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Iraqi Refugees Turn To prostitution

By Omar Sinan

25 October, 2007
Associated Press

DAMASCUS, Syria - The Iraqi women jump onto the stage at the al-Rawabi club, their long black hair swinging, their young faces caked with makeup. Iraqi pop music booms out as they sway and dance under strobe lights.

Nearby, a woman nicknamed At'outa meets her paying dates — men who hand over $90 a night for companionship and sex.

This club in northwest Damascus represents one of the most troubling aspects of the Iraqi refugee crisis — Iraqi women and girls who are turning to prostitution to survive in countries that have taken them in but won't let them or their families work at most other jobs.

No reliable figures of Iraqi prostitutes exist, but an increase in the number of Iraqi women seen in recent months in clubs and on the streets of Damascus, Amman and other cities suggests the problem is growing as more Iraqis flee their country's violence.

Most of the Iraqi women at the al-Rawabi club appeared to be in their late teens and early 20s although some were older. While some danced on stage, about a half-dozen others strolled around the tables, smiling at men and inviting offers to sit down for a drink.

Ayman al-Halaqi, a club manager here, said Iraqi dancers are cheaper to hire than Syrians. Back home, even dancing in a skimpy costume would be considered shameful. Iraqi women who go beyond that can earn 10 times more from a single encounter with a client than by working a full day as a housemaid.

At the al-Rawabi club, the usual customers are mostly Iraqi or Syrian men, but summer brought the annual flood of visitors from Persian Gulf states and Saudi Arabia.

Bassam Abdul-Wahid, a 27-year-old Iraqi who runs an import-export business in Damascus, was partying with three male companions at the club one evening. Sporting three gold rings and a flashy gold bracelet, he motioned for more whiskey as two slender young Iraqi women in tight jeans slipped into chairs at the men's table.

Abdul-Wahid, a regular at al-Rawabi, joked that he likes his table to be "an example of Iraqi generosity." As the liquor flowed, the women laughed and exchanged "high-fives" with the men — but refused to talk with a reporter.

At'outa, a blonde in her late 30s whose nickname means "little kitten" in Arabic, agreed to tell her story but refused to give her real name for fear neighbors or her children would learn what she does.

Last year, she fled Iraq with her son and two daughters, all teenagers, after her husband was gunned down by militants in Baghdad's volatile Ghazaliyah district.

After a few months in Syria, her late husband's savings were running out. She tried working as a tailor and a housemaid, but could not make ends meet, she said. Then, a man offer to cancel a $250 debt in exchange for sex. Since then, she has regularly met other dates at the al-Rawabi club, where sex earns her enough money to pay the bills.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates that around 2 million Iraqis have fled to neighboring countries since 2003.

In Jordan and Syria, they struggle to get by.

"Men and boys are most likely to be deported, so women sometimes work illegally, but have no protection from employer abuse," the New York-based Women's Commission for Refugee Women and Children said in a recent report.

After a fact-finding trip to Jordan, the group said it heard accounts of women and girls turning to prostitution. But its report provided few details.

Amnesty International also reported during the summer that its representatives were told on a visit to Syria that young Iraqi girls were being pressured by families to engage in prostitution. The group said it was worried that Iraqi child trafficking could grow.

Syrian officials are officially silent on the subject, but Amnesty International says they have voiced concerns in private.

An artists' professional group in Damascus forced the closure of almost 30 night clubs several months ago, saying the dancers and singers were not licensed — a sure sign the performers were Iraqi in tightly controlled Syria.

In Damascus neighborhoods full of Iraqis like Jaramaneh and Sit Zeinab, Iraqi women often approach men in the streets, asking if they "have a place" or "want to have some fun."

In Amman, Jordan, many Iraqi refugees flock to the districts of Shemisani and Rabai, where clubs feature belly dancers and hostesses. Male customers often are phoned later by the women and asked if they could meet.

Bassam al-Kadi, an official of the human rights group Syria Women's Observatory, said some Iraqi women had been deported by Syrian authorities because they were believed involved in prostitution.

Iraqi women whose husbands or fathers are dead or wounded from the war are most at risk, al-Kadi said.

"These women are being left with no supporter, under tremendous pressure and severe conditions," he said. "Thus they are being forced to do that, to fetch bread for their families."

The alternatives are menial household jobs or selling cigarettes and cheap goods on the street.

At'outa said she tells people that her relatives abroad pay for the $250 monthly rent for the family's apartment. She shares the single bedroom with her two daughters, while her son sleeps on a living room sofa.

Sobbing, she says she can never go back to Iraq and longs to settle her family in the West, but her prospects aren't good.

Laurens Jolles of the U.N. refugee office in Damascus said his agency wants to resettle 20,000 of the most vulnerable Iraqi refugees by year's end. In mid-February, the United States announced it would let in about 7,000 Iraqis. Sweden has admitted more than 18,000 since 2006, the highest number in any European country, but now says it is tightening asylum rules.

But At'outa is just one of an estimated 1.5 million Iraqi refugees in Syria alone.

"I ask myself every day, what did I get out of this life? No family, no home and no honor," she said. "The guilt is ripping my body to shreds."

 

 

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