Hundreds of under-age Egyptian girls enter temporary marriages with rich tourists from the Persian Gulf during the summer in return for money for their families. These unions β dubbed summer marriages β are not legally binding and end when the foreigners return to their own countries.
Howeida was 15 years old at the time. A man stood in the doorway. He spoke briefly to her father and her step-mother.
Then the matter was settled: Howeida would be married to a man from Saudi Arabia for a sum of around euros. The "marriage" lasted a whole 20 days, during which Howeida was repeatedly raped. Then, the man simply departed. His summer vacation was over.
Howeida was a so-called "summer bride" β a romantic name for prostitution. Every year, rich tourists from the Gulf states travel to Egypt and choose a girl for the summer. The dowry was an unimaginably large sum for the family β several annual salaries. My family told me that I would get clothes and presents. I was still so young.
In the end I gave my consent," recounts Howeida. Her family bought a refrigerator and a washing machine with the dowry. The paperwork for such summer marriages is quickly dealt with: marriage contracts can be found in any bookshop.
