Arnon Grunberg

Squalor

Youngsters

While in Baghdad I asked an Iraqi man about prostitution in the Green Zone. He answered: “What’s the big deal? Most Iraqi refugees living in Amman and Damascus are dependent on prostitution to survive."
Today Nicholas D. Kristof wrote about exactly this, I cannot recall reading about this subject before although it must be going on for quite some time: “The dirty little secret of the Iraq war isn’t in Baghdad or Basra. Rather, it’s found in the squalid brothels of Damascus and the poorest neighborhoods of East Amman.
Some two million Iraqis have fled their homeland and are now sheltering in run-down neighborhoods in surrounding countries. These are the new Palestinians, the 21st-century Arab diaspora that threatens the region’s stability.
Many youngsters are getting no education, and some girls are pushed into prostitution, particularly in Damascus.”