ByDANIELLE GREYMAN-KENNARD

JUNE 22, 2026 13:18

Updated: JUNE 22, 2026 14:05

Content warning: The following content contains graphic descriptions of sexual assault and abuse that some readers may find disturbing.

Nearly 60 percent of women seized amid last year's sectarian assaults in western Hama countryside and Homs have yet to return home, based on findings released last month by the Syrian Feminist Lobby.

The study titled Abduction of Syrian Women: A War on Dignity contends that attacks on women from minority groups, especially Druze and Alawite communities, stem from eroded state structures, diminished legal authority, and rising tolerance for wrongdoing.

During 2025 the Syrian Feminist Lobby tracked 82 abduction incidents spanning the Syrian coast, western Hama countryside, and Homs. Girls represented 10 percent of victims, and 90 percent were women between ages 15 and 40.

At the time of release only 40 percent of the abducted women had regained freedom. The group noted that many released individuals endured extortion and mistreatment while held captive.

Referencing a March assessment from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the lobby highlighted ineffective official responses to reports. Complaints were logged yet ignored, and authorities sometimes urged families to drop their efforts.

Ransom requests appeared in few instances and seldom included evidence of survival or whereabouts. In one situation payment was made without the woman's return.

Relatives also received messages urging them to abandon hope for their missing daughters. Some families got calls from domestic and overseas lines cautioning that further searches could lead to the women being returned deceased.

In several situations husbands received divorce documents thought to be signed under duress. At least one minor was compelled into marriage.

Drawing from confirmed reports alone, 190 women and girls vanished following the July assaults on the Druze population in Sweida. Some resurfaced once communications resumed, yet others stay missing.

The lobby observed that numerous abducted women gained release via negotiations or prisoner swaps. In certain instances fatalities were verified during these processes, although details stay unclear.

The document explains that women served as bargaining tools against local groups for political aims. "Such targeting followed periods of sectarian agitation and hateful rhetoric in outlets and online platforms. The trend illustrates how gender-based harm intersects with sectarian aims, turning women's bodies into signals directed at entire communities," the lobby concluded.

Amid extrajudicial executions in Sweida, where men faced religiously tinged insults before brutal deaths, the report also notes instances of women being undressed prior to killing, with some bodies disfigured or set ablaze. Images of remains later spread online. It further references the assault of a young girl before her mother and the seizure of children as young as 11 months. The youngest captive still held is 15.

The effects of these events persist for survivors, who now confront serious mental, communal, and financial hardships, according to the report. It cautions that restricted witness safeguards and justice pathways heighten risks. Many women in Homs reported staying indoors out of fear of public seizure, while others withdrew from schooling due to concerns over additional harm.

Drugged, confined in darkness, terror wielded as control

Women who fled or were freed recounted being sedated, kept in unlit spaces, and shifted across sites. One survivor described masked gunmen compelling abducted women to don full-body black niqabs before depositing them at the seizure location and warning them against speaking out.

"This warning reveals how harm continues past captivity. Terror serves to impose quiet and retain power over survivors and relatives," the lobby observed.

Some women noted seeing funds transferred during handovers, which the lobby interprets as evidence of human trafficking ties. Others recalled hearing varied accents and foreign-inflected Arabic.

One survivor reported enduring sexual violence and isolation for a week. She stated captors made her film a statement claiming voluntary departure with a partner. A figure called "the sheikh" oversaw the recording and pushed her to accept divorce plus marriage to her abductor for freedom.

"This approach shows the deployment of pressure to craft false accounts that erase the offense and position the survivor as a means to hide the act instead of recording it," the report declares.

The incident, akin to one cited in the UN assessment, also claims police viewed the survivor as an offender and issued a religious edict against her prior to release. The lobby asserts her legal aid was blocked, and her abductor secured security details on her, "pointing to connections with state entities."

In Syria extramarital relations constitute a crime carrying sentences from three months to two years based on location. Islamist officials have also carried out executions of women accused of such relations.

The report highlights prominent religious elements in many situations. Abductors reportedly positioned themselves as a "lifeline" while threatening death to "infidel Nusayris," a slur for Alawites. Victims were allegedly pressured to convert, wed captors, and follow religious customs including the niqab and ceremonies.

Multiple survivors described transport through checkpoints where security staff appeared to engage familiarly with abductors.

Several women also reported seeing abductors in military-style attire similar to General Security uniforms or armed factions with red headbands, which the report suggests may indicate roles for auxiliary units or linked actors.

Official indifference noted

The report also points to troubling official reactions, such as families being informed their daughters were "immoral," had "departed willingly," or could not be managed. The lobby stated these remarks erode confidence in justice bodies and restrict avenues for redress.

In one instance a survivor was detained over five hours without medical or mental health support by General Security, while her father was held for hours before meeting her.

Other survivors were required to provide statements inside security sites alongside individuals allegedly connected to their abductors, and warned of isolation if they declined. Some accounts were later aired publicly.

"I lost faith in others. For many years I felt great zeal. When we joined protests or meetings we sensed connection to Syrians and to Syria. Now that sense is gone. I also sense diminished hope for what lies ahead. What future awaits us?" a survivor of the Sweida events told the lobby. "I hold no confidence in politics or in the wider world. Both let us down. Politics chases gains without regard for individuals and their fates. The world too lacks fairness, and all discussion of human rights or shared humanity carries no weight."

The report indicates survivors were guided to echo thanks to security bodies and deny abductions while barred from identifying perpetrators or detailing holding sites. It argues this breaches the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and hinders probes.

It also records agitation in official or partly official media against investigators and women rights advocates.

The lobby said authorities largely ignored the accounts. Syria's Interior Ministry reportedly claimed 41 of 43 reported Alawite women abductions were fabricated, further damaging faith in legal systems.