The abduction and sexual abuse of Alawite women and girls in Syria have become a growing concern for human rights investigators, with a comparative assessment by the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF) identifying recurring patterns of sectarian targeting, forced marriage, sexual violence and alleged obstruction by security institutions since the fall of Bashar al-Assad in late 2024.
The report, published in 2026/27 and authored by Jens Kreinath, examines international journalism, human rights investigations, United Nations communications, activist documentation and survivor testimony. Its central finding is that the reported incidents cannot be understood solely as isolated criminal acts. The assessment identifies patterns involving organised networks, religious profiling, coerced statements and the suppression of evidence, while acknowledging substantial difficulties in independently verifying individual cases and establishing responsibility.
The new Sunni-dominated interim government inherited a fractured security apparatus and an unstable environment marked by sectarian tensions, revenge killings and displacement. Between January 2025 and July 2026, reports of abductions and abuse emerged from Syria’s western and central regions, principally affecting Alawite women and girls, but also including victims from Christian, Shi’ite, Druze and Kurdish communities.
The IIRF’s principal dataset contains 64 anonymised cases. Women and girls were reportedly abducted from streets, university campuses, health centres, transport terminals and village roads while travelling to school, visiting clinics, buying bread, going to work or returning home. Victims included schoolgirls as young as 11, university students, young mothers, pregnant women, teachers and university faculty.
In numerous cases, abductors reportedly questioned women about their religious identity before seizing them. Those identifying as Alawite were allegedly taken at gunpoint and subjected to sectarian insults and threats. Survivors who returned displayed injuries including razor cuts, bruising, beatings, slashing and hair removal. Some were reportedly held underground, deprived of food or subjected to prolonged psychological distress.
The assessment also documents allegations of forced marriage during captivity, including marriages to strangers or individuals associated with armed groups. Some women were reportedly compelled to record videos claiming they had left voluntarily or married willingly. The IIRF argues that such statements were intended to conceal the circumstances of disappearances and protect perpetrators from accountability.
Sexual violence is strongly indicated in several cases, although the report notes that survivors’ accounts are frequently constrained by stigma, fear and coercion. Forced marriage, psychological distress following release and the detention of returning survivors by security forces are among the indicators identified. The report stresses that these circumstances warrant further investigation rather than treating every allegation as independently established.
The alleged involvement of state institutions is a central element of the assessment. Families seeking to report disappearances described police refusing referrals, surveillance cameras being declared non-functional, telecommunications data being withheld and complaints being blocked. In several cases, security personnel allegedly detained returning survivors, interrogated them and forced them to adopt fabricated accounts of their disappearances.
Relatives seeking information were reportedly arrested or threatened, while families were instructed not to publish photographs, report kidnappings or speak publicly. In one case, a family was allegedly warned that its entire village would be destroyed if it continued searching for an abducted relative.
“These actions constitute not only state obstruction but also clear evidence of state complicity in the abduction and abuse of minority women,” the report said.
The assessment also places the disappearances within the wider violence of March 2025, when Alawite neighbourhoods in Baniyas, Latakia, Tartous and Hama were attacked, homes were burned and families were killed. The IIRF links the subsequent abductions to the broader vulnerability of minority communities, while its review of international reporting identifies both sectarian retaliation and opportunistic criminality as possible motivations.
The scale of the allegations remains contested. In November 2025, a Syrian government-led inquiry examined 42 cases of alleged abductions during the March violence. Interior Ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba said the committee concluded that only one case constituted a kidnapping and that the woman had been safely returned. The remaining 41 cases were classified as non-criminal events.
The committee attributed 12 cases to elopement with romantic partners, nine to temporary stays with relatives or friends, six to women fleeing domestic violence, six to false allegations circulated on social media, four to extortion or prostitution, and four to criminal offences allegedly committed by the women themselves.
The IIRF argues that this classification recast allegations of gender-based and sectarian violence as private or non-criminal matters. It said the inquiry’s findings differed significantly from documentation by Amnesty International and other organisations. The assessment, however, notes that the government inquiry’s investigative procedures, evidentiary standards and access to victims were not sufficiently detailed to permit an independent evaluation of its findings.
Amnesty International documented 36 cases in July 2025, involving victims aged between three and 40. Eight cases were investigated through direct interviews with relatives, while 28 were cross-checked through activists, journalists and the Syrian Feminist Lobby. Amnesty concluded that police and security officials had failed to conduct meaningful investigations in all but one case and had actively obstructed families in several instances.
United Nations Special Procedures expressed concern in July 2025 over reports of 38 abducted Alawite women and girls across six governorates: Latakia, Tartous, Hama, Homs, Damascus and Aleppo. The experts cited reports of drugging, physical assault, threats and forced marriage, including of minors, and called for independent investigations and safe reporting mechanisms.
Documentation by the Institute for the Documentation of Human Rights Violations against Religious Minorities in the Levant, known as IDHRV-ARMIL, identified 98 reported female abductions in September 2025, including 86 Alawite women. The organisation said 58 cases had been verified through direct engagement with families and that General Security involvement had been confirmed in 10 verified cases.
The IIRF cautions that documentation remains constrained by survivor intimidation, inaccessible investigative records, anonymous testimony and incomplete verification. Its assessment concludes that independent evidence collection, survivor protection and impartial investigations are necessary to establish the extent of the abuses and determine responsibility.
