CAIRO — In a country ill-equipped to meet the needs of the growing influx, many Iraqi woman refuges - willingly or otherwise - turn to prostitution to make ends meet.
"From what I’ve seen, 70 percent to 80 percent of the girls working this business in Damascus today are Iraqis," Abeer, a 23-year-old Baghdadi working in a Damascus nightclub, told The New York Times on Tuesday, May 29.
"The rents here in Syria are too expensive for their families. If they go back to Iraq they’ll be slaughtered, and this is the only work available."
A 2006 UN report showed that the deterioration economic situation of Iraqi refugees have forced many teens and women to sell their bodies in secret or even with the support of family members.
The fact that many Iraqi women in Syria are the breadwinner of their families has increased the number of prostitutes.
"So many of the Iraqi women arriving now are living on their own with their children because the men in their families were killed or kidnapped," said Sister Marie-Claude Naddaf, a nun at the Good Shepherd convent in Damascus, which helps refugees.
"I met three sisters-in-law recently who were living together and all prostituting themselves," she added.
"They would go out on alternate nights — each woman took her turn — and then divide the money to feed all the children."
For more than three years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, Iraqi prostitution in Syria was a forbidden topic.
Now the Syrian government is acknowledging the problem and working with the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
The UNHCR estimates that about 1.2 million Iraqi refugees now live in Syria, though Damascus puts the figure even higher.
No Honor
Seeking work outside the home for the first time and in a country with high unemployment, many Iraqi women and girls find that their only marketable asset is their bodies.
"We Iraqis used to be a proud people," said Umm Hiba, who fled Baghdad with her 16-year-old daughter last year after threats from militias.
Hiba, once a brilliant hijab-clad schoolgirl who never missed the dawn prayers, now works as a dancer at a nightclub along a highway known for prostitution in Damascus.
Wearing a pink silk dress with spaghetti straps, her frail shoulders bathed in colored light, she dances among about two dozen other girls on the stage for drunken clients.
"We make sure that each girl has a minimum of 500 lira [$10] at the end of each night, no matter how bad business is," said the club manager.
"We are sympathetic to the situation of the Iraqi people. And we try to give some extra help to the girls whose families are in special difficulties."
Umm Hiba shook her head.
"During the war we lost everything. We even lost our honor."
Zafer, a waiter, said most of the women and girls at the club sell sexual favors.
"They have an hourly rate," he said. "And they have regular customers."
Mouna Asaad, a Syrian women’s rights lawyer, said the fact that some Iraqi refugees are selling sex or working in sex clubs was not uncommon.
"Sometimes you see whole families living this way, the girls pimped by the mother or aunt."
True knowledge is not mention in relation to how much you memorise and then nerrate, but rather, true knowledge is an expression of piety ( Protecting oneself from what Allah(awj) prohibited and acting upon what he mandated.)
Insha Allaah, Allaah will protect them and grant them security and ease soon.. and Allaah will deal with the ones who cause the believers and innocent to fall into harm.
Do those who practise evil think that they will get the better of Us? Evil is their judgment! [Qur'an 29:5]
A lesson to Muslims to enjoin good + forbid evil and not to obey Secular Rulers, because:
> their end wont be better than that of Iraqis.
> their land will be divided+ruled by the enemy of Islam.
The subjugation of women in such a fashion is an immoral act wherever it occurs and the religious tradition of the victims neither assuages nor deepens the guilt of the perpetrator.
Does anyone here believe this establishment did not exist prior to the War in Iraq? Who do you think worked there? Ukranian women? Syrian women? Would that be OK, then? Who do you think the "patrons" are?
The subjugation of women in such a fashion is an immoral act wherever it occurs
Totally agree.
Does anyone here believe this establishment did not exist prior to the War in Iraq? Who do you think worked there? Ukranian women? Syrian women? Would that be OK, then? Who do you think the "patrons" are?
Just try going over the article again, it was these exact women who were living a perfectly normal life back then.
About the women from other races, that's still sad.. and we pray that Allaah eases their affairs, ameen.
Just try going over the article again, it was these exact women who were living a perfectly normal life back then.
...
Very sad indeed. Prostitution is an evil act. It preys upon the most helpless. I think it is fair to say that no father or mother wishes their daughter to end up in such a place. The situation is actually worse in Thailand or Africa, where young girls are abducted or sold as slaves into prostitution.
The only good news is Uday Hussein is dead so his bestial treatment of Iraqi women is over.
This article should be read by everyone that whines about the British standard of life. Prostitution... you cannot go any lower. That's disgusting.
these women were forced into such evil actions because of your country, prior to the war no such actions occured, after ur country invaded it led to this, so your comparing apples and oranges. people who are forced into prostitution in england occurs as a result of a failed secular british society created by the british. iraqi women forced into it is a result of american-english aggression against their country which led to this, this would never happen had us-uk not attacked iraq.
these women were forced into such evil actions because of your country, prior to the war no such actions occured, after ur country invaded it led to this, so your comparing apples and oranges. people who are forced into prostitution in england occurs as a result of a failed secular british society created by the british. iraqi women forced into it is a result of american-english aggression against their country which led to this, this would never happen had us-uk not attacked iraq.
See...there you go. It was bound to happen..in this case from one of the usual suspects.
Prostitution did not exist in Syria before. Iraq was the land of milk and honey. Every untoward event in an Islamic country is the fault of the US (or in this case Britain too).
Never mind that most of the early movement of Iraqis to Syria were Baathists with blood on their hands and the later ones were fleeing from sectarian violence or the carnage wrought by Al Quaeda in Iraq. Is it really necessary to try to score points over the suffering of these women?
See...there you go. It was bound to happen..in this case from one of the usual suspects.
Prostitution did not exist in Syria before. Iraq was the land of milk and honey. Every untoward event in an Islamic country is the fault of the US (or in this case Britain too).
Never mind that most of the early movement of Iraqis to Syria were Baathists with blood on their hands and the later ones were fleeing from sectarian violence or the carnage wrought by Al Quaeda in Iraq. Is it really necessary to try to score points over the suffering of these women?
lol why do you have to bring 1 million topics up ignoring what i say? i said that the iraqi women forced into this act were forced to it as a result of american-uk attacks on their country! i didnt say nothing about prostitution in general which occurs in syria, i am refering SPECIFICALLY to the iraqi womens situation, see theres a big difference. and my point is valid, these women who are now prostitutes would not be prostitutes if the us-uk didnt invade their country, and thats a fact.
as for baathists having blood on their hands etc, tell me one goverment that doesnt? as for secetarian violence, this goes back to point one, there would be no secetarian violence had you not invaded their country! i mean you invaded their country, with no back up plans, this is all fact, bush didnt even know there were shiites and sunnis, to make matters worse you disbanded the ENTIRE iraqi army and police force, wow! what did you think will happen? if a country has no army and police, basically no law, all hell will break loose, it doesnt matter if this is Iraq or USA. no law and order= chaos and destruction
I knew it was bound to happen, someone had to blame someone else for these womens actions. Who do you think is paying these women? If they didnt create or already have a market for it, do you think it would exist? Perhaps these women should have tried working at a gas station or in a market, oh yeah that is right, these are the places targeted by Al-Qaeda...sad... sad when it is safer to be a prostitute than a clerk.
although prostitution is probably better than Uday shooting at womens feet and them forcing them to have sex with them. Also prostitution in Iraq did occur before the invasion
Last edited by MTAFFI; 05-31-2007 at 07:46 PM.
"War does not determine who is right - only who is left."
- Bertrand Russell
"He who fears being conquered is sure of defeat." - Napoleon Bonaparte
"There is nothing so likely to produce peace as to be well prepared to meet the
enemy." - George Washington
I knew it was bound to happen, someone had to blame someone else for these womens actions. Who do you think is paying these women? If they didnt create or already have a market for it, do you think it would exist? Perhaps these women should have tried working at a gas station or in a market, oh yeah that is right, these are the places targeted by Al-Qaeda...sad... sad when it is safer to be a prostitute than a clerk.
sad that you had to invade their country to put gas in your petrol stations so you can live your american dream while these women have to become prostitutes due to your goverments attack on their country, and you saying ohhhhhh americans arent making secetarian violence is just MUTE, if you didnt invade the country there would be none, and as i said you smarties disbanded the ENTIRE iraqi army and police force, what did u expect? for instance in new orleans, when there was no police and no law and order, it was chaos, so why should iraq be any different? start taking responsibilities for your actions, you destablizied the whole country and thats a fact, you are the ones who ignited the secetarian problems which led to all these problems. you caused all this mess and now you look at us muslims saying heyyyyy why dont you fix your people when you were the ones who started the problems in the first place! was there all out civil war before usa invaded? NO. was there all out civil war after usa invaded? YES. so stop acting like you were born yesterday and acting as if all this secetarian violence has nothing to do with your actions.
and you obviously dont think before you speak, sure uday raped women here and there, ohhhhhh so you invade the country to remove one rapist to replaceit by a hundred rapsists attacking in a week! wowwwwww your very smart, you went to iraq to freeeee the few women who suffered from uday which in turn led to hundreds and hundreds of more women to become prostitutes, and to be raped. ah yes anything to sell your fake war.
From a religious perspective, I'm not one to judge, however a muslim believes that God has ultimate power and we are supposed to have tawakal in Allah since rizq is from Him alone, how then can they turn to such an abhorrent act?
Allah says; {9:129} But if they turn back, say: Allah is sufficient for me, there is no god but He; on Him do I rely, and He is the Lord of mighty power
And whoever places his trust in Allah, Sufficient is He for him, for Allah will surely accomplish His Purpose: For verily, Allah has appointed for all things a due proportion (Qur'an 65:3)
It is Allah, except Whom there is no God; the King, the Pure, the Giver of Peace, the Bestower of Safety, the Protector, the Most Honourable, the Compeller, the Proud; Purity is to Allah from all what they ascribe as partners (to Him)! Al-Quran 59:23
muslims are smarter than you americans, you americans always say erm why didnt you help your fellow muslims under saddam, perhaps muslim goverments didnt react because their not stupid cowboys who think you can achieve goals and success through a campain of large scale bombing and destruction which would then lead to civil war and complete tyrany and chaos as we see now, perhaps they sadly knew at that moment of time saddam was the better of the 2 evils, and although with his evils and tyranny there was still some sort of order and law, and a possibly coup could be done once he died.
but nooooo we will be a cowboy and bomb the country back to babylon unleashing every millitia group and every islamic group to wage over a dozen different civil wars and then to allow the kurds to break away forming their own country which will lead to war with turkey which lead to many many more conflicts which will then lead to another civil war between the turkmen and arabs in iraq vs the kurds and onnnnn it goes. perhaps this is why muslims didnt act to make a huge war with saddam, because they are smart and so the after-math consequences of a war which would lead to worse chaos and tyranny than saddam!
and im only saying this because i know someone here is gonna make the comment saying whyyyyy didnt you muslims fix saddam up in the first place! and this btw isnt off topic, it is all related. because whenever we critisize the americans for attacking iraq which lead to the threads topic, they counter saying then why didnt u muslims do anything! and these are a few reasons as to why we didnt act then.
There are a number of things that I find disturbing here. A person doing what they need to do to survive is not one of them.
How do you call, doing what you need to do to stop your child from starving, an evil act?
I find this an act of undying love, caring and devotion.
What is evil are the people that will not help them without abusing them.
Of course you have the idiots that think current events started it.
Too stupid to understand it was there before and it will be there after.
They always look for someone to blame. They need to look in the mirror.
There is a reason it is called “The World’s Oldest Profession”.
Most disturbing of all to me is what happens to these victims besides the personal abuse given to them by there customers.
Society looks at them with discuss, the law makes them criminals, and the religious tell them they are going to hell.
When was the last time you thought of helping these victims?
Hey there! Looks like you're enjoying the discussion, but you're not signed up for an account.
When you create an account, we remember exactly what you've read, so you always come right back where you left off. You also get notifications, here and via email, whenever new posts are made. And you can like posts and share your thoughts. Sign Up
Subhanallah 
May Allah(swt) help them through this situation! Ameen.
Hide
Looks like you're enjoying the discussion, but you're not signed up for an account.
Posting Permissions
Bookmarks