Syrian women recount being sex trafficked in areas under HTS control

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Al-Monitor
29 Aug 2023 13:44
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These crimes happen in total darkness, making it difficult to get details of the crime or the victims, as there is no official data on the exact number of sex trafficking victims in Syria that could be way beyond the records.

A young girl walks past a damaged vehicle and destroyed building in the southern suburbs of Damascus on Nov. 2, 2022. (AFP)

Under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) in northwestern Idlib in Syria, women and girls are often taken as victims of sex and organ trafficking networks, as one woman, alongside many others, recount the nightmares endured to Al-Monitor.

Wafaa, 19, recalled being at the hands of a Kuwaiti man nicknamed Abu Abdallah, telling Al-Monitor: "My nightmare began on February 3, when a man in his 60s known as Abu Abdallah came to my house, where I was living with my uncle after my father was killed in battles in Idlib in 2015. He was accompanied by a Muslim cleric that went by Abu Hamza, and they both asked my uncle to buy me for $5,000, to which he agreed."

"Abu Abdallah immediately took me to the house of a woman named Mona, in Deir Hassan village, in the north of Idlib, where she was running a prostitution ring. There I saw a large number of women, who like me, were bought by Abu Abdallah."

Wafaa said that he repeatedly raped her and sold her to his friends. "I told my uncle about what I was going through in this house," she said, adding: "but he did nothing to save me. So I accepted my fate and surrendered to physical abuse until I was taken to Turkey.”

At the Deir Hassan brothel, many women were rounded up and sent on a bus to the HTS. From a school in Latakia "they were smuggled into Turkey with the help of members of the Turkistan Islamic Party, who were led by a man named Abu Ayub al-Turkistani," Wafaa said, explaining that when they "arrived in Gaziantep, we were taken to a large hall where several Syrian women and girls were staying. Men from different Arab nationalities were walking among them, examining their bodies before buying one of them."

For six months, she was a victim of daily torture until she escaped and returned to Idlib with the help of an ISIS member who fell in love with her and married her.

Sold, returned

Many families were forced to sell daughters to strangers in exchange for sustenance, just like the case of Najla (a pseudonym), 17, whose mother sold her to a 37-year-old Saudi man for $3,000 for a temporary marriage in exchange for money.

"My mother had given my picture to Umm Ziad, a female Islamic preacher in Harem [Northern Idlib] so that she could find me a well-off Arab husband," Najla told Al-Monitor, adding that in November last year, "Umm Ziad came to our house, accompanied by a Saudi man named Fahd. He agreed with my mother to marry in exchange for a $3,000 dowry."

"Fahd then took me to an apartment in Damascus where he was living with other Saudi men. He told me these were his friends and cousins. He forced me to drink alcohol. I would wake up on some mornings laying in bed next to a total stranger." Najla suffered horrendous things for nine months.

Clients however began rejecting her after being passed around from one man to another. Fahd then took her to a private clinic in Damascus, where he claimed that she would have plastic surgery and hymen reconstruction; all she remembers was being under anesthesia.

She then woke up on a street and found out that both her kidneys had been removed and stolen. Some people then helped her return to Idlib to her mother.

Civil society failed to stop it

According to Asma Khalil, director of the Syrian Center for Victims of Human Trafficking in the city of Idlib, no official data on the exact number of victims of human and organ trafficking in Syria exists.

Khalil explained to Al-Monitor that these crimes happen in total darkness, making it difficult to get details of the crime or the victims.

"What we hear about victims of trafficking and their numbers are just stories that are not backed up by evidence," she said, clarifying: "Also, many families hide what happened to their daughters for fear of shame and stigmatization by society."

Bassam Al-Asimi, a lawyer, spoke to Al-Monitor about the factors leading to the rise in human trafficking.

"Human trafficking is found in all countries of the world, but more so in areas witnessing conflicts and instability... In Syria, terror organizations have exploited women and children and forced them into illegal activities, including begging, prostitution, sex slavery and theft. Many children are also recruited by military organizations to fight in battle zones."