Egypt's New Industry - Sex Tourism Center For The Arab World

Egypt has become the hot new destination for Arab men, mostly from Saudi Arabia and the Emirates who are seeking a convenient, cheap, and sharia compliant sex tourism holiday.

All the ingredients are there.....a large population of vulnerable, underage girls with poverty stricken families, a conveniently close, Arabic speaking destination with a nearly bankrupt tourism industry desperate for business, and most of all, a culture that debases women anyway and allows and encourages it.

As Natasha Smith, Lara Logan and far too many others have found out to their horror, foreign, non-Muslim women come under the category of 'what thy right hand possesses'* and can simply be raped out of hand.

However, Muslim females already the chattel property of another Muslim male are a different matter. Especially if you're talking about the predator being an older Muslim male who's already married and looking for some young, nubile flesh as amusement.

So sharia provides for this trafficking and gives it a religious blessing with the practice of temporary 'marriages':

These temporary marriages are not legally binding and end when the men return to their homes in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait.

The tourists pay a 'dowry' to poor families through intermediaries with prices ranging from £320 to £3,200.

The young victims - some under 18 - suffer sexual slavery and are forced to be servants to their 'husbands', claims the U.S. State Department report 'Trafficking in Persons'.

Some of the victims are taken back to their 'husband's' country to work as maids while those left in Egypt are shunned by the conservative society - particularly if they have children during their temporary marriage.

The shame leads many of the girls to dump these youngsters in orphanages or abandon them with thousands of other Egyptian street children.Many of these 'brides' are also targeted by Egyptian men and forced into prostitution.

Now, I'm sure the usual apologists will say that this kind of thing happens all over the world and westerners are guilty of it too.

They are indeed. The difference is that in the west, we prosecute those who get caught behaving in this manner, whether at home or abroad. We don't use culture or religion as an excuse to condone it.That's because. as a society, our entire attitude towards women is different.

Many countries where rape was a rarity prior to large scale immigration from the Muslim world have found this out first hand.

The usual disclaimer..there are plenty of decent people who are Muslim who would never condone this kind of behavior or indulge in it. But the fact remains that Islam does contain religious justification for these acts -both in the Qu'ran and in the hadiths.

It is also true that the justification of this kind of behavior is not a fringe attitude, but a mainstream and fundamentalist interpretation of the faith.


* “It is not lawful for you (to marry other) women after this, nor to change them for other wives even though their beauty attracts you, except those (captives or slaves) whom your right hand possesses. And Allah is Ever a Watcher over all things.” Surah 33:52

“Also (forbidden are) women already married, except those (captives and slaves) whom your hands possess. Thus has Allah ordained for you…..” Surah 4:24

Also, Tafsir of Mawdudi, Book2, page 112, footnote 44: “That is, ‘Those women, who became prisoners of war, while their husbands are left behind in the War Zone, are not unlawful because their marriage ties have been broken by the fact that they have come into the Islamic Zone. It is lawful to marry such women and make them wives, and it is also lawful for those, in whose possession they are, to have sexual relations with them." [..]

"It does not matter whether the female prisoner of war belongs to the People of the Book or not. Whatever her religion, she becomes lawful for the man to whom she has been given."