An Australian woman, identified as Rayann El Houli, 34, has been charged with terrorism offenses after allegedly grooming her young children to become Islamic State terrorists. El Houli returned to Australia last year after living in IS-held territory in Syria for approximately three years, where she had two more children and married two other Australian members of the group, both of whom were later killed. She now faces charges of entering, or remaining in, declared areas and being a member of a terrorist organization.
During a hearing at Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, the Australian Federal Police (AFP) opposed El Houli's bail, arguing she poses a significant threat to the community. Senior Constable Paul Sherlock stated that no bail restrictions could adequately mitigate the risk she presents. Prosecutors allege that over a period of at least two years, El Houli filmed her children, who were toddlers at the time, being exposed to graphic extremist propaganda.
Several videos allegedly feature El Houli coaching her eldest daughter on how to handle a toy weapon like a mujahideen fighter. One video from May 2015 reportedly shows El Houli prompting her child with scripted questions about violence and religious duty, set against jihadist chanting. In one exchange, El Houli allegedly asks her daughter about the mujahideen and what happens to ‘disbelievers,’ with the child prompted to answer ‘Hellfire.’ El Houli then allegedly asks, ‘Did you see how the mujahideen killed the kuffar, the infidels, with the knife? Look at me – how do they sword them with the knife? How do they slaughter him with the knife?’
A second video from March 2016 reportedly shows El Houli exposing two of her children to propaganda in French and Arabic aimed at Western audiences. A third video filmed days later allegedly captures El Houli instructing a child on how to hold a toy gun like a terrorist and asking the child to demonstrate how fighters slaughter opponents with a knife. The AFP contends these recordings were not passive exposure but a deliberate pattern of behavior, with El Houli using her children as subjects in extremist media over approximately ten months.
These videos were reportedly discovered years later on the phones of El Houli's relatives in Australia. Between 2019 and 2020, AFP investigators executed search warrants on family members' homes, seizing devices that revealed years of WhatsApp communication between El Houli in Syria and her family. These devices contained the alleged propaganda videos and images of her children in a room with an assault rifle leaning against a wall.
El Houli was held by Kurdish authorities in the al-Hawl camp with family members since March 2019, following the territorial defeat of the Islamic State. She returned to Australia last year. The return of other women with alleged ISIS ties, including Kawsar Abbas and her daughters, in May led authorities to also charge El Houli. Abbas and her daughter Zeinab Ahmad have also been accused of crimes against humanity and slavery-related offenses.
El Houli's barrister, Peter Morrissey SC, stated at an earlier hearing that his client has rejected the Islamic State and wishes to have no association with the group. He asserted that El Houli renounces ISIS and violent jihad, not for herself but for her children and loved ones. The court heard El Houli had been offered deradicalization counseling upon her return to Australia but initially declined. The hearing is ongoing.