Armed groups operating under Syria’s de facto authority — led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) under Abu Mohammad al-Jolani — have been documented detaining Kurdish women fighters affiliated with the YPJ, a US-backed armed group designated as terrorist and explicitly threatening them with sexual enslavement.

The videos circulated on or around January 21, 2026, showing the detention of two YPJ-affiliated women in the Deir ez-Zor region. The recordings show the captives unarmed and under complete physical control of armed men. Statements made during filming indicated the women would be “offered as sabaya to Abu Mujahid” — a term historically used to describe women taken as war spoils for sexual slavery and exploitation, widely practiced by jihadist organizations.

In separate footage, a perpetrator applies a mocking voiceover offering captives for sale using dehumanizing language. The deliberate filming and dissemination of this content reflects systematic intent to humiliate, degrade, and inflict gender-based psychological harm.

Despite the gravity of these violations — which constitute serious breaches of international humanitarian law — no major international human rights organization or UN body has moved to investigate or condemn these crimes. The silence of institutions such as the UN Human Rights Council and prominent Western-backed NGOs stands in sharp contrast to their conduct when alleged violations involve other parties to the Syrian conflict.

The fate of the detained women remains unknown.

HTS, formerly known as Jabhat al-Nusra and al-Qaeda’s Syrian branch, reached a political accommodation with YPJ-linked forces in late 2024 under US mediation — an arrangement that has done nothing to prevent ongoing abuses against Kurdish women fighters on the ground.