If agony has a sound, it is the cry to God made by 100-year-old Shatwah, as she sits broken and bereft in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan.
In her black hijab, she raises her hands to the sky, almost unable to make sense of her own distress. "Bashar, Bashar," she keeps crying. "Why are you butchering us?"
Shatwah (pictured above) is one of a hundred thousand Syrians whose home is now the sprawling, tented city of Zataari. They fled the fighting to seek shelter and safety. But for many women the camp has offered them anything but.
"Three girls in our camp were kidnapped," explains Israa Mohammed. "They raped them. Then they brought them back to the camp. The Jordanian guys, they come to harass Syrian girls from the age of seven or six."
(...)
As well as the fear of attack , there is another more insidious assault on the women and girls of Zaatari. Men - usually from Saudi Arabia and other gulf states - are given free rein at the camp. Coming in the guise of benefactors offering charity, in return many want a wife.
But these are marriages of convenience - for the men at least. So called "pleasure marriages", they give cover - a sheen of respectability - to what is often wealthy men exploiting vulnerable women for sex.
Abu Sanad is the father of two daughters. "People from Jordan, from Saudi Arabia , from Qatar, they come and ask: 'Do you want to give your daughters for marriage?'" he said. Full story...
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In her black hijab, she raises her hands to the sky, almost unable to make sense of her own distress. "Bashar, Bashar," she keeps crying. "Why are you butchering us?"
Shatwah (pictured above) is one of a hundred thousand Syrians whose home is now the sprawling, tented city of Zataari. They fled the fighting to seek shelter and safety. But for many women the camp has offered them anything but.
"Three girls in our camp were kidnapped," explains Israa Mohammed. "They raped them. Then they brought them back to the camp. The Jordanian guys, they come to harass Syrian girls from the age of seven or six."
(...)
As well as the fear of attack , there is another more insidious assault on the women and girls of Zaatari. Men - usually from Saudi Arabia and other gulf states - are given free rein at the camp. Coming in the guise of benefactors offering charity, in return many want a wife.
But these are marriages of convenience - for the men at least. So called "pleasure marriages", they give cover - a sheen of respectability - to what is often wealthy men exploiting vulnerable women for sex.
Abu Sanad is the father of two daughters. "People from Jordan, from Saudi Arabia , from Qatar, they come and ask: 'Do you want to give your daughters for marriage?'" he said. Full story...
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