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I complain only to God! About you Bashar!
The women of Syria weep for lost sons.
But NOW they weep for themselves and their daughters too.
They fled here in search of safety and shelter.
Yet find themselves exposed ... to exploitation and abuse ...
On a dusty plain in the desert in Jordan, the Zaatari refugee camp is home to over a
hundred & fifty thousand [150,000] people and grows bigger every day.
But deep within the camp, there's no sanctuary for the women - just fear.
Many left husbands, brothers and sons behind, now they're preyed on by men roaming free
in a lawless place.
I wasn't afraid I was terrified.
I lived a terrified life in the tent.
I didn't sleep until dawn. Every one slept except me.
And this is what they're afraid of:
They kidnapped lots of girls and make them work as prostitutes.
Three girls in our camp were kidnapped.
They *** them. Then they brought them back to the camp.
The Jordanian guys they come to harass Syrian girls even at the age of 6 and 7.
They want to kidnap them and take them outside the camp.
A trip to the toilet at night is now too terrifying for many women in this part of the camp.
There is no security, it is very dark at night.
I come with my daughter, she enters and I stand here waiting for her.
There are girls that won't come to the toilet,
And even me, a married woman, I don't dare come to the toilet alone.
We wait until the morning holding it in.
The men come mainly from Saudi Arabia and other gulf states ... in the guise of donors
they offer charity ... but in return demand a wife.
But these are marriages of convenience - for the men at least - often lasting just a matter
of weeks or even days ..
Abu Sanad is a father of two girls:
People from Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, they come and ask "Do you want to give your daughters
for marriage?"
What do they see us as? A market place for selling - like selling sheep?!
They see we don't have money, they want to exploit us!
They say: "Give me your daughter for marriage for 100 - 300 Dinars."
This is exploitation of people.
The Saudi man said to me "I'll treat you like a princess..."
But I refused.
Of course he came with Syrian women.
I threw them out of my tent.
He told me "Accept my help and I don't expect anything from you."
"Lama" -- a divorced woman with children says she was forced to flee Zaatari after relentless
pressure to marry.
We found her in a safe house outside the camp in Amman. She told us after she repeatedly
refused many propositions -- her tent was burnt down.
There are many who accept the marriage
They suffered during the war, they are in need for someone to give them protection.
And they are vulnerable, they need money, clothes, and everything else.
Alongside the everyday essentials ... they still try to sell dreams here
Weddings are a burgeoning business ...
But many are so-called pleasure marriages ... where women are effectively bought for
sex ... but the wedding provides a religious seal of approval bringing respectability.
On a street in downtown Amman we secretly meet the marriage broker - Um Majed - a 28
year old housewife from Homs -- who makes money offering up Syrian girls for sale.
50 Dinars, 100, 1000. If he wants to get married it's 1000.
If he wants to see her in her hijab for a cup of coffee he pays 100 and he leaves.
He has to pay 1000 or more to get married officially, to sign a marriage agreement
And after just one hour he can divorce her. It's none of my business.
A million miles away from the dust and heat of Zaatari, Gulf men come to play in the plush
resorts. We found one Saudi Sultan on a charity mission, who explains the attraction of Syrian
women who are now refugees ...
The dowries in the Gulf countries are very high, but to marry a Syrian woman is really
cheap.
They are not really asking a lot. In the Gulf they ask too much. So it's really hard for
people.
So a marriage with a Syrian girl is more economic for a Saudi or a Gulf man.
When we were in Syria, they couldn't even dream to get a Syrian woman, but now they
are able to get Syrians.
Sheikh Abou Hamad from Homs, runs the mosque inside the camp ...
He's not fooled by the endless stream of men asking for help to find a wife ... he says
their real motives are pretty clear:
A person came to me and said, "Do you have families that only have females - without
men?
I will guarantee them and take them out of the camp and put 10 women in a room in a house."
I said: "Why would you take 10 women -- what are you going to do with them?"
I told him "What do you think -- I have a museum of brides?"
And he told me, "I want an official marriage."
I said, "Halal or not halal, so what?
You are 60 years old! Don't you already have a family?"
There was a Saudi man who was sixty years old and he wanted to marry a girl who was
thirteen.
But we didn't accept, as we Syrians haven't sunk that low yet.
The barbed wire is deceptive ...
inside the camp there's precious little security.
The residents are taking matters into their own hands -- outraged at the number of men
entering the camp, vigilantes have set up watch committees to patrol the area and protect
their women.
Ahmed Homsi from Daraa is a member of one such patrol:
Kidnapping happens a lot. The guys that we caught were dressed as women.
We cut their hair and eyelashes, so if we saw them again, we would recognise them.
He marries her for a month or two, has fun with her, and then drops her.
What is happening is too much.
It's getting worse every day, we suffer a lot from this problem.
There are valiant attempts at normality in the camp ... the Unicef school has over 5,000
children on the roll
The bride wants a child
The child wants milk
The milk from the cow
The cow wants grass
The grass above the mountain
The mountain has no water
But even here they see unusually high numbers of teenage girls dropping out after getting
pregnant.
And elsewhere in the camp too ... life is anything but normal ...
We have no water, no taps here, nothing.
There is no water to wash our hands, no water in the tanks, no electricity, nothing.
But for now the authorities have bigger problems on their hands.
The young men are angry and frustrated and have nothing to do ...
Several riots have broken out in the camp and "Darak" riot units remain permanently
on stand-by.
The United Nations says it's working hard with the Jordanian Government to set up proper
policing and have announced a new security initiative.
It can't come soon enough.
They women of Zaatari feel forsaken by the world but especially by their fellow Arabs:
When we left, we were deprived of everything.
We were deprived of the best thing about being human.
Do you know what that is? Dignity.
For so long out of sight ... the focus of the conflict so often the freedom fighters
and martyrs ...
The women fled across the borders to escape the fighting but for many the supposed refuge
has offered anything but ...
As the Syrian crisis spirals further into chaos -
what is to become of the women and girls of the Revolution?
I wish to go back to Syria
I wish to drink her water.
I wish to breathe her air.
Inshallah I will go back.
I don't give a damn if Assad is still here,
as long as I can go back to Syria.
I hope we don't have the same destiny as the Palestinians
who fled their country and never went back again.