City in Focus: Beirut
Prayer Briefing
Masquerading as an upscale Mediterranean destination, often referred to as the “Paris of the Middle East,” Beirut is a sex tourism hot spot. Arab men from the Gulf countries come to Lebanon to engage in secret sexual activities which are considered taboo in their homelands. Women and children from eastern Europe and the Middle East who are lured into sex-trafficking with false promises of lucrative work abroad, are sold night after night in sex markets like Maameltein, a red-light district north of Beirut. Other women, fleeing for their lives from war-torn areas like Iraq, come to Beirut and find that prostitution is their only means of survival as refugees who are unable to gain citizenship. Organized crime syndicates, like Hezbollah, exploit every weakness and vulnerability of potential victims and supply the industry with a continual stream of newly minted prostitutes. Beirut is a city shrouded in secrecy as the women victimized by the sex trade refuse to talk about it fearing retribution or stigmatization. The small number of prosecuted cases does not reflect the reality of the horrors in this city and silence perpetuates the exploitation.
Prayer Points:
Pray that revival would break out in Hezbollah, a Lebanese organized crime syndicate.
Ask for “justice in the gate” for women and children seeking asylum in Lebanon from surrounding regions.
Pray that God would unmask the religious hypocrisy that fuels exploitation in this region.
