WUNRN
Prostitution
Ordeal of Iraqi Girls |
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With their bright neon
signs and glitzy decor, dozens of nightclubs line the streets of the Maraba
district in the Syrian capital Damascus. It's here that men come from far and wide -
car number plates are not just from Syria but Iraq and Saudi Arabia - to
watch young women dancing. Most of the dancers are teenagers and many
of them are Iraqi refugees. They dance for the cash which gets tossed
onto the stage. The dancers are surrounded by bodyguards,
to stop them being touched by the men. But the guards also arrange for their
charges to be paid for sex with members of the audience. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi refugees
have moved to Syria and Jordan during the past four years, escaping the
violence and instability that followed the US-led toppling of Saddam Hussein.
Women supporting families face the greatest
challenge. The Syrian authorities and aid agencies do
not know the exact numbers, but many of the women say they have little choice
but to work in places like Maraba. Lost innocence Rafif is an innocent-looking 14-year-old,
her long hair tied in a pony tail. She seems barely to understand the enormity
of the crisis she is living. "I have three sisters who are married
and four brothers. They are all in Baghdad. I am here with my mother and
young brother only. None of my family know what I do here."
Banned from doing regular
work in Syria, she says their money ran out and her mother started looking
for other means to survive. She says she makes about $30 a night at the
clubs, but when men take her to private villas she makes $100. She won't say
what she must do to earn this money. "A woman came and spoke to my mother,
who agreed to send me to these places. We needed the money. "I have already been arrested for
prostitution and sent back to Iraq, but I came back with a false
passport." Not all sex workers went into the industry
by choice. Nada, 16, says she was dumped by her father
at the Iraq-Syria border after her cousin "took away my virginity".
Five Iraqi men took her from the border to
Damascus, where they raped her and sold her to a woman who forced her to work
in nightclubs and private villas. She is now waiting at a government
protection centre to be deported back to Iraq. Exploitation The government says police have arrested
Iraqi girls as young as 12 working as prostitutes in the nightclubs.
"We are coming across
increasing numbers of women who do not manage to make ends meet and are
therefore more vulnerable to exploitative situations such as
prostitution," says Laurens Jolles of the UN refugee agency. "Intimidation and shame means the
numbers of trafficking victims and sex industry workers in Syria may never be
known by government or aid agencies." Women picked up by the police are sent to
protection centres, which they frequently escape from, or are sent to prison.
"Immediately after we get to them, or
sometimes before, they are bailed out of prison, often by the same people who
probably forced them into prostitution," says Mr Jolles. Many of the young women who leave Iraq
hoping for an easier, safer existence find what is in some ways an even
tougher life in Syria. At an age when life should just be
beginning, Iraqi teenagers like Nada feel they have reached a dead end. "Now they will send me back to Iraq, I
have no-one there and in any case I am afraid for my life. I have no hope
leaving here. I have told the government I don't want to go back. My family
has abandoned me." |
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