Alawite women in Syria kidnapped in broad daylight under HTS rule: Report

Dozens of women from the minority Alawite sect have been kidnapped in Syria since the former al-Qaeda affiliate Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) took over the country last December.

At least 33 women and girls from the Alawite sect - aged between 16 and 39 - have been abducted or gone missing in Syria this year, Reuters reported Friday.

Abeer Suleiman, the 29-year-old woman who was abducted on May 21 from the Syrian town of Safita, is one of them.

According to the report, Suleiman's kidnapper and another man, who identified himself as an intermediary, demanded a ransom of $15,000 in subsequent calls and messages, threatening to kill or traffic her into slavery if the ransom was not paid.

"I am not in Syria," Suleiman told her family in a call late last month from the same phone number used by her captor, which had an Iraqi country code.

"All the accents around me are strange."

Once her family transferred the sum as instructed to three money-transfer accounts in the Turkish city of Izmir, the abductor and intermediary ceased all contact, with their phones turned off, a close relative told Reuters. Suleiman's family still has no idea about her fate.

According to the report, all the 33 women disappeared in Tartous, Latakia and Hama, governorates with large Alawite populations.  

Most of the interviewed families said they “felt police didn't take their cases seriously when they reported their loved ones missing or abducted, and that authorities failed to investigate thoroughly.”

Amid a spike in reports this year, the UN Commission of Inquiry on Syria has been investigating the disappearances and abductions of Alawite women. The commission will report to the UN Human Rights Council once the investigations are concluded, a spokesperson said.

According to families of missing women, most of them vanished in broad daylight, while running errands or travelling on public transport.

Syrian rights advocate Yamen Hussein, who has been tracking the disappearances of women this year, said most had taken place in the wake of the March massacre of Alawite civilians in their coastal heartlands at the hands of armed factions affiliated to the current administration.

The activist said as far as he knew, only women from the Alawite sect of former President Bashar Assad had been targeted.

He described a widespread feeling of fear among Alawites that forced some women and girls in Tartous, Latakia and Hama to stay away from school or college to avoid being targeted.

"For sure, we have a real issue here where Alawite women are being targeted with abductions," Hussein said, adding "Targeting women of the defeated party is a humiliation tactic."

According to the report, new messages and video clips posted on social media by families of missing Alawite women appealing for information about them are cropping up almost daily.

The latest developments come while the HTS administration has sought to assure religious and ethnic minorities that their rights would be upheld.

The Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham militant group along with other militant groups seized control of Damascus on December 8, 2024, forcing Assad to leave the country.

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