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Marrakech, the new metropolis for cheap sex

Marrakech has become a center of international sex tourism. Especially from Arab countries in the Gulf, more and more visitors are looking for fast sex in sight here are not only women but also young men -.. despite the fact that homosexuality in Morocco is illegal

Coming to Marrakech more and more tourists to the Search for cheap sex. desirability are not only young women

dance in a luxurious apartment in Marrakech naked girls up in the early morning. Then roll they are scattered to the amusement of their customers across the floor, on the bills. What is caught on the sweaty bodies of the women is their reward for the night that now begins in earnest. "Then comes the sex," said Fatima, a 21-year-old prostitute who specializes with her friend Naima on clients from the Arab countries in the Gulf. "Although it is sometimes like slavery, but they pay but better than other foreigners."

The visitors from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE are well known not only for their interest in young women. "Whether here in Morocco, Lebanon or Egypt," said a cigarette seller in Marrakech, "everyone knows that they are men behind her. The younger the better. "

With these preferences, the tourists from the Gulf states in the former Moroccan city are just right. Marrakesh is today, next to the Atlantic resort of Agadir in the south of the country, a center of international sex tourism. On the square Djamaa al-Fna, with its magicians, acrobats and exotic animals, but also in restaurants and bars that are frequented by tourists you meet in addition to female and male prostitute any time.

From jugglers, markets and palaces

homosexuals "appreciate the erotic Atmosphere of a male society, "as Stefan confesses S. from Germany. "No one cares if men keep on the street holding hands or kissing on the cheek." Second, because of cheap sex, which is everywhere easy to have. "Many Moroccans also makes it fun," says the 45-year-old German. "They are married, have children, but at the same time a friend." But homosexuality is illegal in Morocco.

In Marrakech, many homosexuals, like other foreigners also bought an old house and renovated. Preferably, a riad (courtyard house) in the old town, which today mainly by Spaniards, is inhabited French, British or Americans. In exotic oriental atmosphere to party cocktail parties and holding dinners.

this case, the Moroccan domestic worker can ever serve in skimpy leather costumes or other fancy uniforms guests. Had long been going to gay tourists made their own sex industry. attracts many young men from impoverished villages around it to Marrakesh, to make "easy" money and feed their families.

The factor of "poverty", according to a report, "coalition against sexual abuse of children" the decisive factor that brings children into prostitution. Pedophilia, sex with children and young people (in Morocco until the age of 18 years), has adopted in Marrakech substantial.

The Moroccan police formed a special unit, which arrested many times foreigners. Including a Frenchman who was in possession of 17,000 photos and 140,000 video recordings, which he sent to pornographic websites. "The situation is out of control," said Najia Adib, the President of "Touche pas à mes enfants."

"agents have a price list, which cost a ten-year-old and a twelve-year-old. The younger, the more expensive, as they are ordered primarily by sex tourists. "Shocking was also that many of the abused children and young people told us they would do it for pleasure - "I get 500 dirhams (about 50 €), without tourists is not the possible."

in Morocco could be victims of sex tourists next the port city of Tangier. By 2013 we will be there, Rashid Ihdeme, Delegate for Tourism in Tangier, the number of hotel guests to triple to 1.2 million, about 70 new hotels are planned in the city and the surrounding area along the Atlantic and Mediterranean coast.

"At least 10,000 new jobs," says Ihdeme. In the port will soon cruise ships go to sea and yachts are moored. They want to build on the International Zone of Tangier (1923-1956), which was then the target point of so many artists and writers.

on the roof terrace of Baron Francisco Corcuera, an Argentine painter, you have a good view of Tangier. "There, the villa of Yves Saint Laurent," said the Baron and points her finger on a small blue dot in the sea of houses.

"In the front the house of a German photographer, and is back here, a French writer. The good houses, of which one has a fabulous view of the Straits of Gibraltar are all gone, "says Baron. The homes are now unaffordable. "Because of all the foreigners who are incidentally homosexual to 90 percent." Most of them had fallen into the same trap, he says with a mocking tone. "You have a friend who married a sudden, kids get, and then they pay for the whole family, which can go up to the end of life."

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Saudis go militarily against Yemeni rebels

attacks in the border area against Shiite militia

Tanger / Sanaa - Again and again rose thick clouds of smoke around the summit of Jebel al-Dukhan on. The 2000 meter high mountain near the city Khubah marks the border between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Republic of Yemen. Saudi air force and artillery bombarded rebel positions of the Huthi, which were allegedly from the north of Yemen invaded Saudi territory. After five days of fighting, it had finally managed to clean so Prince Khaled Bin Sultan, the deputy defense minister of Saudi Arabia, the area of the Shiite rebels again. Mohammed Abdel-Salam, the spokesman for the Huthis, called the Saudi operation "unjustified aggression". At the same time Saudi Arabia was accused of having carried out attacks on Yemeni territory.

"We care only about our territory," said the Saudi Defense Ministry, "and do not interfere in the Yemen." Understand it would be if Saudi Arabia, the Yemeni government come military under President Ali Abdullah Saleh to help would also be on Yemeni territory. On 11 August, Saleh started the operation "Scorched Earth". The stated objective was the Huthi terrorists who were planning a coup and wanted to start a Shiite Republic, once and for all "root out and find whatever". Since 2005 there had been time and again to armed conflicts between the state and the Houthis in the north of the country. So far, however, was the action of "scorched earth" low achieving success. Instead it has strengthened the economic crisis and political instability in the country.

for the neighbors, Saudi Arabia, Yemen in its operation mit Geheimdienstinformationen unterstützt hatte, ein Anlass zur Besorgnis. Al-Qaida könnte das Machtvakuum ausnützen und den Jemen "zu einem Schlachtfeld der Dschihadisten und zu einer potenziellen Basis machen", wie es Dennis Blair, der US-Geheimdienstdirektor, bei einer Anhörung des Kongresses in diesem Jahr formulierte. Zum anderen gibt es Befürchtungen, je länger der Konflikt andauert und die Huthis der jemenitischen Armee standhalten, dass der Iran und seine Eliteeinheit der Republikanischen Garden sich entschließen, den schiitischen Rebellen zur Hilfe zu kommen. Gerüchte über eine Unterstützung aus dem Iran gibt es seit dem Beginn der Großoffensive. Vor zwei Wochen wurde dann ein Schiff, das Waffen für die Rebels had downloaded, captured by the Yemeni authorities on the west coast of the country. According to Information Minister Hassan Al-Lawzi you have forwarded evidence to the Islamic Republic of Iran, which showed that Iranian religious groups supported the Huthis. "The competent authorities," said Hassan Al-Lawzi, review the five crew members of the ship that stopped in various ports Arab station.

After the military intervention by Saudi Arabia of Yemen's president clearly confident. Last Saturday, as there had been heavy fighting between troops and Saudi Huthis assured Ali Abdullah Saleh, the war has only now begonnen. Was sich in den letzten Jahren des Konflikts ereignet habe, sei nur ein Training für die Armee gewesen. Bis heute starben mehrere Tausenden Menschen, und insgesamt rund 150 000 Menschen wurden zu Flüchtlingen. "Nun werde die Armee", so der Präsident weiter, "ihren Angriff so lange weiterführen, bis es mit der tyrannischen, verräterischen Söldnergruppe (der Huthis) zu Ende geht."

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Niqab Debate in Egypt: Divided Scholars

Hijab, chador, burqa or niqab? – The veiling of Muslim women continues to provoke controversy. This time it is the niqab, or face veil, at the center of the conflict-charged fundamental debate within the Islamic world. By Alfred Hackensberger

Grand Sheikh Tantawi had banned women from wearing the niqab in parts of the Al-Azhar mosque, saying it had nothing to do with Islam At the same time the Imam promised to ban this particular kind of veil from the school grounds.

Reasons of security

A few days later, female students veiled with the niqab were no longer allowed to enter the halls of residence at Al-Azhar University. Those who did not take off their niqab were sent away. The supreme council at the highest seat of religious learning in Sunni Islam had "agreed the ban on the veil," announced Mohamed Abdel-Aziz, deputy chairman of the council. The ban also applies to the girls' classrooms. It affects both teaching staff and the 500,000 girls out of a total of 1.4 million schoolchildren and students who study at the university and its affiliated educational establishments.

The decision was also approved by the Ministry for Higher Education, which announced that it plans to extend the ban to universities across the country. Minister Hany Halal explained the measure would primarily be taken for security reasons. Just recently 15 young men dressed in niqabs tried to enter the girls' dormitories, he said.

"I've been living in a student hall of residence for years," said one female student who wanted to remain anonymous to avoid potential problems with the university administration, "but I've never heard of anything like that happening."

A frightening take on Islam

Asra Q. Nomani says that a security risk is indeed a valid argument. The US author has just published a book titled "Standing Alone: An American Woman's Struggle for the Soul of Islam". But she says such an argument is not based on uninvited male visitors to girls' dormitories. From Islamabad to Baghdad, the niqab has been misused by militant Islamists to avoid police checkpoints or to carry out attacks.

Nomani says however that a much more decisive factor in any move to ban the face veil is "that it stands for a frightening take on Islam, one that preaches the literal interpretation of the Koran." And this is especially problematic in the interpretation of those verses where the meaning is in any case unclear, she adds.

"Militants exploit this to justify domestic violence, intolerance or even suicide attacks," says Nomani. When she talks about "a frightening take on Islam", she is referring to the the schools of thought known as Wahhabism and Salafism, which are based in Saudi Arabia and promote ultra-conservative interpretations of Islam.

There are two sections of the Koran that make this especially clear (Sura 24, verse 31 and Sura 33, verse 59), passages that make references to the covering of the female body. Neither passage can be unequivocally interpreted as an instruction that a woman must wear a head covering, or exactly defines the parts of the body that have to be concealed.

Pieces of clothing are named, such as "jilbab" and "khimar", but it remains unclear what form, color or function they had during the Prophet's era. In a German translation of the Koran commissioned by Saudi Arabia this is not taken into consideration at all, and the word "khimar" is simply translated as "Kopftücher", or "headscarves". One simply has to be aware of the subtleties of meaning can be lost in translation.

"This Wahhabi and Salafi mindset came to Egypt in the 1970s," says Hala Mustafa, editor-in-chief at Al Ahram Media in Cairo. "And it has increased its hold over the last three decades." This is evident on the streets of the capital, with increasing numbers of women covering themselves from head to toe.

"Salafi satellite channels today propagate the message that the niqab is an obligation," explains Salem Abdel Gelil, from the Egyptian Ministry of Religious Endowments, Awqaf.

The government of the Nile nation is not in the least happy about this ultra-conservative trend. The niqab ban at universities is just one of many steps Cairo is taking to counter it. The Ministry of Religious Endowments prints brochures that describe the niqab as un-Islamic. The Health Ministry plans to ban doctors and nurses from wearing the face veil.

Against constitution and freedom

Sumerian temple priestesses wore veils in 5000 B.C. In 1300 B.C., Assyrian kings introduced the veil for married and wealthy women. This is similar to the Byzantines (4th to 5th centuries A.D.), the Sassanids (c. 224-652 A.D.), in Ancient Greece and old Rome, where to be veiled was a privilege reserved for high society.

Grand Sheikh Tantawy based his ban on a constitutional resolution passed in 1996, which allows representatives of the educational system to decide on clothing rules for schools
The Grand Mufti of Dubai holds a similar view. He spoke of a "restriction of the freedom of women," and said the move was "in total contempt of their faith, their culture and their traditions."

The Saudi Arabian Sheikh Mohammed al-Nojaimi from the Institute of Islamic Law spoke of a possible division of Egyptian society into two camps, for or against the niqab. At the same time, he contradicted his Egyptian counterpart Tantawi's claim that the face veil has nothing to do with Islam: "The niqab is mentioned in reports on the traditions of the Prophet," he said. These state that a woman should only take off her face veil during the pilgrimage to Mecca, as "this goes to prove that she wore it at all other times."

"What are wearers of the niqab supposed to do?"

For devout Muslims who wear the niqab out of conviction, the Egyptian ban is tantamount to a defeat, even if it is restricted to universities. They have become accustomed to the fact that action is taken against the headscarf or veil in western countries. And perhaps also in the few secular countries where most of the population are Muslims, such as in Turkey or Tunisia.

But now the veil, a piece of clothing that has so often had to be defended against criticism, is being declared un-Islamic by members of the Muslim community, and furthermore by one of the most senior legal scholars in Sunni Islam. The result is helplessness.

"What are we supposed to do?" asks Sadaf Farooqi in the Saudi-Gazette newspaper. "What's really unsettling is the swift global impact of this development," writes the columnist, who lives in Karachi. "Within a few days after Mohammed Sayed al-Tantawi's comments, all kinds of groups from Italy to Canada began calling for a ban on the niqab."

Farooqi writes that such groups also include "self-proclaimed progressive Muslims." Of course these feminist Muslims now feel vindicated, after all, they have for a long time described the veil as an antiquated tradition that does not belong to Islam.

"It is high time to impose a global ban on the face veil," writes US author Asra Q. Nomani. "It is the expression of an Islam that must disappear."

For Sadaf Farooqi, who is proud to wear her niqab, this is something she finds difficult to understand. The journalist thanks God that in her country, she is allowed to leave the house in her veil, visit educational establishments and go for a walk without fear of abuse. "A luxury that our Muslim sisters in Britain, France and Canada do not enjoy," she says.

Alfred Hackensberger

© Qantara.de 2009

Translated from the German by Nina Coon