Times Investigation Reveals Systematic Abductions of Alawite Women and Girls in Syria

Since the collapse of Bashar al-Assad's government in December 2024, a systematic campaign of abductions has targeted women and girls from Syria's Alawite minority across at least six governorates, with victims taken in broad daylight from schools, homes, and roadside stops while authorities denied, dismissed, or obstructed nearly every complaint brought to them.

At least 36 Alawite women and girls, aged between three and 40, were abducted and kidnapped across Latakia, Tartous, Homs, and Hama governorates since February 2025, with victims at risk of forced marriage, trafficking, and further abuse. UN experts separately documented 38 abductions spanning Latakia, Tartous, Hama, Homs, Damascus, and Aleppo, with victims taken while travelling to school, visiting relatives, or inside their homes. An earlier investigation uncovered at least 33 cases since March 2025, often involving ransom demands and messages indicating that women had been trafficked out of the country.

The case of 29-year-old Abeer Suleiman, who vanished on May 21 from the town of Safita, illustrates the pattern. Her family received a call from an unknown individual who said, "Don't wait for her." Days later came WhatsApp messages demanding a $15,000 ransom, with threats that she would be killed or trafficked if the payment was not made. Suleiman later appeared in a recorded call, saying, "I am not in Syria… all the accents around me are strange." The call was traced to an Iraqi phone number. Families of the missing received ransom demands ranging from $1,500 to $100,000, and some abductees made brief, desperate calls from unfamiliar places, often with foreign accents audible in the background, indicating they may have been trafficked out of the country.

In all but one of the documented cases, police and security officials failed to effectively investigate the fate and whereabouts of abducted women and girls. In two instances, police blamed the girls themselves for their abduction. One family followed up with the security forces multiple times and even shared the phone number of the alleged abductor who had contacted them, but the lead was dismissed. Families explained that their reluctance to speak publicly stemmed from fear of retaliation from perpetrators who had not been arrested, and from authorities who told families to keep quiet and ordered survivors to deny the abductions had occurred.

Despite the Interior Ministry's denial that Alawite women had been abducted, the Independent International Commission of Inquiry confirmed that violations, most of which targeted Alawite women and girls, continued throughout 2025, including cases of abduction and sexual violence documented in several Syrian governorates. The Commission investigated 21 cases of abducted women, including four girls, across Damascus, Rural Damascus, Latakia, Tartous, Hama, and Homs. In most cases, the perpetrators were unidentified armed individuals or organized criminal groups, with investigations also underway into credible information indicating the involvement of foreign fighters affiliated with factions operating within Syria.

Between December 2024 and early March 2025, at least 18 abductions and killings of Alawite civilians were recorded across Homs, Latakia, Tartous, and Damascus, leaving at least 16 people dead or missing. Perpetrators operated with apparent impunity, and multiple families said authorities refused to accept complaints, obstructed investigations, or gave conflicting accounts of their relatives' whereabouts.

The terror has reshaped daily life along Syria's coast. "All women are on full alert. We can't take a taxi alone, walk alone, or do anything without feeling afraid," said one activist documenting the cases. Mouna Ghanem, spokeswoman for the Supreme Alawite Council and founder of the Women Forum for Peace, said "the reality of Alawite women being abducted is much worse than what Reuters, Amnesty or the UN have reported."

Amnesty International's Secretary-General Agnès Callamard said: "The authorities in Syria have repeatedly promised to build a Syria for all Syrians, yet they are failing to stop abductions and kidnappings of women and girls, to prevent physical abuse, forced marriage and likely trafficking in persons, to effectively investigate and to prosecute those responsible." The UN Commission's findings, published as recently as March 2026, confirm that the crisis has not abated. With no perpetrators prosecuted and no government accountability mechanism in place, Alawite families across the country's coastal heartland are left calculating a new and grimly narrowed version of safety.