By Peacenow , February 10, in General. ADEN, Yemen Reuters - Somali refugee Saada hates what she does but can see no other way to feed her six children -- working as a prostitute in the southern Yemeni city of Aden. I have to work and make some money," said the woman in her 30s, sitting with other Somali women in Aden's Basateen slum district. Like many others, Saada fled to Yemen to escape the chaos, clan warfare and famine that has plagued Somalia since warlords toppled President Mohamed Siad Barre in -- only to face another struggle for survival in impoverished Yemen.
She has spent 10 months in Yemen living on U. Saada gets no money from her first husband, who divorced her and went to work in Saudi Arabia. Her second husband was badly wounded in fighting in the anarchic Somali capital Mogadishu. Many more unregistered Somalis are thought to roam there, most of them hoping to move to richer Gulf countries. The U. Alysia, another divorced Somali woman driven into prostitution, said she had paid smugglers to take her on the perilous voyage across the Gulf of Aden to Yemen.
I have to buy him milk," she said. The port city of Aden has a more freewheeling atmosphere than elsewhere in Yemen, a conservative Muslim society. While alcohol is hard to come by in the capital Sanaa, a few restaurants and beach clubs serve drinks in Aden, luring some weekend tourists from austere Gulf states such as Saudi Arabia. In Aden's Tawahi seaside district, prostitutes work in cheap hotels or clubs which have adjacent "motels. Together with UNHCR, the group helps victims of domestic and sexual violence and tries to educate refugees about the dangers of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.
Sometimes men don't pay me. I would do anything else but what? Are people reading about the suffering of these women, whose homes were raided by faithheads and drove them directly to prostitution, away from their family and friends and into the arms of a dirty arab? Do you think these poor women care whether they live or die, for as long as their children are provided for?
It is clear, the situation in yemen is a one of many tragedies. Somali refugees are scattered between afgooye and Kenya and no one is speaking for them, no one Muslim is outraged on their behalf, instead, our energy is channelled on words on a screen, sufferings of palestinians, historical interpretations that cyber nomads write instead of being angry with ourselves for having things these poor souls can only pray to have for even a minute.
