Syria's "Sister House" Narrative: AI Images, Foreign Organizations and the Politics of Fear Among Alawites

"My daughter takes piano lessons and dance classes — the other side knows perfectly well. 'If she doesn't stop, maybe we'll take her to the Sister House.'" Leila, a pseudonym used by a Syrian math teacher in her 40s and mother of three, recalled to Deutsche Welle the threat she heard at her doorstep in Damascus. A few days later, the family left Syria and eventually reached Lebanon.

"We never supported Assad; his father even killed members of our family. We actually hate him," Leila told Deutsche Welle. She and her family are Alawites — belonging to the same sect as former president Bashar al-Assad — and have often suffered for being seen as Assad's allies. After the Assad regime fell in 2024, when Sunni armed groups entered Damascus for the first time, Leila said she felt fear and referred to them as "extremists." She and her husband initially decided to stay, until strangers showed up at their door.

According to Deutsche Welle reports, claims surrounding the "Sister House" have circulated for months on Syrian social media, with the core content being that Syrian women from other sects are forcibly taken to a location, detained and converted to Islam. The narrative gained widespread traction in May — when 21-year-old Alawite university student Batoul Aloush was reported missing by her family, and later reappeared wearing religious clothing, claiming she had voluntarily converted and left her family. Her parents insist she was drugged or coerced.

The evidentiary void surrounding the claims immediately became apparent. A spokesperson for Syria's Minister of Social Affairs, Hind Kabawat, told Deutsche Welle that the ministry had never approved any institution called the "Sister House," and that any unlicensed facility of this kind would be shut down. The Syrian fact-checking organization Verify-Sy determined that the images of the alleged "Sister House" building circulating online were generated by artificial intelligence. The organization told Deutsche Welle that regarding the alleged abductions, torture and other accusations, "evidence obtainable through open-source channels is scarce, contradictory or insufficient."

The independent media outlet Shaam News Network recently wrote: "Despite the absence of any physical evidence... social media platforms and pages began spreading 'this house' as established fact. It gradually became the focal point of a broader narrative about the 'organized kidnapping' of Alawite women."

Meanwhile, some of the missing persons cases do have real backgrounds. Reham Suleiman, a psychologist who works for the United Nations and is also in contact with Alawite communities, told Deutsche Welle that she has handled several kidnapping cases, some involving kidnapping for ransom, revenge or forced marriage, "this is not just a single incident or coincidence." Other cases came to a close when the persons involved explained that they had merely gone to see friends, wanted to escape their families, or had eloped with lovers. Aloush herself said she wished to convert to Islam and leave her family.

Amnesty International and the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Syria have stated that approximately 40 to 60 related cases have not been adequately investigated.

But the spread of the narrative has not subsided due to official clarifications and fact-checking. The "Syria Investigation Mechanism" (SIM), headquartered in the German state of Brandenburg, was established in May 2026, and its head, Yaser Saleti, claimed in a YouTube interview that the missing women were forcibly converted and detained in the "Sister House," calling this evidence of "population engineering." SIM did not respond to Deutsche Welle's further interview requests. The Arab investigative news outlet DARAJ has pointed out that some of these organizations have been criticized for their ties to the Assad regime.

The Berlin-based "European Syrian Alawite Alliance" has also frequently posted content about the "Sister House." The organization's deputy director, Moaid Ibrahim, has on his personal Facebook page criticized Syria's new government and has voiced support for Ahmed Hassoun, the top religious scholar during the Assad era. Hassoun was sentenced to life imprisonment by a Syrian court at the end of August on charges including inciting civil war and being an accessory to intentional homicide.

Gregory Waters, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council who has long tracked Syrian affairs, analyzed to Deutsche Welle: "This kind of information comes and goes, but it does produce real effects, and quite powerful ones. It has the political intent of isolating the Alawites, making them afraid, preventing them from engaging with the government and Sunni society, and to some extent pushing them toward anti-government armed networks."

Waters pointed out that online propaganda "parasitically feeds on real events within minority communities, amplifying their pre-existing fears." Verify-Sy conducts monthly audits of online disinformation, with "incitement" listed as the second most common target. He said that Syrian authorities are trying to restrain content creators spreading disinformation domestically, but are unable to reach foreign accounts.

Nassif Naem, director of Syria affairs at the Berlin-based Candid Foundation, believes that the Damascus government is currently occupied with building institutions, controlling the security situation and stabilizing the country. But he also pointed out that Syria will eventually need a national dialogue between different groups, and economic recovery may be the key to improving ethnic relations. Waters added that during the summer, large numbers of Sunni domestic tourists traveled to the coastal areas where Alawites are concentrated, "and there were no incidents of harassment or violence," and that such real-life contact "helps reduce the impact of disinformation campaigns and the level of fear." However, Waters also acknowledged that Syria's ethnic relations vary by region, and in some areas over the past two years "the walls between groups have indeed hardened," but "the walls have not risen further."