Alawite women face systematic sexual violence in Syria, report finds

Gender-based violence against Alawite women has become a tool for sectarian and “political score-settling” in Syria since the fall of the Assad regime nearly two years ago, with the new authorities complicit in the rape and abductions through the obstruction of investigations, a report published by the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF) alleged. Survivors, families and civil society organizations have repeatedly documented a pattern of kidnappings targeting women and girls, involving sexual violence, ransom demands and explicit targeting based on communal identity, the report said.

The IIRF noted that Syria’s new Sunni-dominated interim government inherited a fractured security apparatus and a volatile security environment. Against this backdrop, Alawite women have been kidnapped, raped, forcibly married or held as ṣabaya (sex slaves), the report said. Analyzing 64 anonymized cases, the report identified what it described as a targeted campaign of sexual violence against the religious minority “that cannot be understood as isolated criminal acts.” It said the cases pointed to “organized operations, coordinated networks, a strategic media campaign, and clear indications of state complicity, intentional suppression of evidence, and the calculated silencing of victims of sexual violence.”

In many of the cases examined, survivors’ accounts, videos, and witness testimony indicated that women were questioned about their religious identity before being abducted. Women who identified themselves as Alawite were reportedly taken at gunpoint and subjected to sectarian abuse. Many who returned showed signs of torture, including razor cuts, bruising and shaved heads. Alawite women subjected to forced marriage, torture, sexual violence, report alleges

According to the report, some abducted women were held underground and starved, while others were forced to marry strangers aligned with armed groups during their captivity. In several cases, abductors forced women to record videos claiming they had “run away voluntarily” or “married willingly,” contradicting family testimony and the circumstances of their disappearances. The IIRF warned that these coerced narratives were used to shield perpetrators from accountability, which was already difficult to achieve because of the social stigma and fear surrounding sexual assault.

Survivors of forced marriage often experience severe psychological distress, while their families may be reluctant to speak with investigators. The report also found that many women who escaped forced marriages were immediately detained by security forces, which prevented them from giving statements. The alleged complicity of state and security forces was a central concern in the report. Families attempting to report abductions described encountering repeated obstruction, including police refusing to issue referrals, surveillance cameras being declared “non-functional,” telecommunications data being withheld, and complaints being blocked.

In several cases, security forces detained survivors after their return, interrogated them and forced them to adopt fabricated accounts of their disappearances, the report said. Families seeking information about abducted relatives were also frequently arrested or threatened. Authorities instructed families not to publish photographs, report kidnappings or speak publicly about the cases, according to the IIRF. The findings echo information shared with The Jerusalem Post in June by a source close to Batoul Alloush, a young Syrian medical student who was abducted from her campus and forcibly married to her abductors. The source alleged that a fabricated legal proceeding was held to grant Alloush’s abductors control over her.

In one case examined by the IIRF, a family was reportedly warned that their entire village would be destroyed if they continued seeking information about their 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. “A central and persistent theme across the literature reviewed in this article is the failure of the interim government’s security institutions to investigate or prevent kidnappings.” Syrian authorities accused of silencing, dismissing Alawite sexual violence survivors

The report also described a lack of sensitivity toward survivors among authorities, with some women reporting that they had been mocked, dismissed or pressured to conceal what had happened to them. In the absence of effective support from Syrian authorities, Alawite communities have increasingly relied on human rights organizations and social media to report disappearances, circulate alerts and share updates. However, the report cautioned that digital documentation can be difficult to verify, misinformation can spread easily, and families who speak publicly face potential retaliation.

In November 2025, Damascus published the findings of a government-led inquiry into allegations that Alawite women and girls had been abducted during the wave of sectarian violence in March 2025. The authorities claimed that most allegations were false, concluding that only one of the 42 cases examined constituted a kidnapping and that the women had been “safely returned.” The remaining 41 cases were classified as non-criminal events. The committee attributed 12 to elopement with romantic partners, nine to temporary stays with relatives or friends, six to fleeing domestic violence, six to false allegations circulated on social media, four to extortion or prostitution, and four to criminal offenses allegedly committed by the women themselves.

Human rights groups challenge Syrian government's findings on Alawite women abductions The IIRF noted that the government inquiry differed significantly from the findings of multiple human rights organizations, including Amnesty International. It argued that the inquiry offered insight into how the new authorities framed allegations during a period of acute sectarian tension.

“By enumerating the committee’s alternative explanations (elopement, domestic disputes, social-media misinformation, extortion, prostitution, and criminal activity), it illustrates how the state aims to recast allegations of gendered and sectarian violence as private, non-political, or non-criminal matters,” the report said. “This framing is important for examining state denial, narrative control, and the politics of classification in conflict and post-conflict environments… The government inquiry dismisses nearly all allegations as misunderstandings or misconduct by the women themselves.” The IIRF warned that Damascus’s handling of the abduction allegations was an important indicator of Syria’s human rights trajectory and the fragility of its emerging institutions.

The report also noted that acts committed by armed groups or state actors during a non-international armed conflict may constitute war crimes, including violence against civilians, hostage-taking, outrages upon personal dignity, and sentencing or execution without due process. It added that the systematic targeting of women and girls from minority communities could constitute gender-based persecution, a recognized crime under international law.