A series of disappearances of women and girls was documented across three Syrian provinces — Latakia, Homs and Damascus — during July 2026. In most of the cases the circumstances remain unclear, accounts circulating locally diverge, and no adequate official information has been released. The recurrence has prompted calls for independent and impartial investigations into each case.
Two students in Latakia
On 20 July 2026, contact was lost with two students from the Alawite community as they travelled to sit examinations at Tishreen University in the city of Latakia. According to accounts circulating locally, they were last in contact near the university tunnel. Their families then received a message sent from the students’ own phones saying that the two had taken the path of religious guidance, wording attributed to a group named after an individual. Local sources also said relatives were prevented from entering the university while attempting to ask about them.
The two students returned home on 21 July 2026, two days after they went missing. No official statement has explained where they were, who held them, or why.
The episode coincided with the circulation, in media outlets and on social platforms, of remarks attributed to a Salafi preacher describing groups that he said recruit young women and men from the Alawite community and persuade them to leave their homes under the same banner of guidance. He further claimed that a female preacher had lured the two students and was subsequently detained. No official body has confirmed or denied that account.
Cases still unresolved
In the city of Homs, a 23-year-old woman went missing on the morning of 25 July 2026 after leaving one neighbourhood of the city for another; nothing has been established about her whereabouts since. In the same city, a 49-year-old woman has been out of contact since 16 July 2026, with her family fearing she was abducted.
In Damascus, contact was lost on the evening of 19 July 2026 with a 24-year-old woman — married, the mother of one child, and a member of the Christian minority — after she was last traced in one of the capital’s districts. She had travelled to Damascus to visit relatives.
A documented testimony
On 8 July 2026, a body representing Syrian Alawites in Europe recorded video testimony from a widow from the Jableh countryside. She said she had been abducted, held and sexually assaulted over a period of detention lasting more than 45 days, and named a security official in the Jableh area as responsible.
Context
Large parts of Syria remain without functioning mechanisms for tracing missing persons or for holding local armed and security actors to account. The July cases sit at the intersection of two long-standing problems: unexplained disappearance, and the exposure of women from minority communities. The demands being raised publicly are narrow and concrete — open independent investigations into every case, establish what happened to those still missing, and hold accountable any party found to be involved.
This report was produced by the HuMedia newsroom.
