According to The New York Times, one little-known side-effect of the war in Iraq is a boom in the dark underworld of prostitution in Syria. In establishments like the one pictured above, Iraqi women displaced by the war... afraid to return home because they could be slaughtered by Al-Qaeda... and with no male to support them financially... women are being forced to sell their bodies in order to survive. One Iraqi mother had to deal with the shame of prostituting her 16-year-old daughter so that they could have the basic bare necessities of life.
Women who came from a proud tradition, who were chaste in their dress and deportment, who wore the hijab as a sign of their modesty and morality, are now forced to display their naked bodies to drunken leering men who pay them mere pennies so that they can avoid starving to death on the streets.
Fortunately, there are Christian women in Syria who are ministering to these women and attempting to help them. Let us pray for those who are serving Christ in the Middle East, and that out of this terrible tragedy the Light may shine and that men and women may see and be saved.
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