Syrian women refugees humiliated, exploited in Turkey
Many female Syrian refugees in Turkey endure sexual harassment and exploitation by employers, prospective husbands and male kin.
REYHANLI, Turkey — Dima* is a confident 21-year-old with pale skin and big brown eyes. Her black headscarf is wrapped loosely around her head above her pink dress. She has two small children and a husband, but he currently works as a cab driver in Lebanon. Every month, Adly sends her money. However, it has been hard to make a living as a refugee, prompting Dima to look for a job as well.
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.”
