Underage Daughters of Syrian Refugees Forced into Prostitution

Syrian refugees in Jordan and Lebanon are being ‘helped’ by their Arab brothers in a particularly horrendous fashion. As in Egypt, the new capitol for Arab sex tourism, young, often underage girls are the prey:

Um Majed sets down small cups of hot Turkish coffee to ease the tension. Nezar is a Syrian refugee and looking for a husband for her daughter. She lists the girl’s qualities.

Nezar’s daughter is 17. The Saudi groom is 70.

And it’s a buyer’s market. There’s a surplus of desperate Syrian refugees with young daughrers to sell, and some grooms offering as little as $100 cash for a bride.

The age of consent in Jordan is 18, but there’s no shortage of religious clerics who will marry underage girls for a fee. A number of Um Majed’s clients simply want a temporary ‘marriage’, which sharia allows. It can last a few days, weeks or months, after which there’s a ‘divorce’ and the girl is returned to her parents, sometimes to be sold over and over again in what amounts to religiously sanctified prostitution.

“One of my brides has been married three, four times,” Um Majed says. “She is 15.”

“I have 10 families looking for grooms,” she says. “Their girls are between 12 and 21. The grooms are always in their 40s, 50s, or 70s. They want beautiful girls, the younger the better.”

“The Saudis usually ask for 12-year-olds.”