“Currently, more than 50,000 Iraqi women in Jordan and Syria are trapped in sexual servitude and have no possibility of escape. The burgeoning sex industries in Syria and Jordan are thriving because of instability produced by the Iraq War—laying responsibility directly at the feet of the United States. Countless Iraqi women and girls were widowed or orphaned by wartime casualties. And the official divorce rate, particularly for mixed-sect marriages, doubled following the US invasion—likely concealing still more unofficial separations. Both situations left many more women as the sole heads of their households—and in social alienation, as traditional support systems fractured under the pressure of civil strife. Insecure and alone, many fled and continue to flee to Syria and Jordan. Prospects in Syria and Jordan, however, are bleak. Neither government recognizes incoming Iraqis as refugees or grants them the right to work. Some Iraqis are granted temporary visas to enter Syria, but visa restrictions were tightened in 2007, rendering most Iraqis ineligible. Unable to support themselves or their households, thousands of Iraqi women have been preyed on by sex traffickers taking advantage of this chaotic environment. Women and girls are recruited in Syria and Jordan as cabaret dancers and then forced into prostitution after their employers confiscate their passports and confine them to their work premises; others are abducted on the streets of Iraq and trafficked into Syria and Jordan to work in the sex industry……….”

I imagine the clientele who aid and abet this trafficking in unfortunate women and children are not only from Jordan and Syria. At least these two countries, unlike other Arabs, allow the refugees in. Yet Jordanians are known for their surliness, it is that missing humor again, and Syrians are probably a close second or third. Much of the clientele are almost certainly from other Arab countries, and I have one particular large Arab country in mind which I shall not name.
Cheers
mhg

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