Syrian government understating kidnappings of Alawite women: report
Syria's government is understating the kidnapping, disappearance and violent and sexual abuse of women from the Alawite community, according to a new investigation.
Since ousting former President Bashar al-Assad in December 2024, the transitional government led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa said it has confirmed only one case of an Alawite woman being targeted by kidnappers.
However, a new investigation by the New York Times has verified at least 13 kidnappings of Alawite women and girls. Five of those confirmed said they were raped while in captivity, with two coming home pregnant.
The investigation bolsters previous reports by Amnesty International, who said in July they had credible reports of 36 similar kidnappings, and the Syrian Feminist Lobby, which counted 80 Alawite women and girls having disappeared since early 2025.
Some of those kidnapped say they were subjected to sectarian abuse, framing the kidnappings as revenge attacks against the Alawite community, to which the Assad family belonged.
Others characterised them as purely criminal in nature.
The family of one woman who spoke to the New York Times said they sent $17,000 to kidnappers, who never released her.
Another 24-year-old said she had been held for three weeks in a filthy room where she was repeatedly raped, beaten and had her head and eyebrows shaved. She was also cut with razor blades. She was released after her parents paid a ransom.
Revenge attacks
Tensions between the new government and the Alawite community have been high since Assad was overthrown.
Last year, armed attacks on security forces by suspected Assad loyalists in the coastal Alawite heartland of Latakia spiralled into brutal sectarian bloodshed.
At least 1,500 Alawites were killed in the subsequent violence, with a Reuters investigation tracing much of the violence back to security officials in Damascus.
Nour al-Din Baba, the Interior Ministry spokesman, told the New York Times he could not respond to the investigation unless the outlet provided the names of those it had spoken to, which the newspaper declined to do after promising them anonymity.
He told the outlet that he stood by a government investigation released in November that examined 42 reported kidnappings and found that only one of them was “real”.
Syria's 13-year war, which saw hundreds of thousands killed and millions displaced both internally and externally, was sparked in 2011 after government forces opened fire on pro-democracy activists.
While some Alawites supported the pro-democracy movement initially, a combination of government persecution and fears over the increasing proliferation of sectarian armed groups among the opposition saw much of the community throw its weight behind Assad.
With the president's ousting and flight to Moscow, there have been increasing calls from Alawites for protection from sectarian revenge attacks.
During a visit to London on Tuesday, Sharaa was subjected to protests from Alawites and Alevis – a similar, generally Turkish or Kurdish sect – who accused him of facilitating a "genocide" in Syria.
"At a time when Syrians continue to endure displacement, insecurity, and marginalisation, allowing such a figure to enter the UK risks sending the wrong message: that accountability can be overlooked, and that those associated with violence can be normalised on the international stage," said Maher Hamadouch, director of the Syrian Coastal Society (SCS), a UK-based advocacy group for Alawites.
Hamadouch, who has previously defended Assad's rule over Syria, told Middle East Eye that the SCS was calling on the UK government to deny "any platform or legitimacy to individuals linked to extremist activity or human rights abuses".
"[Sharaa’s] record is inseparable from violence, sectarianism and the repression of civilian populations in Syria," he added.
This article was sourced from Middle East Eye.
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