Salwa Zakzouk
The recurrent kidnappings targeting Syrian women on a specific sectarian basis are no longer merely a threat to certain groups of Syrian women, nor to Syrian women in general. They can, in fact, be considered a kidnapping of Syrian society as a whole.
Between the wide range of criminal incidents—unexplained disappearances, deliberate concealment to erase the story, announced and reported kidnappings, murder, human trafficking, intimidation and terror, forced marriage, or manipulated incidents presented with fragile narratives—and the intense societal polarization that has surpassed criticism or objection to become a deep tool of conflict, fuelling a discourse of hatred that blocks any dialogue or solidarity needed to recognize the crimes committed against women and girls from specific sectarian backgrounds, and between all of this—and most importantly—the absence of formal responsibility, legally and socially, Syrian society is sinking into an acute state of conflict. This strongly indicates a deliberate concealment and distortion of the truth, leading to a complete erasure of the real picture of what is happening to kidnapped women and girls, and therefore making it impossible to obtain justice for the victims legally or socially.
Rejecting the narratives of kidnapped women entirely removes them from their legal classification as victims deserving support. It goes further toward criminalizing the victims and generating a public discourse that mocks, doubts, and threatens the women themselves and their family and social environments. This has severe consequences for social justice, public safety, and general stability. It also threatens to undermine the physical and psychological health systems and the social support mechanisms necessary to help them overcome the harm inflicted upon them. All these factors represent a direct and structural barrier to following a clear path toward justice and ultimately ending the kidnappings.
In a climate where perpetrators and the crime of kidnapping itself are protected and supported—appeasing a faction that believes it is now the strongest, that the time for “reckoning” has come, and that it has the license to punish without restraint—absolute justification and denial of the ongoing, explicit violations pose a real danger to women’s lives, the safety of targeted communities, and the cohesion of Syrian society as a whole. This risks creating an irreversible rupture between people who are supposed to share one nation.
Moreover, the push to promote an alternative moralistic narrative centered on the victims and their environments makes justice exceedingly difficult to attain. Moral rhetoric has always been used as a foundational framework for diluting violence against women, casting violations as deserved “punishments” for those who allegedly transgressed social norms.
It is now evident that inserting moral judgment into the classification of gender-based crimes is a tactic designed to attach “moral specificity” that society refuses to accept, demanding instead that women be punished on its basis. This gives crimes of violence against women—especially kidnapping—an additional weight that enables the public to impose narratives related to immorality or deviation from the social contract. Kidnapping is thus reframed as an immoral act committed voluntarily by the women themselves. The tragedy is complete when the real story is flipped, directing blame toward women and criminalizing them legally and morally. We are expected to accept claims such as: women kidnap themselves for ransom, run away with lovers, choose prostitution, or travel abroad to commit immoral acts. This deliberate stripping of moral legitimacy from victims is used to criminalize them twice: once for allegedly violating social norms, and once for being women from particular social and sectarian backgrounds.
Between justifying kidnappings and denying victims’ narratives lies a truth that must be blurred—turning kidnappings into an alleged mechanism of “transitional justice,” despite having no connection whatsoever to the definition, tools, or processes of justice. This aligns with an officially sanctioned environment that covers up these incidents, utilizing public figures and media voices in an open, protected confrontation with the victims, their families, and those demanding real justice to stop the violations.
Indeed, a narrative is being imposed—built on denial and legal and social intimidation—amid a highly charged atmosphere that extracts these crimes from their criminal context and instead places them within the political performance of the current authority, whose goal is to demonize dissenting discourse and demonize entire communities based on their sectarian identity.
The kidnapping of women and girls has created a deep rupture within Syrian society—one that has emboldened kidnappers and stripped them of stigma. It has become common to see denialist communities transform from natural communities expected to show solidarity with other Syrians—especially in times of tragedy—into communities that go beyond silence to actively condemn the victims and reject any narrative that challenges the narrative imposed by force. Those who deny or justify the kidnappings have become tools in the hands of the ruling power, which has failed to fulfill its responsibilities toward women who are legally and civically its citizens.
There is a profound and unprecedented moral rupture in the structure of social consciousness in Syria. The Syrian public once expressed outrage and sympathy for any woman kidnapped abroad. The kidnapping or humiliation of women once constituted a grave crime that had to be stopped in defense of their honor. Today, with the rising number of kidnappings occurring almost daily, the kidnapping of Syrian women is increasingly accepted, explained away as an overdue “entitlement,” and reframed as part of the supposed path toward justice.
Conversely, many have treated the kidnappings as an opportunity to attack the women defenders who stand with the abducted and demand justice for their families. The scene has become dramatically inverted—turning the defenders into targets of accusation, portrayed as liars or opportunists seeking personal or media glory, while the kidnapped women themselves are smeared with accusations of scandalous romance or reckless behavior that allegedly burdened the newly “recovering” society. What is intentionally erased in this noise is that women’s issues and solidarity with them are always subject to attempts to overturn the truth. Instead of addressing kidnappings as straightforward legal violations—as would be the case if the victims were men—society is inserted as an overriding force above the law, often replacing it entirely. The cases become fertile ground for boundless speculation, mob-like frenzy, and a chaotic populism whose primary goal is silencing the victims through stigma and threats, not listening to or supporting them. The silent majority suddenly turns into prosecutors and judges attempting to impose parallel justice—tribal, familial, authoritarian—at the expense of real justice.
Moral accusations and fear of scandal have long been tools for silencing victims and suppressing demands to expose the truth about kidnappings in Syria, even as images of women and girls returning from abduction in horrific physical and psychological conditions contradict all attempts at distortion. Some kidnapped women have been abandoned in public spaces—bus stations, roads—or returned in vehicles in full view of cameras, news agencies, residents, and pedestrians. Some were even hospitalized in state facilities. These facts are too clear to deny or manipulate. Yet the greater part remains hidden: most of the returnees are silenced—either out of fear of renewed punishment or concern for the safety of their male relatives and children, amid repeated and well-known threats.
The confrontation has escalated beyond denial and victim-blaming to encompass attacks on anyone who shows solidarity—especially Syrian feminists, whom the current authority openly targets, accusing them of destroying families, promoting immorality, and aligning with a supposedly “decadent” West that encourages homosexuality and vice. This has devolved into a general demonization of feminism itself, framed as absolute ruin. Shooting at multiple targets makes accuracy impossible, but under populist frenzy, multiplying the targets satisfies an emotional thirst in societies that have never experienced real citizenship under successive dictatorships.
It must be repeatedly emphasized that violence against women because of their gender identity—and their cultural and communal identities, represented here through kidnappings that pose an explicit threat to their lives—constitutes an abduction of society as a whole. It is a violation of equality, dignity, citizenship, and the principles of coexistence. The kidnapping of any Syrian woman or girl is a national issue that requires collective solidarity, collective denunciation, and a collective demand to end it completely and hold perpetrators and enablers accountable.
