Syria: How the 'house of sisters' threat split society

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.

"He told me 'we know your daughter plays piano and has dance lessons. You should stop that. If you don't, maybe we will take her to the house of the sisters," Layla recounts.

In conservative Islamic circles, women playing music and dancing for an audience is frowned upon. And Layla had heard about the so-called "house of the sisters" — she had read online it was a place where Syrian women from other sects were forced to convert to Islam. A few days later, the family decided to leave the country. They are now in Lebanon.

"I just don't want my children to grow up that way," Layla explains.

Headlines about the "house of sisters" first really made waves in Syria in May after an Alawite university student Batoul Alloush, 21, was reported missing by her family, possibly kidnapped, only to turn up later wearing religious clothing and saying she left her family in order to convert to Islam.