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Tunisian hookers terrorized by Islamists
 [Ennahar] Tunisia Prostitutes living in fear of another attack since the Islamists tried to burn down the main prostitution district in Tunis. "I no longer go out, I fear they burn me alive", says one of them.Armed with Molotov cocktails, "small bottles filled with gasoline" and "Long Knives" chanting "Allah Akbar" Islamists have tried to set fire Friday to brothels in the district of Guechi Abdallah in Tunis near the Medina. Dressed in jeans and leather jackets, according to pictures taken by mobile phones, they were dispersed in the meandering alleys of this neighborhood by police and military. In the courtyard of a brothel where dry sadly old fluorescent color panties, a dozen prostitutes in fine lines drawn with eyebrow pencil, trying to show "strong" in front of the "Islamist terrorists." Smoking cigarette after cigarette, Mariam, 35, "owner" of a brothel frequented, according to her, by "the Chinese, Germans, Italians, Algerians, Egyptians, French, Libyans and "others" is still in shock. "I was terrified," she said, that they wanted to burn us alive, it was too much for me and my colleagues who are my family." One of the prostitutes, Lamia, a 38 year old blonde, wearing shorts and black wool gaiters, wonders, she said, "why they did that." "When one gives men the places where they can indulge in sex, she says, they need not bother the girls in the streets, without forgetting that we're also feeding other families as cooks, maids and couriers who work for us." A young customer, face down, interrupted the testimony of Lamia. She disappeared with him behind a simple curtain fabric in a small room composed of a bed, a bidet and a washbasin. She reappears suddenly stripped down to say "if the government finds a job with decent wages, we would be prepared to stop." She says "win 3 dinars (about 1.5 euro) per customer" and had "about 10 to 15 clients per day." "We only work with condoms and we see a gynecologist twice a week," she exclaims, throwing an occasional glance at her client who is waiting. The rules in brothels are strict: "We're not allowed to leave the house except one day per week and six days when we are unwell," said another prostitute. "If one of us does not respect the law, she says, we are sent a month or more in a brothel, far, far away from Tunis." In another brothel, the decor consists of furniture piled up, an old box and at the entry three small boxes connected by a padlock, three prostitutes of a certain age confide that "they no longer sleep at night" since the attack by the Islamists. "I could not work today, so we were afraid that night to see them return," says the "responsible" for prostitutes, Rachida, hair restrained by a Paleostinian keffiyeh. "They tried," she said, to burn us with Molotov cocktails, but they should know we do not like this job and we're Mohammedans." Cherifa, 40, who previously worked as a housekeeper, said that "every customer spends between 10 and 30 minutes, but some, like the drunks can be very violent." "It's too much for me," she said, but I have no choice." "I'm afraid they come back to burn us. We do not deserve it, we're human beings." Outside, men stick together before the entry of other brothels, waiting for other women, very slightly and poorly clothed. Posted by: Fred 2011-02-21 |
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