Abstract
This paper will explore the issue of human trafficking and the power of the arts in triggering nationwide conversations and condemnations of what is the most shamefully lucrative business in modern day history.
There are approximately 1.5 million Syrian refugees in Lebanon; 74 percent lack legal status and so this renders them very vulnerable in the host country. One of the most prominent cases of sexual exploitation in Lebanon is the case of the “Chez Maurice” ring, where “girls were lured from Syria to Lebanon” and were trafficked and tricked into prostitution at the Chez Maurice and Silver nightclubs. This paper will discuss the power of arts in shedding light on human rights violations through the paly No Demand No Supply – directed by a woman, Sahar Assaf, about women, and told from women’s perspectives. It is a work in progress, based on interviews with Syrian women who narrated their harrowing ordeal as survivors of the Chez Maurice “torture chambers”. The performers narrated, verbatim, the tortures experienced by these women, held captive for 9 months without sunlight and fresh air, and raped on average 10 times daily. As a result of this case, twenty-six people were charged and at least 27 victims were identified.
This paper will also address Law Number 164/2011, its implementation, and the absence of concrete legal redress in such cases. It calls for the review and amendment of existing laws and the importance of devising a national plan that stipulates measures to prevent trafficking in persons, and mechanisms for protecting, rehabilitating and reintegrating survivors of trafficking in persons.
Trafficking in persons is a global multi-billion-dollar enterprise affecting millions of children, women, and men all around the world. Lured by fake promises and deceit, trafficked individuals are robbed of their liberty, dignity and essential human rights. Thanks to the play No Demand No Supply, a female director managed to turn the misery of a group of Syrian refugee women into an empowering work of art that exposes the plight of trafficked women and the torture they are usually subjected to.
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