Ramadan in Amman

I arrived in Amman, Jordan last night in part to interview young Iraqi women driven by desperation into the sex trade -- only to discover that the red-light nightclubs where they work are shut for the holy month of Ramadan, a period marked by fasting and abstinence among the faithful. Who knew pimps were so pious?

There are over a million Iraqi refugees in Jordan, a country of 6 million people, and the social disruption caused by this tidal wave is only beginning to be felt in the region. Driving around Amman today, I found a bakery owned and run by Iraqi refugees, producing Iraqi-style flat bread. One of the laborers, Hisham, a 35 year-old from Baghdad, told me that he had owned three bakeries until the Mahdi Army, a Shia militia, bombed two of them. He fled to Jordan last year with his wife and four children, two of whom have leukemia, and he now earns about $15 a day rolling buns. He said his life has gotten a little better now that the Jordanian government is allowing Iraqi children into state-run schools, but that everyone he knows lives on the edge of disaster with no support from any charity or NGO. "I could understand this as punishment if I had done something wrong, " he said. "But my only crime was being Sunni in Baghdad."

It's also tough being a baker during Ramadan. Not only are you extra busy preparing for the evening feasts that mark the end of day during the holy month, but it isn't easy to be surrounded by hot ovens and fresh bread while fasting. "I'm showing God that I have patience," said Hisham. "I worship him with patience."

--Andrew Lee Butters/Amman