On May 23, 2026, the minor child Maryam Fayez Sultan, born in 2010, returned to her aunt’s house in the city of Jableh, Latakia Governorate, western Syria, approximately four months after her abduction in the capital, Damascus. This incident has triggered widespread public reaction and mounting human rights concerns regarding the safety of women and female minors in the country.
According to information circulated by local sources, Maryam arrived wearing a niqab and appeared to be in a state of extreme exhaustion following her release.
The child, Maryam Fayez Sultan, who belongs to the Alawite community, went missing on January 9, 2026, while returning from a private tutoring lesson in the Mazzeh 86 neighborhood of Damascus. A few days prior to her release, a video recording of her father circulated widely, in which he appealed for information regarding his daughter’s fate and demanded her release, following months of total loss of contact.
Local sources reported that her father traveled to the city of Jableh to receive her after she was released by the abducting party. To date, no clear information is available regarding the conditions of her detention or the entities responsible for her abduction.
This incident falls within an escalating pattern of disappearances and kidnappings targeting women and girls in various regions of Syria recently, particularly those belonging to religious and sectarian minorities.
In this context, contact was lost with Ms. Farah Issa Khamis, hailing from the Alawite community, on the evening of May 20, 2026, after she left her home in the village of Ain al-Fawwar in the western countryside of Homs at 7:30 PM. No information regarding her fate has been made available up to the time of drafting this report.
According to available information, Farah Issa Khamis is a mother of two children, originally from the village of Liftaya, and resides with her family in the village of Ain al-Fawwar in the western countryside of Homs. Her disappearance has sparked a state of anxiety among her relatives and local residents, amid an increase in cases of missing persons and disappearances across several Syrian regions.
In a similar incident, contact was severed with Ms. Duha Rizk Assad, aged 36 and belonging to the Alawite community, after she left her home in the Al-Sabil neighborhood of Homs on the morning of May 17, 2026, to purchase household supplies. Communication with her has been entirely cut off since then.
According to available data, Duha is married and has children. Her family has been unable to obtain any information regarding her fate or whereabouts, intensifying the fears of her family and local residents concerning her safety.
In a related context, on the evening of May 14, 2026, the minor girl Zainab Ali al-Saddam (15 years old), from the Shia community, was released from Homs Central Prison. This came days after her detention by General Security, following her discovery in a deteriorated health condition resulting from being subjected to a 45-day abduction in the western countryside of Homs.
In another incident that continues to engage Syrian public opinion, ambiguity shrouds the fate of the young woman Batoul Suleiman Alloush, from the Alawite community and a student at the Medical Technical Institute at Tishreen University in Latakia, since her disappearance on April 29, 2026, while returning from the university, as confirmed by her family.
Since Batoul’s disappearance, her mother has continuously issued appeals to the relevant authorities and human rights organizations to reveal her daughter’s fate and ensure her safety, noting that the family has been subjected to pressure and threats due to their persistent demands for the truth.
These incidents underscore mounting fears associated with the targeting of civilians, particularly women and girls belonging to religious or sectarian minorities, through operations of kidnapping, enforced disappearance, and arbitrary detention. Such acts constitute a direct violation of the right to liberty and security of person, as guaranteed under international human rights law.
Furthermore, these events highlight the urgent need for immediate action by the relevant authorities to disclose the fate of missing persons, guarantee their physical and psychological integrity, initiate independent and transparent investigations into the violations committed, and hold those responsible accountable, in alignment with the principles of justice, human rights, and the prevention of impunity.
