Sex Tourism
World’s oldest profession, Dubai-style
DUBAI, UAE (eTN) - The queuing starts early at the club located on the bottom floor of one of Dubai’s numerous five-star hotels. Men of all ages and nationalities pace impatiently as they wait for someone to leave the club so they can get the nod from the bouncer to enter.
But this is no ordinary club and these men are not here for the music blaring from speakers or the expensive drinks on offer at the bar. They are here for the women.
It’s dark and smoky inside, even a little cramped, and one is forced to negotiate the crush of people just to get to the bar. The lucky few sit in the reserved booths drinking whiskey and champagne, while the rest lean up against the bar and walls.
Girls from all over the world line the walls, drape themselves in booths or just stare blankly into space as they await the clientele.
Kelly from China is one such girl. She claims to have lived in the Emirate for the past eight months and before that worked in Singapore and Hong Kong. It’s the money to be made in Dubai that brought her here, she says, and it’s not long before she is being asked by a prospective client just how much an evening would cost. At around 1,300 aed or US$400, it’s not difficult to understand why she returns to the bar night after night.
At first glance these clubs at some of the city’s most expensive hotels that cater for the many visiting businessmen, expats and locals looking to pick someone up for the evening do not appear to be much unlike bars around the world.
But one begins to notice the difference as the women start to arrive and one by one their paperwork, which includes a copy of their visa, is scrutinized. This seems to be the pivotal legal issue in Dubai. Strangely enough the management seems only concerned with this and that the girls be modestly covered up so as not show too much cleavage.
In the very same hotel one needs only take a quick ride in the elevator to visit the self-styled jazz bar that caters to a more sophisticated clientele. It’s a slow night and so the three Turkish women sitting at the bar are willing to talk a little. The most talkative of the three, Sarah (not her real name) says that she has been coming to Dubai on a regular basis for over seven years but spends part of the year back in Turkey, returning to Dubai to make money.
“The most important thing is to have the right documents. I have no problem with a visa and even have a residency card. I have a partner visa through my husband, although we are separated now,” she explains.
Sarah is at the high end of the scale asking in the region of 2,000 aed per night (about $600), and according to her there is no shortage of takers. Her friends agree and point out that it’s especially Australian, Canadian and local men who seem to be the most willing to spend their money.
“The men with the money come upstairs and because we pay a fee to be able to sit up here we can make sure that there are fewer girls to compete with and it’s only the best who are up here,” says Sarah.
A brisk 10-minute walk from the hotel and you are in one of the older, less glitzy parts of Dubai. The street is filled with take-out restaurants, two- and three-star hotels and vacant lots where men play either soccer or cricket late into the night. It’s at one of these lots that the streetwalkers of Dubai can be found.
A mixture of predominantly Asian and African woman stand grouped together around the lot leaning up against the cinder blocks and smiling coyly at the passing men. The smile is inevitably followed up by the question, “Where are you from?” and then the offer of a massage with a price to be negotiated. This is in the region of 200 to 300 aed depending on the girl and her negotiating skills.
Mary is from Nigeria. She has been in Dubai for only six weeks having entered the country on a one-month tourist visa before making the trip to Oman to renew it. She is blunt about what she is doing while she is here, “I am hustling just like all the other girls on the street.”
According to Mary, this is her second time in Dubai. Less than two years ago she spent eight months in the Emirate working as a receptionist but the cost of living versus her salary was in her opinion not viable.
“They gave me a place to stay but it was like a prison camp, we had to be inside by 12pm every night and where not allowed guests. And even with company accommodation I could not save money to send home after paying my expenses. This is not living.”
Mary now shares an apartment with four other girls and says that helps her save as much of her earnings as she can to put towards her masters degree in marketing.
“Many of the girls hustling here are graduates who can’t find work in their countries, and any work they find here does not pay enough, so they do this,” Mary says.
The marketing background comes to the fore when she discusses the clientele and the number of local men who visit the girls.
“They say that Dubai men do not do this sort of thing but I see them here late at night. The truth is that if they did not use us then we would not be here. It’s simply supply and demand,” she laughs.
Amongst the woman I spoke with one thing was clear: the girls who were in the highest demand were Arabic girls. Generally these women come from Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, but they are rarely seen in hotels or on the streets.
“They are working but they dress traditionally so as not to get noticed. They will walk past a slow moving car and drop a slip of paper with their number through the window and then the man will phone later and they will arrange things,” claims Mary.
Dubai’s issues with prostitution are well documented, with the government closing down some of the most notorious venues over the past few years. Yet, according to the ladies back at the hotel, they have not experienced any sort of police scrutiny.
“We have no problems. As long as your visa is right nothing can stop you from sitting up here and having a drink; the police do not bother us,” says Sarah.
Things are not as easy for Mary and her friends on the street.
“The police do come here and if they catch you then they take you to jail and then deport you. Sometimes a man will come along and ask you to get in the car, but once you are inside he will drive you straight to the police station.”
She goes on to say that all tastes are catered for and claims that there are even two men who work along the very same street, and although not around this evening, they do a regular and brisk trade.
Moments later the girls around us begin to scatter and run across the street as a police SUV parks itself squarely on the lot where it proceeds to sit for the next five minutes. It’s not too long after the police leave before the girls begin to drift back, and very soon its business as usual.
Not all the woman working as prostitutes in Dubai do so out of choice, and while the figures are vague, anecdotal evidence supplied by volunteers working with trafficked women suggest up to half of all the woman trafficked into and through Dubai could end up being forced into prostitution.
A major issue is that the visa holder or sponsor retains the rights to the woman and so even if she escapes and seeks help, the trafficker is able to claim that he had no idea that this was going on or that the woman is lying, and so it is the woman who is often arrested, jailed and inevitably deported,” explains one such volunteer, who asked not to be named.
To get an idea of the numbers, one only has to look at the U.S. State Department report on human trafficking, which has estimated that in the region of 10,000 women from sub Saharan Africa, Eastern Europe, South and East Asia, Iran, Iraq and Morocco may be victims of sex trafficking in the UAE. In reality, this number is probably much higher.
There is no doubt the UAE, and Dubai in particular, is a modern-day success story rising as it has from humble fishing villages to modern cities with a multicultural society. Many affluent expatriates relocate to the region not only for the financial reward but also for the remarkably crime-free lifestyle.
Yet one must ask, why in a country that has recently undergone much scrutiny regarding its laws governing public displays of affection, does prostitution continue to take place with barely concealed contempt through all strata of society?
Prostitution is nothing new and it’s hardly remarkable even in Dubai. The women who choose to work in this business are well aware of the dangers of their profession but are as equally aware of the relatively large amounts of money to be made: money they use to fund graduate studies, support their families or simply spoil their children.
As Sarah remarked: “My son is 13 and lives with my family back home. But I think I will bring him to Dubai for Christmas. He will like it here.”
Comments
This gentleman a former confidant of UAE Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba lays bare the fact that the UAE government knows prostitution and human trafficking run rampant within their borders and that they welcome it.
“At first glance the UAE is reminiscent of a European style country set in the Middle East, but there is a sub culture of Arab society in both Abu and Dubai enveloped in prostitution, human trafficking, and the defining of a person solely by their financial worth,” Paschal said.
These two articles are both insightful and appalling.
http://www.thesentinel.com/mont/UAE
http://jobbacchus.blogspot.com/2009/05/oil-wealth-and-hookers.html
I am disgusted as a United States citizen that such a man who is allegedly connected with an organized crime based prostitution ring and white slavery would be involved in negotiating a nuclear proliferation deal with Obama.
United Hope UAE: Feminism Run Amuck
All too often women are innocent victims of what can rightfully be described as systematic abuse, oppression and neglect, in addition to the feeling of utter desperation in trying to seek help in a male dominated society. As such, there is, and will always be, a pressing need for private organizations to stand up for those without defense and to advocate for the rights of women in the society. But what happens when these private agencies become so powerful that they become themselves the administrators, deciders and executors of the law. Such is the case with Ms. Sharla Musabih, her group United Hope, and her network of shelters for women in the UAE. The ostensible aim of her organization is to thwart human trafficking and to counter any domestic abuse that may take place in the UAE. To that end, her efforts should be praised, commended and assisted by the local government and the community at large. The problem arises when she interferes with family disputes and usurps the local laws based upon her own since of what is fair and proper. Such was the case last Thursday.
Recently, I exercised my basic right as a human being to divorce my wife. My wife found in Ms. Sharla Musabih and her activist organization United Hope, a potent tool to exact her revenge upon me. Without ever meeting me, speaking with the children, advising counseling, or going through the local legal channels for divorce in Dubai, she ruled based upon her conversation with my ex wife that I was an abusive parent. She then executed her judgment, while I was away at work, by sending her local aid to collect my wife and children, hiding them in a local ‘shelter.’ So two young children, ages four and seven, were taken from their school, home, and father without any consultation, arbitration, or even conversation with their father! The local police were very helpful and blocked their passports, thus preventing them from traveling. It was from them that I learned this Ms. Sharla Musabih has been sent back to America for causing other such problem between families. Since Thursday, I have emailed her repeatedly seeking a return of my children, but she refuses, insisting that they are now safe from me. When I conveyed to her what I learned from the local police she replied:
‘These are very simple police you a communicating with! I certainly did not get kicked out of the country! In fact I am coordinating with the UAE Gov. to set up a system & recognize my new non profit to enhance the system on behalf of victims! We are in contact with the Minister Dr Anwar Gargash & the Ambassador H.E Yousuf Al Otaiba for our up coming project! It is not uncommon for such rumours to fly about this type of work, as it is a new concept, however it is very Islamic to protect women & children or even provide a time out!
I am a UAE national & the UAE Gov. has worked with respect & honor with me, I am featured on the Federal Gov. Website!’
It is organizations like United Hope that truly hamper the cause of women’s advocacy in the Muslim world and stunt the growth of local agencies to protect women. Rather than working with local officials and advising patience and restraint, they become filled with a warped since of self righteousness, taking the law into their own hands. This breeds mistrust in the hearts of government officials who truly wish to defend the rights of women, but fear, as in my case, that the oppressed quickly become the oppressor.
A S Woods
May 9, 2009
United Hope UAE: Feminism Run Amuck
All too often women are innocent victims of what can rightfully be described as systematic abuse, oppression and neglect, in addition to the feeling of utter desperation in trying to seek help in a male dominated society. As such, there is, and will always be, a pressing need for private organizations to stand up for those without defense and to advocate for the rights of women in the society. But what happens when these private agencies become so powerful that they become themselves the administrators, deciders and executors of the law. Such is the case with Ms. Sharla Musabih, her group United Hope, and her network of shelters for women in the UAE. The ostensible aim of her organization is to thwart human trafficking and to counter any domestic abuse that may take place in the UAE. To that end, her efforts should be praised, commended and assisted by the local government and the community at large. The problem arises when she interferes with family disputes and usurps the local laws based upon her own since of what is fair and proper. Such was the case last Thursday.
Recently, I exercised my basic right as a human being to divorce my wife. My wife found in Ms. Sharla Musabih and her activist organization United Hope, a potent tool to exact her revenge upon me. Without ever meeting me, speaking with the children, advising counseling, or going through the local legal channels for divorce in Dubai, she ruled based upon her conversation with my ex wife that I was an abusive parent. She then executed her judgment, while I was away at work, by sending her local aid to collect my wife and children, hiding them in a local ‘shelter.’ So two young children, ages four and seven, were taken from their school, home, and father without any consultation, arbitration, or even conversation with their father! The local police were very helpful and blocked their passports, thus preventing them from traveling. It was from them that I learned this Ms. Sharla Musabih has been sent back to America for causing other such problem between families. Since Thursday, I have emailed her repeatedly seeking a return of my children, but she refuses, insisting that they are now safe from me. When I conveyed to her what I learned from the local police she replied:
‘These are very simple police you a communicating with! I certainly did not get kicked out of the country! In fact I am coordinating with the UAE Gov. to set up a system & recognize my new non profit to enhance the system on behalf of victims! We are in contact with the Minister Dr Anwar Gargash & the Ambassador H.E Yousuf Al Otaiba for our up coming project! It is not uncommon for such rumours to fly about this type of work, as it is a new concept, however it is very Islamic to protect women & children or even provide a time out!
I am a UAE national & the UAE Gov. has worked with respect & honor with me, I am featured on the Federal Gov. Website!’
It is organizations like United Hope that truly hamper the cause of women’s advocacy in the Muslim world and stunt the growth of local agencies to protect women. Rather than working with local officials and advising patience and restraint, they become filled with a warped since of self righteousness, taking the law into their own hands. This breeds mistrust in the hearts of government officials who truly wish to defend the rights of women, but fear, as in my case, that the oppressed quickly become the oppressor.
A S Woods
May 9, 2009
Except in a completely authoritarian society (which Dubai is not), it is impossible for a growing, global city to avoid these sorts of issues. While it may not operate in the same way everywhere, there is significant prostitution in Hong Kong, NYC, and London as well, and nobody seems too outraged by it. One byproduct of globalization is that there are clusters of wealthy businessmen in certain cities, often far from home, for whom this service satisfies a demand. To some extent, it's just pure capitalism at work.
Today is the one year anniversary of our shelter in Ethiopia and International Women's Day.
You are one of 10 people blind-copied on his email and I simply ask you to please:
1- view the 30 second video at www.uaelawdirectory.com
2- read the note below and take a "moment of silence" for the victims we serve
3- consider "loaning" or donating funds needed to get through this week and keep both shelters open. We are responsible for the 16 people in Dubai and 6 in Ethiopia that are counting on us today and need help.
Please, if you, your church or your friends can help, call me directly at 888.206.3264 or 937.220.9014. peace, phil
--- On Sun, 3/8/09, Sharla Musabih unitedhopesharla@gmail.com> wrote:
Salam Alaikum to all my friends,
I just received this email from our Director of COH in Ethiopia of whom has also worked tirelessly for the sake of rescuing & repatriating victims of the worst abuses of all time against humanity; Many of you are most likly unaware of the amount of lives this project has impacted, however, COH has rescued victims from all over the Middle East returning after being raped,locked up, beaten,hummiliated & emotionaly damaged! This cause has never had a voice & we plead with you to help keep it alive! It willnly take a small amount to revive our work in Ethiopia as there is full love & cooperation from the U.S & Ethiopian Gov. for our project;
InshaAllah, the UAE will get a clue, however it is not going to effect us, we are setting up in other
Gulf & Middle Eastern countries..
For us to continue our work we need funding & as you all know the disgusting defamation campaign that came out has depleted our funding for both organizations! This childish game is costing lives everyday!
We have been working day & night from the states to rescue this effort & if any of you would like to help us please send your donations through our accounts system 501c3 in the states bank acc under United Hope UAE Wocovia or contact Jamila with the details and help save the lives of the victims of trafficking & horrible abuse!
The prayers from the families that had their daughters returned alive is the motavating factor!
We are in contact with the families of those who have been rescued & since our distruction we will need your help!
The truth is available all over the world from the creddible media www..uaelawdirectory.com
We have applied for half a million USD in Grants that we are expecting to be recieving,yet your help is needed at this time to get us through the crunch!
May You be Blessed & rewarded for your giving & being a part of saving lives!!
Thank You from my heart,
Sharla Musabih,
Founder,COH-U.H-UAE
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Endashaw Michael
Date: Sun, Mar 8, 2009 at 2:14 AM
Subject: A year to Remember - March 8, Special for COH - Ethiopia
Dear Sharla and Yeshi, my utmost respect to the works that you have been doing and still doing. Your great efforts have reached so many helpless hands; the good deeds have reached millions of ears and have been the voices for thousands of needy; and such esteemed endeavor of rebirthing hope for victims of trafficking will pursue with strength in the future. I just took this opportunity to let you all remember City of Hope in Ethiopia. I call it “A Year to Remember”. It was exactly a year before, that COH was inaugurated at Sheraton Addis in Ethiopia, March 8, 2008. It was a special day as it was international day for women’s. Today, March 8, 2009 it is a special day for COH Ethiopia, as it is a point to look back a one year travel with all ups and downs, success and challenges. I call upon all City of Hope members to have a Moment of Silence, wherever you are, to remember those victims of trafficking, who have suffered and lost their life before our hands reached for them. Let us all pray, irrespective of religion differences, may God keep their soul in Heaven. Moreover, let God give us the effort and blessing to reach for the other victims, and bring a change in their life. We thank everyone who were with us and gave us their moral and material support in the last one year.
I wish long life for Sharla and Yeshi, who have dedicated their life for needy ones.
City of Hope "A place for a Rebirth of Hope"
Let God Bless us All
Yours Andy
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