Removing curtains of Arab harems – II

August 20, 2011

‘Deep blue brothels’, that exactly what the Syrian and Jordanian under-cover brothels are named, where up to 2010, more than 90,000 Iraqi females had been trapped into prostitution, either by trafficking racket or so-called lovers. According to estimation, Syrian and Jordanian brothel alone house more than 400,000 sex workers, whose main customers are Saudis. Governments are fully aware of such sex rackets, which operate mostly behind the curtain of ‘Family House’ or ‘Boutique Shops’. In Damascus, there are at least two large brothels, which run under the cover of ‘Therapy Center’. Syrian law allows establishment of nightclubs, pubs and bars. In recent years, there had also been mushroom growth of ‘Discos’, which in most cases are cabarets.

On weekends dozens of girls will be seen on the outskirts of the Syrian capital, Damascus, moving half-heartedly on the dance floor, lit up by flashing disco lights. They are dressed in tight jeans, low-cut tops and knee-high boots, but the girls’ make-up can’t disguise the fact that most are in their mid-teens. It’s a strange sight in a conservative Muslim country, but this is the sex business, and it’s booming as a result of the war in Iraq. At the backstage, the manager sits in his leather chair, doing business. Saudi clients will be seen quoting for the girls. Next door, in a dimly lit room, the next shift of girls arrives, taking off the black all-covering abyss [Burqa] they wear outside and putting on lipstick and mascara. To judge from the cars parked outside, the clients come from all over the Gulf region – many are young Saudi men escaping from an even more conservative moral climate. Ninety-five percent of the sex workers in Syrian brothels are Iraqis. Most are unwilling to talk, but Zahra, an attractive girl with a bare midriff and tattoos, says she’s 16. She has been working in this club since fleeing to Syria from Baghdad after the war. She doesn’t like it, she says, “but what can we do? I hope things get better in Iraq, because I miss it. I want to go back, but I have to look after my sister”. Zahra points to a thin, pubescent girl with long black hair, who seems to be dancing quite happily. Aged 13, Nadia started in the club two months ago. These girls are not just providing the floor show – they have paid to be here, and they need to pick up a client, or they’ll lose money. If successful, they’ll earn about US$100, equivalent to a month’s wages in a factory. There are more than a million Iraqi refugees in Syria; many are women whose husbands or fathers have been killed. Banned from working legally, they have few options outside the sex trade. No one knows how many end up as prostitutes, but Iraqi women’s group named Women’s Will, puts the figure at 90,000.

Saida Zainab is a run-down area with a large Iraqi population. Millions of Shias go there every year, because of the shrine of the granddaughter of the prophet of Islam. In this area, a large number of undeclared or private brothels are operating. It is alleged that Iraqi children are forced into prostitution in these private brothels, which also are known as ‘Deep Blue Brothels’. Bassam al-Kadi of Syrian Women Observatory says: “Some have been sexually abused in Iraq, but others are being prostituted by fathers and uncles who bring them here under the pretext of protecting them. They are virgins, and they are brought here like an investment and exploited in a very ugly way.”

One of such ‘Deep Blue Brothels’ are operated by a Syrian female named Samia. She selected a residential building which was more known for having a cultural center of Iran as well as a Quranic Studies Institute, funded by Kuwait. This house with such good social esteem was a better location for Samia to operate a private brothel. One night, neighbours of Samia were forced to inform the police as a number of male and female in drunken state were creating public nuisance by loudly playing music. Only minutes later, the police patrol arrived and the neighbours were delighted that their suffering caused by Samia and her costumers would now be put to an end. But to their utter surprise, those police officers, instead of taking any action against the brothel owner, simply stayed there for couple of hours, and came out in a joyous mood. It was not difficult for Samia’s neighbours to realize that, such ‘Deep Blue Brothels’ enjoy patronization from influential quarters, where law enforcing agencies even cannot take any action. The spread of the practice of prostitution doesn’t cease to be a frightening matter to everyone and the gravity of the matter lies in the fact that it has reached the extent of public practice, without dreading the responsible authorities. The greatest danger is that it is reaching the fabric of Syrian communities, far from where the cities where prostitution was traditionally found in, arriving in the neighbourhoods Jaramana and else towns.

In Damascus [Syrian capital] or Amman [Jordanian capital], ‘Blue Combo’ is a popular term. It means any foreigner visiting those cities can pick up a brochure available at the airports as well as other public places, which displays names and telephone numbers of girls. These advertisements never claim it to be a brothel; rather the girl pretends to be the owner of a condominium, which she offers to rent on daily, weekly or monthly basis. Rental they ask are reasonably cheaper, which would fit the wallet. When anyone will visit those condominiums, they will immediately realize that, owning and maintaining of such lavishly furnished condo by a girl of 15-18 years, was impossible. It means the girl was actually working as sex workers under the cover of condo owner. Most importantly, if the condo has three beds, then the ‘owner’ would use one for attending her client, while other rooms will be given to her ‘girlfriends’. It is the newest trend in Damascus or Amman – Blue Combos [get the girl and you get a discount off the apartment]. This can indicate two things. Flesh trade is getting very competitive that the brothel owners are offering bundles of deals and also the number of customers are growing fast, as such ‘Blue Condos’ are increasing almost every month. Municipal Corporation of both the cities are not only reluctant in looking into what is happening behind the curtain of ‘Blue Condos’, they also are unable to touch any such establishments, as the girls working in Blue Condos or the rackets are connected to influential people in the society and government. That is why, Blue Condos are openly advertising in brochures and even local newspapers.

At Sednaya, an area in Damascus city the visitors will witness boom of multi-colored lights with neon signs of “Touristic Club & Restaurant”, which actually is unofficial term of “whorehouse”. Under-aged refuges mostly from Iraq and Palestine are crowded in hundred plus “Touristic Club & Restaurant” only in a single area. It will look like a “Las Vegas” in the Arab world, where, mostly Saudi men come in search of fresh flesh of an Iraqi or Palestinian girl. Some of the Iraqi females had been prostitutes under Saddam’s regime, and some are forced to enter Syrian-Lebanese brothels following the very dark, violent, inconceivable cataclysms that the war had brought into their lives.

Iraq is both a source and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude. Iraqi women and girls, some as young as 11 years old, are trafficked within the country and abroad to Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Kuwait, UAE, Turkey, Iran, and possibly Yemen, for forced prostitution and sexual exploitation within households in these countries. Some victims are sexually exploited in Iraq before being sold to traffickers who take them abroad. In some cases, women are lured into sexual exploitation through false promises of work. The more prevalent means of becoming a victim is through sale or forced marriage. Family members have trafficked girls and women to escape desperate economic circumstances, to pay debts, or resolve disputes between families. Some women and girls are trafficked within Iraq for the purpose of sexual exploitation through the traditional institution of temporary marriages [Muta’a]. Under this arrangement, the family receives a dowry from the husband and the marriage is terminated after a specified period. When trafficked, women can be placed at risk of honor killings if their families learn that they have been raped or forced into prostitution. Anecdotal reports tell of desperate Iraqi families abandoning their children at the Syrian border with the expectation that traffickers on the Syrian side will pick them up and arrange forged documents so the young women and girls can stay in Syria in exchange for working in a nightclub or brothel. Iraqi boys, mostly from poor families of Turkmen and Kurdish origin, are trafficked within Iraq for the purpose of forced labor, such as street begging and sexual exploitation. Iraqi men and boys who migrate abroad for economic reasons may become victims of trafficking. Women from Ethiopia, Indonesia, Nepal, and the Philippines are trafficked into the area under the jurisdiction of the Kurdistan Regional Government [KRG] for involuntary domestic servitude after being promised different jobs. Over the past year, there was a credible report of women trafficked by the director of a women’s shelter in KRG area; the shelter was subsequently closed. There were also reports that some foreign women recruited for work in beauty salons in the KRG area had debts imposed on them and were coerced into prostitution.

Agony of the Iraqi women and forcing them to prostitution has been harshly brought into criticism by a number of investigative writers in the world, most of whom made United States liable for it. Debra McNutt wrote “Military prostitution has long been seen around U.S. bases in the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and other countries. But since the U.S. has begun to deploy forces to many Muslim countries, it cannot be as open about enabling prostitution for its personnel. U.S. military deployments in the Gulf War, the Afghan War, and the Iraq War have reinvigorated prostitution and the trafficking of women in the Middle East.”

She wrote “During the brief Gulf War, the U.S. military prevented prostitution for its troops in Saudi Arabia, to avoid a backlash from its hosts. But on their return home, the troop ships stopped in Thailand for “R & R.” After the Gulf War, harsh economic sanctions forced many desperate Iraqi women into prostitution. The sex trade grew to such an extent that in 1999 Saddam ordered his paramilitary forces to crack down on it in Baghdad, resulting in the executions of many women. The U.S. invasion of March 2003 brought prostitution back to Iraq within a matter of weeks. The Iraq War has now lasted eight times longer than the Gulf War deployments, and is marked by a huge reliance on private security contractors. A U.S. ban on human trafficking, signed by President Bush in January 2006, has not been applied to these contractors. The rebirth of prostitution has generated fear that permeates all of Iraqi society. Families keep their girls inside, not only to keep them from being assaulted or killed, but to prevent them from being kidnapped by organized prostitution rings. Gangs are also forcing some families to sell their children into sex slavery. The war has created an enormous number of homeless girls and boys who are most vulnerable to the sex trade. It has also created thousands of refugee women who try to escape danger but end up [out of economic desperation] being prostituted in Jordan, Syria, Yemen or the UAE. Our occupation not only attacks women on the outside, but attacks them on the inside, until there is nothing left to destroy.”

Independent journalist David Phinney has documented how a Kuwaiti contract company that imported workers to build the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad’s Green Zone—where they were terribly exploited—also smuggled women into the construction site.

McNutt suspects that 180,000 private contractors, who now outnumber U.S. troops by 20,000 and who are not subject to military law, were promoting prostitution of local women or importing women under the guise of cooks, maids or office workers.

The best-known case of private contractors engaging in military prostitution was when DynCorp employees were caught trafficking women in Bosnia in the 1990s. Postings by private contractors on sex websites indicate that prostitution exists around U.S. military bases in Iraq, though it’s increasingly dangerous for Westerners to leave military bases on their own.

Contractors advising each other to do their ‘R & R’ in the safer northern Kurdish region, or the bars and hotels of Dubai, the UAE emirate that has become the most open center of prostitution in the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile prostitution rings in Iraq have to go deeper underground to hide from Iraqi militias.

Another casualty of the U.S. occupation not much in the news is that women GIs—one out of 10 U.S. soldiers in Iraq—are reporting rapes and sexual harassment in unprecedented numbers.

Sara Corbett wrote in a March 18 New York Times Magazine article headlined “The Women’s War” that a report financed by the Defense Department showed “nearly a third of a nationwide sample of female veterans seeking health care through the VA said they experienced rape or attempted rape during the service.”

She wrote: “Of those, 37 percent said they were raped multiple times, while 14 percent said they were gang raped. Military prostitution has a long history. Perhaps the most infamous case occurred during World War II when the Japanese military forced 100,000 to 200,000 Korean women to “service” their soldiers. These “comfort women,” now in their eighties, are still demanding reparations for sexual enslavement. Those who oppose U.S. military bases in the Philippines, South Korea and Thailand have long drawn attention to brothels clustered around bases in those countries. The non-profit group Prostitution Research and Education estimates 400,000 prostitutes worked in Thailand in 1974 when GIs went there from Vietnam on furlough.”

As observed by Sarah Mendelson in her 2005 Balkans report Barracks and Brothels, many U.S. government protocols and programs have been implemented to slow human trafficking, but without enforcement they end up merely as public relations exercises. Military officials often turn a blind eye to the exploitation of women by military and contract personnel, because they want to boost their men’s “morale.” The most effective way for the military to prevent a public backlash is to make sure that the embarrassing information is not revealed. It is not necessary to cover up information if it does not come out in the first place.

Most of the Iraqi prostitutes in Syrian and Lebanese brothels are annoyed both on Saddam and United States, as they feel that, both are equally responsible for pushing thousands of Iraqi females into prostitution. It may be mentioned here that, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated in 2006 that more than 2 million people are trafficked in the global sex trade, though it noted the number could be as high as 10 million. Some of the analysts are also commenting that, presence US forces in the Middle East is encouraging growth of private brothels and prostitution.

August 19, 2011

The United Arab Emirates [UAE] is one of the biggest destinations for men and women, predominantly from South and Southeast Asia, trafficked for the purposes of labor and commercial-sexual exploitation. Migrant workers, who comprise more than 90 percent of the UAE’s private sector workforce, are recruited from India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Ethiopia, Eritrea, China, and the Philippines. Women from some of these countries travel willingly to work as domestic servants or administrative staff, but some are subjected to conditions indicative of forced labor, including unlawful withholding of passports, restrictions on movement, non-payment of wages, threats, or physical or sexual abuse.

Isolation is a dominant feature of foreign female domestic worker work environment in the United Arab Emirates. Foreign female domestic workers are isolated physically, psychologically, socially, culturally and in all aspects of human existence. However, they differ in their level of isolation. Some foreign female domestic workers live in an abusive environment of isolation. Others are able to interact socially and break through some of the physical and psychological barriers they face.

Legally, once a foreign female domestic worker enters her employer’s house, she is totally under his/her control, since the employer is usually her visa sponsor. Even today, United Arab Emirates labour laws do not recognize domestics as part of the labour force. The employer bears total responsibility for his/her domestic workers and has total control over them. However, during the first three months of the contract, both the employer and the employee have the right to contact the recruiting agency in order to report problems or to seek change in the status or employment of the foreign female domestic worker. Most recruiting agencies, however, do not encourage this practice, and often hide information from the foreign female domestic worker about their rights. The immigration regulations governing the status of domestic workers and the social practices towards foreign female domestic worker in the United Arab Emirates enslave them to their employers until the duration of their contract ends. Whether one is placed with a desirable or an undesirable employer is a matter of luck.

A significant portion of the foreign female workers in UAE as well as in other Arab countries are forced to offer sex to the employer, as well as many of them are even sold to the private brothels or sex rackets by the recruiting agents or pimps.

Alina, 22-year old Kyrgyz girl arrived in United Arab Emirates in 2008, on a visit visa following a promise of a pastry job for US$ 700 by a compatriot woman who arranged for her the visa, air ticket and accommodation. An unidentified woman received Alina at the airport. Later Alina came to know that, she had been sold to the gang in UAE for US$ 32,000. The woman, who came to airport to receive Alina told her that she had to pay back the costs in prostitution. Later, Alina was taken to a place, where she saw four Uzbek women and two Afghan men. These Afghan men were working as pimp to collect customers. On the first night, Alina was raped by both the Afghan men and she was told to please at least 10 customers every day. After nine months, Alina managed to escape from the captivity of the Afghan men and decided not to return home. She hired an apartment in Dubai with the help of one of her customers, a Sikh from India. Monthly rent of the apartment the apartment was US$ 1,500. Alina knew it was possibly on her part to earn at least 10-15 thousand dollars a month, even if she had to attend 3-4 customers a day. But, the man, who helped her in hiring the apartment, proposed to bring at least 5-6 girls from India and later to engage them into prostitution. Alina readily accepted the proposal. Fifteen days later, four young girls, age ranging 18-20 years arrived from India. Meanwhile, Alina managed to contact with two of the Uzbek girls, who were already working as prostitutes at the Afghan men’s private brothel. Those two Uzbek women also joined Alina’s apartment.

In two months, Alina started making US$ 50-60 thousand each month. Money turned her real mad. She even forgot to show kindness to the girls at her private brothel. In some cases, the Indian girls especially were forced to attend more than 10 men every day. The 3-bedroomed apartment was converted into 6-bed brothel. Every day, Alina’s business hour began from 12 noon and continued till late night. Generally, Arab clients do not stay overnight or for longer period. They come and stay with the girl for 1-2 hours, for which, they pay US$ 100-150. Only on weekends, some of the Arab men request for taking the girls out. In that case, they are required to make a refundable deposit of US$ 15,000 with the brothel owner and pay US$ 500-700 for each night. Alina herself was also selling sex to customers every day, in addition to her running the brothel.

After running the brothel for almost two years, Alina and the Indian Sikh man decided to wrap-up the business as by that time, they already had made half a million dollar from the illegal sex trade in Dubai. Two of the Indian girls at Alina’s brothel were sent back home, while remaining four voluntarily decided to work in another private brothel, which was being operated by an Uzbek woman. The two girls, who went back to India with US$ 15-20 thousand each, which they earned during the two years, told Alina that, once they are returned to India, many of the village men will be rather eager to marry them, seeing the money they already have. It is commonly known in India, Bangladesh and Pakistan that, most of the females who go to Middle Eastern countries as domestic help, are either sexually abused by their employers, or end up in hidden brothels in Arab countries.

Story of Nargis:

Nargis, an Uzbek woman, who came to Dubai six years, back from Thailand, where, she had been sold to sex racket by her own boyfriend. Here is her story:

“It was 2003. I met my boyfriend at my girl-friend’s house. He had been dating me for two months already when he told me he was going to marry me. My boyfriend told me we could earn some money for our wedding if we went to work in Greece at his friend’s company. He said, we would stay in Greece for three months, and return home after earning enough of money. I was extremely happy. I could not believe all that was happening to me. He took my passport and all necessary papers and said that he would take care of visa and travel arrangements. As I was having highest trust and confidence on my boyfriend, I did not ask to see the tickets or documents. Few days later, we boarded on a flight, which was first going to Thailand and then to Greece, that what exactly my boyfriend said. But, surprisingly, the travel stopped at Bangkok and my boyfriend said we needed to spend a night in the city hotel to catch the flight for Greece the next day. I had no fear or confusion, as was sure, my boyfriend would never deceive me.

“He took me to a hotel and said that he was going to see his friend in Bangkok and would be back soon. Two hours later an Uzbek man came asked to accompany him to another hotel, where my boyfriend was waiting. I was confused and was not really realizing, what was happening. When I reached another hotel, the same man told me that, I was his property. I could not understand, I kept saying that it was a misunderstanding and that my boyfriend would be very upset seeing him saying such indecent things to me. But, to my utter surprise, the man told me that my boyfriend had already sold me to him and from now on he would have my documents and I had serve the clients this man would arrange for me. Onwards, everyday, I had to wait for the instruction from that man in my mobile phone, and had to rush to the hotel or apartment, as he instructed, to attend customers. This man was taking away 80 percent of my income, and I was only left with the remaining 20 percent and any extra tips that some clients used to pay.

“I had no option but to obey every instruction of that man, as my passport was already in his custody. This way, after spending almost seven months in Thailand, one day my luck clicked. Suddenly I encountered a low-ranking diplomat with Uzbek embassy in Thailand, in a nightclub. He was particularly showing interest in me, though; I already was with a Japanese client. At one point, the Uzbek embassy man passed his mobile number to me, skipping the eyes of the Japanese client.

“Next day, I called him. He wanted me to meet at the embassy. But, I told him that, sex rackets in Thailand, always keep closer eyes on Uzbek embassy, as hundreds of Uzbek girls are now working in Thailand as under-ground sex workers. Anyway, I managed to meet him for 10-15 minutes, on my return from a customer. Gradually, I developed a kind of sweet relations with that Uzbek diplomat. I knew he would never marry me, but still we were in love. I was meeting him on every chance I got in between my work.

“Couple of months later, when I sensed a kind of emotional relations built with the diplomat, one day I asked him, if he could help me in getting a passport, as mine was already with the sex-racket ‘boss’. The diplomat readily agreed to issue a new passport showing my old one as lost. I received the new passport in just 2 days and with the help of the same diplomat, got another temporary visa for Thailand for one week. This was my time to leave Thailand. I checked my savings and it was less than UD$ 22,000. I was not willing to return to Uzbekistan. But, finally went back and contacted a local travel agency for helping me in finding a join in Dubai. The man I approached knew that I was a prostitute. So, without hesitation, he offered me a job at one of Dubai’s nightclubs. Salary was not much, but the man said, I can earn a lot of tips by exposing my well-shaped body. I agreed!

“After paying air cost from Thailand to Uzbekistan and then cost of travel and some commission to the agent for reaching Dubai, I had just US$ 3,000 in hand. The owner of the nightclub provided me shelter in an apartment, where few more Egyptian, Indian and Russian girls were also staying. In nightclubs, more income comes from exposing body to the customers. But, I decided to work as the bar-tender, so that I could find a customer for after working hour earnings.

“On the very first night, I was lucky to spot a good customer. I earned US$ 100 as tips while serving him drinks. Later looking into his eyes, I understood, he was willing to take me out for the night. This was a rich Arab Sheikh, who readily accepted to pay me US$ 500 for the night. Still I did not know, the real cost for a Russian girl in Dubai, for the whole night is more than US$ 1,000. The Sheikh visibly was happy to get a Russian ‘virgin’ at half the cost.

“He was living in a palace like apartment. Well furnished in Western style. I found bottles of expensive wines and alcoholic beverages at his home. Was not wondered seeing such ‘haram’ items at the harem of Arab sheikh, as it was very natural that, most of these head-covered Arab sheikhs were doing all illicit, immoral and even religiously forbidden acts, simply by taking the advantage of being wealthy.

“Sheikh Hashim had his nick name Tony. He was running a medium type transport business in Dubai and was also investing is real estate. Tony, at the age of just 34, was able to make a few million dollars from the business, as he was a distant relative of the Emirs of UAE. On the first night, for some reason, Tony became emotionally weak to me, as he possibly was not expecting such warm behavior from a mere hooker. Most part of the night, we were chatting, singing, drinking and easting Arabian kebab. When I was leaving Tony’s apartment, he very decently handed me the money in envelop. This was a real shock to me, seeing such softness and decency in any Arab man. In my own knowledge [as I also attended few Arab customers in Thailand], Arabs are very rude by nature. But, Tony was an exception.

“Next night, as soon as I entered the nightclub, the owner whispered and asked me to wait for his exclusive guest, who was about to arrive. I wore the working dress and to my surprise, the exclusive guest of the owner was none by Tony. On his arrival, Tony said something in Arabic to the owner and we were guided to the second floor of the building, where I saw a nicely decorated room with a bed. This was an exclusive room for special guests. Generally, any ordinary Arab would never get any opportunity of spending time with girls in this room. There was karaoke and a TV which was connected to camera at the main floor, so that the customer could watch the cabaret by sitting in this room. My second night with Tony was spent in this room, and while leaving nearly in the morning, he gave me my payment.

“On the third night, the owner of the nightclub told me that Tony was sending his friend to me. Seeing Tony’s interest in me, the nightclub owner almost turned me into unreachable by other clients. At around 7:00 pm, a young Sheikh entered. He whispered with the nightclub owner and at the instruction of the owner, I accompanied the young sheikh to his car. When I boarded in the car, I realized, the man who guided me from the nightclub, was not the real sheikh but his employee. The real sheikh was sitting inside a tinted-glassed Mercedes Benz car. After moving for around 30 minutes, the car stopped in front of a villa. It was owned by the 26-year old Sheikh, who was Tony’s friend, and one of the members of the UAE’s emir family. At that age, he was running two large super stores in Dubai alongside the export-import trade.

“When we entered the villa, I saw few more Arab young men, already waiting for the ‘Russian Virgin’. It was a wild night, and most interesting, all of those young Arab sheikhs were bi-sexual. Inside closed doors, all of them were wearing boxing-shorts and sleeveless T-shirts. They were more looking like genuine Yankees, after removing their Arabian covers. Friend of Tony later told me that, major portion of Arab men are homosexuals at younger ages. Later, the rich boys get addicted to women, mostly with the female domestic help, who are employed from various countries. I was even shocked to know that, some of these domestic helps become pregnant by the employers or their ‘kids’. On that night, I had to comfort three of the friends of Tony and while leaving, they gave me US$ 1,000 for the service.

“Gradually, Tony introduced me to at least 20-25 young Sheikhs, all of whom are his friends or even class-mates. This was, I rather turned into a posh hooker, serving the rich Arab elites. Few months later, Tony asked me if I could bring in more young girls from my country. I readily nodded. And just in 4 days, I was sent back to Uzbekistan for bringing few more ‘Russian Virgins’ for the harem of the Arab sheikhs. When I returned to Dubai with the newly recruited girls, I realized that, Tony and his friends actually converted me into their pimp instead of having anymore physical attraction towards me. But I had nothing to complain, as Tony or his friends, never showed any disrespect to me, other than, seeking all types of sexual comfort, including anal.

“Just in course of two years, I turned into one of the biggest owners of private brothels in Dubai, where all of my customers were rich sheikhs and relatives of the emirs. Due to such influential connection, I was never touched by the law enforcing agencies. My brothel was located in a nice two-storied building, which had total 12 rooms. Each room was nicely decorated to fit the taste of the Arab sheikhs. It is important to mention that, Tony became a partner in this illicit trade with me, by holding fifty percent share. Every month, we were making net profit of roughly US$ 100-150 thousand. The business continued for around four years, till Tony was ready to marry a Qatari girl. Before marrying her, he expressed willingness of shutting down this business and suggested me to return to Uzbekistan with the money I owned and live a good life. When we closed the brothel, I had almost US$ 2 million in cash. This was not any small money for a prostitute like me to start a new life. But, I really was already struck into addiction of making more money from this illicit trade.

“After leaving Tony, I tried to connect with any of his friends with the hope of re-starting another brothel in Dubai city. But no one was showing any real seriousness about this. Rather few of them, spent nights with me, free of cost, just with the pretention of discussing the business. I also knew, with my almost collapsing figure, it won’t be possible for me to fit in Dubai’s sex trade, where young girls from many nations rather flood in. I also knew, in Uzbekistan, the best thing I could do is to marry a lazy and alcoholic man who would give me children in exchange of sitting on my earnings.

“I never wanted to be a sex-worker. But my destiny ended me here, where I now large amount of money, but a complete uncertain future. I really do not know, if I can ever become a family woman, instead of a hooker. I even do not know, if I can finally ignore the severe addiction of making money from this illicit profession.”