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Article

1 Mar 2014

Author:
Brender Stoter, Syria Pulse

Syrian women refugees humiliated, exploited in Turkey

A few months ago, Dima found a job in a cotton factory in Reyhanli, a Turkish town near the border with Syria. In the first few weeks, everything went fine — until her Turkish boss, a middle-aged widower, began to sexually harass her. “I told him I didn’t want him to grope or touch me, but he said that if I wanted to work, I should accept it," she told Al-Monitor while sitting in front of her tent in a small village near Reyhanli. Her boss didn’t listen. A few days later, he groped her again, saying that she could make extra money by “entertaining” him. When Dima refused, he asked her if she could at least work as a matchmaker and find some young Syrian girls for him and his friends, adding, “Those girls can certainly use the money.” Dima ran out of the factory without her paycheck. She never went back. “A lot of Syrian women need work, and employers know that," she said, her frustration clear on her face. "Men take advantage of the vulnerability of female Syrian refugees. We left Syria to protect our honor, and now we are being treated like animals."