(MENAFN) During the former Syrian regime's rule, many families vanished without a trace, and one of the most heartbreaking stories is that of Dr. Rania Abbasi, an Arab chess champion, her husband Abdul Rahman Yassin, and their six children. In March 2013, regime forces arrested them, and their fate remains unknown to this day. The arrest took place just two days after her husband was detained, and the family disappeared from their home in the Palmyra neighborhood of Damascus. At the time of her abduction, Rania was 43 years old, and her children ranged in age from 1.5 years to 14 years old. Despite the subsequent revelations of the brutal conditions in Assad’s prisons, Rania and her family's whereabouts remain a mystery. Their story resurfaced recently as part of the U.S. State Department’s "Without Just Cause" campaign, which highlights the plight of political detainees worldwide. This initiative seeks to raise awareness of the suffering faced by the families of those wrongfully detained. Rania had chosen to remain in Syria during the revolution to support her community and raise her children, making her arrest all the more tragic.

Rania was a prominent chess player, having won the Syrian and Arab championships multiple times and participating in the Mediterranean Games. However, her support for displaced Syrians, particularly those from Homs who were fleeing the regime's violence, led to her arrest, according to human rights reports. In 2017, Rania’s sister, Dr. Nayla al-Abbasi, shared with the Syrian Network for Human Rights that despite extensive efforts to find her sister—by speaking with former detainees and reaching out to mediators connected to the regime—there has been no information about Rania’s fate. The reason behind her arrest and the detention of her children remains unclear. The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Rania Abbasi and her family continues to be one of the many unresolved issues that are hoped to be brought to light in the near future.

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