Rania al-Abbasi

Rania Al-Abbasi (born 20 January 1970) is a dentist and Syrian national chess champion. She was forcibly disappeared by Ba'athist Syria Military Intelligence along with her husband Abdul Rahman Yasin and their six children in 2013. There has been no communication or information regarding them since their disappearance.

Early life

Rania was born in Damascus on 20 January 1970 to a Sunni family. As an avid chess player, she participated in and won numerous national and international tournaments and olympiads. Her brilliance in chess brought her media coverage. Her father was a prisoner in the notorious Tadmor Prison after an alleged accusation of criticizing the government, according to her family. After participating in the Arab Chess Championship in Amman, Baseel al-Assad, the eldest son of former Syrian president Hafez al-Assad, met her in person. She had a piece of paper that had her father's name on it. She tried handing him the paper in an attempt to mediate for his release. The security forces around Baseel al-Assad blocked her, telling her only to greet him and move away.

In 1995, the family emigrated to Saudi Arabia. Rania worked in a clinic in Riyadh. In 2006, Rania returned to Damascus to open her own clinic in Mashroua Dummer.

Dissaperence

In 2011, minor demonstrations began against the Ba'athist regime transformed into large nationwide protests. Damascus, being the capital of Syria, was split between four security agencies: Air Force Intelligence Directorate, Military Intelligence Directorate, Political Security Directorate, State Security Investigations Service. Later on, the paramilitary National Defence Forces and numerous more Ba'athist forces were assigned. Mashroua Dummer, a district where important regime and government ministers lived, was assigned to be monitored by Branch 215.

After the uprisings in Homs, thousands of civilians internally migrated to nearby cities. In these times, Rania started treating children of a family that came from Khalidiye neighborhood, Homs. Rania got to know the mother, Wafaa al-Ayyoubi, after becoming her children's doctor. Rania's husband, Abdul Rahman Yasin, met with the son of the family, Muhammed, who was 18 to 19 years old at the time. Learning that they were displaced and that they had financial problems, he gave him 10,000 SYP (about 100 USD at the time) as a lot of Syrians sympathized with the people of Homs. They became friends and started visiting each other.

Al-Ayyoubi family's attempts to renew their son's "flag service notebook" (a document proving him serving in the military) failed. It was too dangerous for him to pass military checkpoints without this document. He was stuck in his house and couldn't go anywhere. One time, he left the house and never returned. He was arrested at one of the military's checkpoints, and under heavy torture, he mentioned information about the small amount of money he got from Abdul Rahman. After several days, early in the morning, armed men knocked the door of al-Ayyoubi family forcefully. Wafaa saw her son, Mohammed, with blood dripping from his ears, his hair slipped apart from his head, a black bandage on his eyes. When the armed men removed the bandage, there was no emotion or reaction from him, and he only mumbled, "Yes, sir," according to Wafaa al-Ayyoubi. She ran to hug him, only to receive beatings and curses.

On 9 March 2013, Abdul Rahman Yasin was arrested in front of his little children. As he was getting arrested, he told Rania that "these are security forces and that they don't fear God, so follow their orders."

After her husband's arrest, Rania decided to stay in her house with her children, as she didn't have anything to fear. She was apolitical and didn't participate in any demonstrations against the government. But she was very afraid and terrified for her husband. On 10 March, she even sent her kids to school, as she didn't have a reason not to do so. Rania had a lot of places to migrate to, such as to her family in Saudi Arabia, but she chose to stay. On the following day, 11 March 2013, Majdoleen al-Qadi, Rania's assistant in the clinic, visited her to console her, filled with hope that Abdul Rahman would return at any moment. On the same day, all communication was cut off between Rania and her family, and they were never heard of for several days until one of the neighbors contacted Hassan al-Abbasi, Rania's brother, telling him about the tragedy. She was arrested along with her six children and her assistant to be disappeared behind prison bars.

After several days, Rania's friends went to security departments and tried to find any clues about her, only to be arbitrarily detained for months.

After her arrest

The family tried to acquire information about Rania, as one of the only ways of getting information was bribing security agents and guards, only to realize that it was a waste of money. Unofficial information sought by the family remains inconclusive, though there are rumours that Rania may have been held at Military Intelligence Branches 215 and 284 and that she is in poor health.

After that, Rania's family started their long endeavor trying to find her, her husband, her secretary, and her six children.

The detention of the children was the most tragic element of Rania's story. At the time of their arrest, Dima, Entisar, Najah, Alaa, Ahmed, and Layan were, respectively, 14, 13, 11, eight, six, and two years old.

A close relative describes how she has been affected by the family's enforced disappearance:

"I cannot sleep at night. My thoughts do not leave me: is she ok or not? Are the children hungry? Are they calm? Or are they screaming and crying? I have these thoughts the whole night."

Security forces kept the arrest in complete mystery; until now, no official account has been issued about their location of detention or even an admission about the abduction. The only thing that's left for her grieving family is asking ex-detainees who survived the horror about any trace.

International efforts

Many international efforts were launched to find Rania.

• Amnesty International sent direct messages to Bashar al-Assad and other high-ranking officials demanding that their fate be revealed.
• Yahya al-Aridi, spokesman for the Syrian Negotiation Commission, brought Rania's story to the debate at the 2017 Astana summit, asking Russian delegation head Alexander Lavrentiev to intercede on his behalf. The interaction didn't end until he got promises regarding this issue and that he would go to Damascus and speak with al-Assad himself about it. After several days, when Yahya met Lavrentiev again, he simply told him that they denied her being arrested.
• The US Department of State's Office for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor (DRL) has launched a campaign in support of political prisoners worldwide, entitled 'Without Just Cause'. The campaign aims to shed light on the increase in efforts by tyrannical regimes to shut down opposition and oppress political freedoms in many countries around the world, including Syria, and to share the stories of some of the individuals imprisoned for practicing their human rights. Rania Al-Abbasi and her family are Part of a Campaign for Political Prisoners Launched by the US Department of State.