"The neighbours don't know about my job, as my mother told them that I work in a
restaurant. My mother knows the truth and has accepted it because she doesn't
want her sons to starve. I hate my work but this is the only way for us to
survive. The country's situation drove me to this life. Women in this country
are nothing and are discriminated against all time.
"It is hard to find clients but the first person whom I slept with helps me.
Sometimes when I find no punter and I need money to buy food for my brothers I
go to some markets in different districts of Baghdad and offer my services to
the shopowners. There I always get at least some five dollars to buy food.
"Usually, I get paid about US$10 per client although sometimes I find someone
willing to pay a little bit more. Rarely do the men use condoms. Most of them
refuse, saying that they do not need them and I have to accept because I need
the money.
"Sometimes I get scared that insurgents or militants will kill me when they
discover that I am a sex worker as I know of many girls who met this fate.
"Mine is a dirty and miserable life. Constantly I get hit by someone who forces
me to do whatever they want in bed and sometimes it is painful but when I think
of my small brothers or when I imagine my mother in a coffin because she lacked
medicines, I immediately forget the pain and prefer to be hurt than to see them
dead.
"I used to dream of a marriage with a white dress, flowers and a good husband.
But now I'm marked all my life and will have to be content with different men
who will just use me and then drop me either at home or on the street where
they found me."
