The sister of an Australian woman who married an Islamic State fighter has revealed how her sister was “groomed” into travelling to a war zone in Syria where she is now stuck.
A group of 23 Australian children and 11 women with links to the IS terrorist group attempted to return to Australia from a Syrian refugee camp last week.
The Australian government has refused to help the group, with Prime Minister Anthony Albanese saying he has “nothing but contempt” for the women.
One of them is 31-year-old Kirsty Rosse-Emile, who has pleaded with the government to help her and her two children return home since Islamic State was defeated in 2019.
Kirsty Rosse-Emile in Al-Roj camp in Syria, in 2025. (ABC News: Haybar Othman)
Her sister, Krystle Rosse-Emile, has spoken publicly for the first time, telling the ABC about how Kirsty was “influenced” by a much older man to eventually join Islamic State.
“I believe that my sister was naive, you know … not brainwashed, but manipulated,” Krystle said.
Intelligence agency ASIO has deemed one of the 11 women in the cohort poses a high enough national security risk for the government to impose a temporary exclusion order, which bans them from returning to Australia.
The woman’s identity is unclear, but Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke has previously said the woman “is somebody who migrated to Australia under the Howard government” between 1996 and 2007.
Married at 14
Kirsty was born in Australia in 1994 and grew up in the suburb of Dandenong in Melbourne.
“We grew up together. She was just a normal little girl, went to school, played outside,” Krystle said.
Kirsty Rosse-Emile in Australia, before she travelled to Syria. (Supplied)
The family converted to Islam when Kirsty was about seven years old, and she was sent to the Muslim private school Minaret college, according to Krystle.
She said their father was a strict and devout Muslim, but there were no signs of any extremist ideology.
“My dad converted to Islam … I found it hard because I was a teenager, but he was very religious,” she said.
“She [Kirsty] was happy to do it. But she was very quiet.”
Krystle said an older man, a friend of their father’s, would frequently visit their home. She said it was those visits that would become the turning point in her sister’s life.
“He would sit with my dad in the lounge room. Men sit in the lounge room and women sit in the other room,” Krystle said.
Loading…
“I was always wondering why he was coming over. The reason was they got married. She got married at 14.”
The man, Moroccan-born Nabil Kadmiry, would eventually go on to become an Islamic State fighter and be stripped of his Australian citizenship in 2019.
Krystle said Kadmiry was about 20 years older than Kirsty and in 2008, when Kirsty was 14, the couple travelled to Morocco, where child marriages are common.
It is unclear exactly where Kirsty and Kadmiry’s marriage was officiated.
“I cried, honestly, because she was so young,” Krystle said.
“You got to be a child, you got to grow, you got to experience life. She hasn’t. She’s experienced a lot of trauma, a lot of pain.”
Signs of extremism
Kirsty had a two-year-old daughter and was pregnant with her son when the IS “caliphate” fell in 2019.
Kirsty Rosse-Emile in Al-Roj camp in Syria in 2021. (ABC News)
Her father told The Australian at the time she was not a terrorist, and pleaded for the then-Morrison government to help repatriate Kirsty.
Over the years, Kirsty herself has spoken to media about the living conditions inside the Syrian refugee camps and her wish to return to Australia.
But she has always avoided speaking about how and why she went to Syria, on the advice of her lawyers.
“You don’t know my story, you don’t know why I’m here, it’s not my choice to be here,” Kirsty told the ABC last year.
Kirsty Rosse-Emile covers her face with her hands during an interview in 2025. (ABC News: Haybar Othman)
Kirsty’s social media account reportedly contained material supportive of Islamic State as far back as 2012, when she was 18 years old.
Some posts contained slogans such as “Jihad. The only solution”, and “Lions of Islam” on top of pictures of terrorist figures, according to The Australian.
Krystle said she could not explain the posts.
“She never said anything about that to me. I’ve never heard her talk about it. It could have been Nabil,” she said.
Krystle said she had not spoken to Kirsty since her sister left Australia in 2014, and the ABC has not been able to question Kirsty about her past actions or ideology.
Krystle Rosse-Emile says she is worried for the safety of her sister and her sister’s children. (ABC News: Maren Preuss)
Krystle reiterated her belief her sister was too young to understand what she was doing after being married as a teenager to Kadmiry.
“She’s being groomed to do that if she was to do that, if she was a child,” Krystle said.
“Why would you do this to my sister? And why would you do this to her and your kids?”
Sister pleads to ‘give them a chance’
Among the group of 34 Australians in the Al-Roj camp in north-eastern Syria are 23 children, Â who advocacy group Save the Children Australia has previously said are being “left stranded”.
“We believe all children are innocent and should not be held responsible for their parents’ actions,” chief executive Mat Tinkler said in a statement on Monday.
Advocates have described the conditions in the Al-Roj camp as inhumane. (ABC News: Baderkhan Ahmad)
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has said it is “unfortunate” that children are part of the group, and Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said it is “tragic that children are involved”. However, both have said Australia would not, or should not, help the families.
Krystle urged the politicians to be more sympathetic.
“Especially for the children. I think they should have a long, hard look at themselves and think, what are they doing?” Krystle said.
“The kids deserve to have a life, a normal life.”
She also pleaded for the government to help her sister, Kirsty.
“She needs to be with her family. She’s got her kids, she needs her other family,” Krystle said.
“Give them a chance. You give criminals a chance. If they haven’t done anything, give them a chance to come back.”