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Slavery of women and children in Persian gulf countries
By Morteza Aminmansour
June 20, 2004
The UAE was one of the 19 countries in the world that the United States
blacklisted for human trafficking. The trafficking as a modern form of Slavery
leaves no land untouched.
With camel racing heavily patronized by the oil rich rulers, who have least
respect in the legislature, thousands of small children from Indian sun
continent face a black future.
Women migrated from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Ukraine, India and Eastern
Europe have reported being lured with fraudulent promises of lucrative
opportunities, legitimate jobs and then forced into sexual exploitation. Women
who dared resist encountered harsh punishment from their employers, including
physical assault. Their status as illegal migrants made the women particularly
vulnerable to attacks by customers and traffickers alike. UAE has joined the
growing global criminal activity of sex trafficking.
Exact number of victims is impossible to obtain, but according to an official
source in UAE, there has been increase in the number of teen-age girls in
prostitution (forced to work from Iran and other countries). The magnitude of
the statistic conveys how rapidly this form of abuse has grown. The popular
destinations for victims of the sex slave trade are the Arab countries in the
Persian Gulf (UAE, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar). Traffickers target girls between 13
and 17 to send to Arab countries. The number of Iranian women and girls who are
deported from Persian Gulf countries indicates the Magnitude of the trade.
A measure of Islamic fundamentalists success in controlling the society is the
depth and totality with which they suppress the freedom and rights of women.
The Islamic fundamentalists in Iran have for example expended tremendous
amounts of time and efforts controlling, harassing, and punishing women and
girls in the name of Islam. In Tehran, there are an estimated 84,000 women and
girls in prostitution, many of them are on the Streets, others are in the 250
brothels that reportedly operate in the City. The trade is also international.
Thousands of Iranian women and girls have been sold into sexual slavery abroad.
The Sex Slave Trade is one of the most Profitable activities in Iran today.
Iranian governments officials are involved in buying, selling and sexually
abusing women and girls. One factor contributing to the increase in
prostitution and the sex slave trade is the number of female teens who are
running away from home. In Tehran alone there are an estimated 25,000 Street
Children, most of them girls. Many of the girls come from impoverished Rural
areas. Some addicted parents sell their Children to support their habits...A
number of prostitution and slavery rings operating from Tehran that has sold
girls and women to Britain, France, and Germany. In Iranian Province of
Khorasan, local police report that girls are being sold to Pakistani men as
They have passed and enforced humiliating and sadistic rules and punishments of
women and girls, enslaving them in a system of segregation.
Many Mullahs and officials are involved in the sexual exploitation and trade of
women and girls. Women who are arrested for prostitution say they must have sex
with the arresting officer. There are reports of police locating young women
for sex for the wealthy and powerful mullahs. Some may think a thriving sex
trade in a theocracy with clerics possibly acting as pimps is a contradiction
in a country founded and ruled by Islamic fundamentalists.
I would like to define the slavery as work done without any compensation under
the threat Of violence.
The modern-day of slavery are forced labor, forced prostitution. Slavery is
technically illegal everywhere but they are estimated 27 million enslaved
worldwide than ever before, while the moral argument against slavery has been
won, the practical struggle to end slavery is by no means over. Camel racing in
the Persian Gulf(UAE), for example is known to be slave work only by human
rights experts or locals. Until poverty is overcome, some forms of slavery will
always exist. Some argue that slave labor built up western capitalist
development.
One of the fastest growing means by which children are enslaved today is
trafficking. Girls as young as six are trafficked to work as maids in UAE and
Saudi Arabia. Men and women and children live and work as slaves or in
slave-like conditions. The sexual enslavement of children is part of the
generation exploitation of children in impoverished parts of the world.
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