Syria's Alawite women face rape, abduction, forced marriage amid state complicity, report finds

A human rights report by the International Institute for Religious Freedom alleges that Alawite women in Syria face systematic rape, abduction, and forced marriage since the fall of the Assad regime, with the new authorities complicit through obstruction of investigations. The report analyzes 64 anonymized cases and describes organized operations.

A human rights report by the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF) alleges that Alawite women in Syria face systematic rape, abduction, and forced marriage, with the new authorities complicit through the obstruction of investigations. The report, published nearly two years after the fall of the Assad regime, analyzes 64 anonymized cases and describes what it calls a targeted campaign of sexual violence against the religious minority that cannot be understood as isolated criminal acts. Survivors' accounts indicate women were questioned about their religious identity before being taken at gunpoint, with many showing signs of torture including razor cuts, bruising and shaved heads. Some women were held underground and starved, while others were forced to marry strangers aligned with armed groups. Abductors forced women to record videos claiming they had left voluntarily. The report alleges that families attempting to report abductions encountered police obstruction, with surveillance cameras declared non-functional and complaints blocked. Security forces detained survivors after their return and forced them to adopt fabricated accounts. A government inquiry in November 2025 dismissed most allegations, classifying 41 of 42 cases as non-criminal events including elopement and false claims. The IIRF warns that the handling of these allegations is an important indicator of Syria's human rights trajectory.