Rumor has it that the 'house of sisters' is where kidnapped women from other Syrian sects are forced to convert to Islam. Nobody knows if it really exists, but it's being used to create communal tensions anyway.
A knock on the door, a muted threat and then they made the decision to leave the country, says Layla, a math teacher and mother-of-three in her 40s.
Until recently, Layla — who didn't want DW to use her full name for security reasons — was living in Damascus, Syria's capital. She and her family are Alawites, the same religious sect as former Syrian dictator Bashar Assad, who are often targeted because they're seen as Assad's allies.
"But we never supported him, his father killed members of my family. We hated him actually," she told DW. Still, she describes feeling fearful when rebel groups entered Damascus in 2024 for the first time after the fall of the Assad regime, calling them "extremists."
At first, she and her husband decided to stay in Syria. But then a stranger came to the door.
