Sex, Lies and Crime: Human Trafficking in the Middle East: "“Love for Sale”
Reports of wealthy men from gulf countries roaming refugee camps in Jordan have become more common. Desperate to support themselves and their families, Syrian families have been known to sell their young daughters using temporary marriages, known as sigheh, segheh, or mu’ta. Wealthy individuals from Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and Kuwait travel to Egypt to purchase women and girls for temporary marriages, facilitated by parents and guardians. Girls as young as 10 have been sold in this manner and later found in the streets of the men’s home countries with no way to return to their families and no one willing to take them in — except for traffickers. These children are throwaway kids, abused, used and discarded when the men are done with them.
Forced prostitution has grown along with the conflict and destabilization of governments in the Middle East. Syrian women who think they will become second wives to Egyptian men instead find themselves in forced prostitution, labor or begging. Facilitated by temporary marriages, Iran, a Tier 3 country not party to the 2000 U.N. Protocol, has a brisk business in forced prostitution among women and children from Syria, Iraq and Iran.
Criminal organizations play a “significant role in trafficking” in Iran, according to the State Department.[iii] Widespread corruption among government officials means trafficking laws are not enforced, and perpetrators face no consequences. Women who have been trafficked into prostitution are liable to be prosecuted for adultery, punishable by death. For these women, prostitution or death are their only choices.
In Iraq, a Tier 2 nation, forced prostitution without temporary marriage is prevalent. Criminal gangs and police kidnap and force women into prostitution or rape them and put it on film, then blackmail them into prostitution. Iraqi taxi drivers have been reported to force Syrian women into prostitution, as have parents, husbands and other family members and trusted people. The victims are subject to repeated rape, torture, arrests, imprisonment and honor killings."
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Reports of wealthy men from gulf countries roaming refugee camps in Jordan have become more common. Desperate to support themselves and their families, Syrian families have been known to sell their young daughters using temporary marriages, known as sigheh, segheh, or mu’ta. Wealthy individuals from Saudi Arabia, the U.A.E. and Kuwait travel to Egypt to purchase women and girls for temporary marriages, facilitated by parents and guardians. Girls as young as 10 have been sold in this manner and later found in the streets of the men’s home countries with no way to return to their families and no one willing to take them in — except for traffickers. These children are throwaway kids, abused, used and discarded when the men are done with them.
Forced prostitution has grown along with the conflict and destabilization of governments in the Middle East. Syrian women who think they will become second wives to Egyptian men instead find themselves in forced prostitution, labor or begging. Facilitated by temporary marriages, Iran, a Tier 3 country not party to the 2000 U.N. Protocol, has a brisk business in forced prostitution among women and children from Syria, Iraq and Iran.
Criminal organizations play a “significant role in trafficking” in Iran, according to the State Department.[iii] Widespread corruption among government officials means trafficking laws are not enforced, and perpetrators face no consequences. Women who have been trafficked into prostitution are liable to be prosecuted for adultery, punishable by death. For these women, prostitution or death are their only choices.
In Iraq, a Tier 2 nation, forced prostitution without temporary marriage is prevalent. Criminal gangs and police kidnap and force women into prostitution or rape them and put it on film, then blackmail them into prostitution. Iraqi taxi drivers have been reported to force Syrian women into prostitution, as have parents, husbands and other family members and trusted people. The victims are subject to repeated rape, torture, arrests, imprisonment and honor killings."
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