Police in Egypt have arrested 26 women, the majority of them high school and university students, for prostitution, a daily reported Saturday.
A 34-year-old woman, identified only by her first name, Amal, directed the network, recruiting among her daughter's friends, said Al-Ahrar, quoting a Cairo prosecutor.
She mostly used cell-phone text messages to tell the girls where and when to meet the clients, who were often Gulf Arab nationals, and some encounters had taken place in her home.
"Many of the prostitutes were beautiful and came from well-off families," said the newspaper.
Two of them, aged 17 and 23, were caught while stripping down before a client when the police raided the ring leader's home.
The girls were paid between 300 and 500 Egyptian pounds (60 and 100 dollars) for the call, and the price could reach 2,000 dollars during holiday seasons.
The ring leader began forming the prostitution network upon returning from an unidentified Arab country where she had lived with her husband.
The woman turned to prostitution while in that country, said the newspaper. She started by having casual affairs, then she began receiving money and gifts for sex. Her lovers became the network's start-up clients when she returned to Egypt.
Al-Ahrar said the husband, a businessman, knew absolutely nothing.
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
