Prostitution in Syria

During the era of slavery in Syria prostitution was connected to slavery. The Islamic Law formally prohibited prostitution. However, since

the principle of concubinage in Islam in Islamic Law allowed a man to have sexual intercourse with his female slave, prostitution was practiced by a pimp selling his female slave on the slave market to a client, who was allowed to have intercourse with her as her new owner, and who then returned his ownership to her pimp on the pretext of discontent after having had intercourse with her, which was a legal and accepted method for prostitution in the Islamic world.B. Belli, "Registered female prostitution in the Ottoman Empire (1876-1909)," Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2020. p 56

Ismail al-Jazari (1136–1206) describes a Damascus procuress in his writings. She recruited women for work as prostitutes at weddings. She took the women to a safe place out of town where her husband was the pimp. Eventually they were arrested. The woman confessed during torture and was strangled. The husband fled and was never caught.{{cite book|last1=Leiser|first1=Gary|title=Prostitution in the Eastern Mediterranean World: The Economics of Sex in the Late Antique and Medieval Middle East|date=30 November 2016|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1784536527}}

In Ottoman Syria prostitution (of free women) was tolerated. By the 18th-century, local Ottoman authorities in the Ottoman Empire, such as in Damascus in Syria and in Egypt, had begun to tolerate clandestine prostitution of free women in exchange for taxation.B. Belli, “Registered female prostitution in the Ottoman Empire (1876-1909),” Ph.D. - Doctoral Program, Middle East Technical University, 2020.

Under the French Mandate (1923−1946), prostitution was legal and regulated.{{cite book|last1=Zachs|first1=Fruma|last2=Halevi|first2=Sharon|title=Gendering Culture in Greater Syria: Intellectuals and Ideology in the Late Ottoman Period|date=26 February 2015|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1780769363|page=141}} At the beginning of the Mandate 742 prostitutes were registered, but it is thought the actual number was much higher.

From 2003 onward, many women fleeing from the war in Iraq were practising underworld prostitution for living.{{cite web|title=Iraqi sex slaves recount ordeals|url=http://www.weeklyholiday.net/2007/060707/inter.html|website=Weekly Holiday|access-date=29 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090106131026/http://www.weeklyholiday.net/2007/060707/inter.html|archive-date=6 January 2009}} Some sources claim up to 50 thousand Iraqi refugee women in Syria, many of them are recent widows or orphans with no professional qualification, started prostitution as the only source for earning a living.{{cite web|last1=Hassan|first1=Nihal|title='50,000 Iraqi refugees' forced into prostitution|url=http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2701324.ece|website=The Independent|access-date=29 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070626181822/http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article2701324.ece|archive-date=26 June 2007|url-status=dead|date=24 June 2007}}

In the 2000s, the country was a destination for sex tourism by the Arab world,{{cite book|last1=Shelley|first1=Louise|title=Human trafficking a global perspective|date=2010|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0521130875|edition=Reprinted with corrections}} particularly Saudi Arabia.{{cite web|title=I Went Undercover In The World Of Syrian Whorehouses|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/syrian-whorehouse-v14n11/|website=Vice|access-date=29 January 2018|language=en-us|date=2 November 2007}} The large number of Iraqi women and children who were forced to turn to prostitution to survive, or were trafficked, ensured a large number of prostitutes were available for tourists.{{cite web |last1=Zoepf |first1=Katherine |title=Desperate Iraqi Refugees Turn to Sex Trade in Syria |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/world/middleeast/29syria.html |website=New York Times |access-date=18 July 2018 |language=en |date=29 May 2007}}

In the Saidnaya suburb of Damascus, there were over 100 'tourist clubs' where mainly underage girls mostly of iraqi descent were available.

After the start of the civil war, tourism dropped off.{{cite news|title=Conflict decimates Syria tourism: official report|url=http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/08/29/235010.html|access-date=24 December 2015|publisher=Al Arabia News|date=29 August 2012}}{{cite web |url=http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/business/2012/01/boom-to-crash.html# |title=Syrian Tourism Industry: From Boom to Bust – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East |publisher=Al-Monitor |date=24 January 2012 |access-date=15 November 2015 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151117021635/http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/business/2012/01/boom-to-crash.html |archive-date=17 November 2015 }}

{{see also|Human trafficking in Syria}}

Syria is a source and destination country for women, and children subjected to sex trafficking. The situation in Syria continues to deteriorate amid the ongoing civil war. More than half of Syria's pre-war population of 23 million has been displaced; as of March 2017, five million have fled to neighbouring countries and, as of December 2016, roughly 6.3 million are internally displaced. Syrians, both those that remain in the country and refugees in neighbouring countries, continue to be highly vulnerable to trafficking.{{cite web|title=Syria 2017 Trafficking in Persons Report|url=https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2017/271293.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703181524/https://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/countries/2017/271293.htm|url-status=dead |archive-date=3 July 2017|website=U.S. Department of State|access-date=29 January 2018}}{{PD-notice}}

In March 2016, the media reported that women from Nepal and Bangladesh were forced to work in the sex industry in Syria. In June 2014, ISIS announced the establishment of an Islamic "Caliphate" in Iraq and Syria. ISIS routinely forces Syrian girls to undergo virginity tests before trading them in "slave bazaars" and sending them to various Syrian provinces and other countries for sexual slavery. ISIS incursion into Assyrian villages in the northeastern province of Al-Hasaka, captured as many as 30 Assyrian Christian women and forced them into sexual slavery.

The Syrian refugee population is highly vulnerable to trafficking in neighbouring countries, particularly Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq, and Turkey. Syrian refugee women and girls are vulnerable to forced or "temporary marriages"—for the purpose of prostitution and other forms of exploitation, and sex trafficking in refugee camps, in Jordan, and cities in the Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR), including Sulaymaniyah. In Baghdad, Basrah, and other cities in southern Iraq, reports from 2015 indicated some Syrian refugee women were forced into prostitution by a trafficking network in hotels and brothels after agents of the network promised to resettle them from the IKR. In Turkey and Lebanon, reports continue of illicit prostitution rings of Syrian refugee women and girls, which are administered by local men, while the Lebanese police issued reports in 2014 detailing the sale of Syrian refugee women by local men. LGBTI persons among the Syrian refugee population in Lebanon are reportedly vulnerable to sex trafficking by Lebanese pimps.

The United States Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons ranks Syria as a 'Tier 3' country.

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Syria

Category:Law of Syria

Category:Society of Syria

Syria

Syria

Category:Women's rights in Syria