Tuesday, November 13, 2007

What is Her Husband's Nationality?

Notice that in this sordid tale, the husband's nationality is hidden - but I've highlighted the hinted answer:-

Wife made to work as prostitute, jury told

A MAN has been accused of forcing his new Egyptian wife to work in a brothel so he could buy a flat, before sending her home empty-handed.

When the man, FS, brought his bride to Sydney in July 2000 after an arranged marriage in Cairo, he told her she would help him pay back money for her visa, a jury has been told.

The woman, now 27, has told the District Court that soon after she arrived he took her to the Hideaway Brothel in Banksia.

"You're going to stay here and you're going to do whatever they ask you," he had told her.

She said she did not speak any English and did not understand what was happening. She objected but she said he told her he knew members of the Mafia, so she was frightened.

FS is charged with procuring his wife as a prostitute and keeping her in sexual servitude.

When she became pregnant, FS allegedly forced her to have an abortion, and she was told to go back to work at the brothel after a few weeks. He had insulted and hit her on several occasions, she told the court, through an interpreter.

She had worked at the brothel for nearly two years, making about $3000 a week, all of which she handed to her husband. He kept her passport, she said.

"He told me that we should have our own unit."

After about a year, FS, who earned less than $13 an hour, bought a unit in Lakemba with a $40,000 deposit, and paid off another $15,000 within a month, the Crown prosecutor, Brian Rowe, said. There was evidence that about $200,000 was transferred to FS's relatives in Egypt.

In mid-2002, the couple returned to Egypt. FS had allegedly told his wife to leave her clothes and jewellery at their Sydney home. She said he abandoned her in Cairo without luggage or money and later told her family that she stole from him.

She denied suggestions by FS's lawyer, James Fliece, that she had worked in the brothel on her own account and that the marriage was a sham. "Your religion and cultural background didn't require you to obey your husband if he asked you to work as a prostitute, correct?" he asked.

The woman replied: "Yes."


Remarkable.

If the newspaper hadn't included that the husband, FS, had Egyptian relatives, we would never have known that he is of Egyptian nationality. It could well have been that he was Australian.

Why did the newspaper do that?

P.S. $3000 a week?!

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