-a-half later, her husband was killed in Syrian government airstrikes.
The woman claims she's wanted to leave Syria ever since his death.
"The first time I had balls to leave was after I gave birth to my son," she said.
She made contact with smugglers to try to leave of IS-held territory, but the group found the messages and placed her in home detention.
"Basically you come here willingly but if you want to leave, if you want to go back to your old life ... they ripped up your passport."
In order to get out of detention, she needed to remarry.
"My last husband had good intentions. He felt sorry for me, he knew I wanted to leave and they're oppressing me. So he married me," she said.
Her second husband was killed in January this year, just before the final battle against IS by coalition forces in Baghouz.
"I had a breakdown and a half, because I knew he was my only way out."
A veiled woman sits next to a tray of bread inside the camp in al-Hasakeh governorate in northeastern Syria. Source: AFP
Just as a human corridor was opened up by the coalition and the Kurdish-majority Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the Australian woman gave birth to a girl through a cesarean section.
"I wanted to get out of there, there was really hard bombing ... not just then, always, but in the last days it was so intense."
She and her two children were some of the first people to leave Baghouz, surrendering to the SDF.
She explained the trauma of being under bombardment for so many years is unmanageable for her and her children.
"You know what happens when I hear a plane now, or even a garbage bin, automatically my body has diarrhea," she explained.
Her son is not only traumatised from seeing so much death, but also evidently has staphylococcus, as seen from the boil-like clusters all over his legs.
Women and children walk inside the camp. Source: AFP
"You know what my son says when [my daughter] is sleeping, look Mummy [she's] dead. This is messed up, he's three years old, how can he know what death is?"
She hopes for her children's sake that Australia will take them back soon.
"Forget me, I just want my kids to see my family, to see hospitals, medication, psychologists, have a normal childhood," she said.
SDF Spokesperson Mustafa Bali told AAP no foreign governments are cooperating on the issue of women and children in Al-Hawl.
"Especially the Australian Government they haven't done anything so far," Bali said.
He pointed out that the SDF have limited resources to continue providing for families in the camps.
"None of the governments are providing any money [for aid]. We are paying from the food of our kids actually."
"When we talk about the foreigners, the first thing that comes to our minds is their countries need to have responsibility towards them, it means they need to take them."
Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton's office did not respond to AAP's request for comment.
The woman understands there's no way out of the camp unless the government repatriates them.
She's aware she could face trial and prison, and says she would score a "triple A+" in a de-radicalisation program.
The woman repeatedly called herself an idiot for travelling to Syria.
"I want the Australians to know ... my intention right now is to show that we're not all the same. Some of us want help."
