TEXT BY VICE STAFF
PHOTOS BY FALKO SIEWERT
While I was in Damascus last summer, my friends from the Serbian Embassy took me to a brothel. It looked like a regular nightclub. It was well lit, music blared, and people hung out. I would not have thought: This is a place to buy sex. I got to talking with a group of Iraqi girls. I told them I was a “colleague from East Germany” on vacation. They were slathered with makeup and topped by massive, overstyled hair. They explained their situation to me: They fuck for 20 or 30 dollars. They are forbidden from leaving their shady hotels during the day—they aren’t allowed out until they are picked up for work at 8 PM. Then they go to the club and, until dawn, alternate between sitting around and having sex with Syrian strangers. This is what their day is like, every day.
As we were talking, the club’s manager entered the room and clapped his hands. This was the signal for all the girls to get onto the dance floor. I followed them. It felt like the right thing to do. The girls didn’t really know how to do pole dances, so I hopped on to give it a shot. It was my first time on one, but I had been drinking and they kept on cheering, so I really let loose. Afterward, the manager approached me and asked me whether I would work at his club. He said he could see I had fun doing what I was doing and he liked that, and his clients liked that.
I wanted to see what I was worth in Damascus, so I agreed to meet his boss the next day. He wore a suit and had an air-conditioned, windowless office in a building on the other side of town. After offering me tea, he told me my strengths and weaknesses. He said that I was a bit old, but I wasn’t too insulted, because many prostitutes in Syria are 12 to 14 years old. He suggested that I would be suitable for “rich and demanding Saudis with elevated desires.” It was sort of awful, but I was flattered that he said I was “not for a Syrian who is only looking for an extramarital fuck.” The boss said he would offer me at an hourly rate of $400. The club manager asked, somewhat heatedly, for a 15 percent commission.
TO BE CONTINUED:
I WENT UNDERCOVER IN THE WORLD OF
SYRIAN WHOREHOUSES |
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