Nour Samer Asaad, a nursing student from Tartous province, went missing on the morning of Friday, May 17, while on her way to the Nursing Faculty in Damascus. According to local sources, she was last seen near the Al-Muwasat Tunnel around 10 a.m., after which all contact with her was lost.
In a video appeal, Nour’s mother pleaded for anyone with information about her daughter’s whereabouts to come forward. Her plea comes amid growing fears of a recurrence of similar disappearances involving women and girls—mostly from the Alawite sect—under mysterious circumstances, while authorities continue to show no clear action to uncover their fate.
Nour’s disappearance is part of a broader pattern of kidnappings documented by activists in recent months, involving dozens of women and girls—most of them Alawites. According to human rights sources, more than 50 cases have been verified, with disappearances occurring in various regions, including Tartous, Jableh, Hama, Homs, Suwayda, Latakia, and the Damascus countryside. The circumstances surrounding these disappearances, and the parties responsible, remain unclear.
Among the names listed as abductees are: Bushra Yassin Mufarrej (from Jableh), Zainab Nasr Diab (Hama), Lana Hammoud and Lubna Hammoud (Tartous), Katia Qaraqout (Jdeidet Artouz – Damascus countryside), and others whose fates are still unknown.
Overlapping reports suggest that some women, including Bushra Yassin, were kidnapped by members of “Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham” (HTS) in northern Syria. Their families were reportedly forced to record videos or give interviews claiming the women had left voluntarily, in attempts to deny the abduction narrative. In one such case, Bushra’s brother, Ammar Mufarrej, traveled to Idlib in April to negotiate her release. The attempt failed, and he was later coerced into appearing in a media clip denying her abduction under direct threats.
Some previously abducted women—such as Aya Talal Qassem—were released following public pressure. However, they were later detained by HTS’s “General Security” and forced to deny they had ever been kidnapped, according to their relatives.
Families of the victims and human rights organizations continue to demand independent and transparent investigations to uncover the fate of the missing women and hold accountable those involved in crimes that reportedly include physical and sexual abuse. Direct accusations have been made against Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham for its alleged role in these violations.
The issue of abducted Alawite women remains one of Syria’s most neglected and politically manipulated crises, with a persistent lack of accountability and ongoing exploitation of the victims’ stories for propaganda purposes.
اختفاء طالبة تمريض في دمشق يعيد ملف المختطفات العلويات السوريات إلى الواجهة
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