Hiba's fate was sealed from the moment her mother decided to leave her to her father in Baghdad, Iraq, at the tender age of seven. At 15, he forced her to marry a cousin, who abandoned her 48 hours later after raping her. Unwilling to take her back, Hiba's father persuaded her to go to her mother, who, by then, was living in neighbouring Syria. But, at the Iraqi-Syrian border he sold her off to a stranger instead.
Trapped in a country where she knew no one, Hiba had no choice but to put her trust in the man who had bought her. He, however, turned out to be a monster. Over the next two years he forced her into prostitution. He brought male clients to her and then took her to a Damascus club where she was taught to belly dance provocatively to attract customers. When she became pregnant, her captor abandoned her on the streets from where she was eventually rescued by local social workers and put into the Damascus Rehabilitation Centre for Minors.
It was here that Hiba felt safe for the first time in years. "When I first arrived, I was terrified at the thought of what was going to happen to me next," she says. "Soon, I was reassured by the presence of other girls like me. We became sisters and they replaced my family. I also realised I was not an isolated case. A lot of girls need help and assistance."
http://newageislam.com/syria--iraqi-women-search-for-new-lives/islam,-women-and-feminism/d/1807
