Rape in Petra

Thanks a lot for this advice! We were planning to go and see Petra next year and this is really a very helpful advice.
This one made us be more careful and suspicious when comes to "good" offers. Reply to this

Ugh, that is awful Mikaela!!!!!!!!! 😞
I dont think there are any careful words u could choose about such a serious issue as rape. None of us want such a horrible thing to happen to us. Safety first, always!!
I think if the people of Little Petra want to insure that their tourism continues they should insist that their tourist police there are very vigilent.

Mel Reply to this

Hi!
Another advise
young attractive women DONT wear anything sexy while in Jordan.
and about the subject always let your hotel know where are you going NEVER trust a stranger specially those guides as any offer for free it is TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE nothing for free in Jordan.
If you go to remote places make sure you go in groups always carry a cell phone and the police number in Jordan is 191. the police is there to protect you remeber that. even a hassel on the street call the police and they will deal with it.
and as Aronowitz said the story eather is blowen up or just a fiction travel story but in any case you should be aware.
I found this site might help on gathering information:

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Hi WORLD

INFORMATION ABOUT JORDAN , DON'T FPRGET FEEL YOU ARE FREE

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I would like to give my opinion about this since I live here near Petra and I hear many stories... So based on these stories that I know, I can tell you the truth.

Yes, the tourist police in Petra is present and actually quite effective because if a foreign tourist complains about a local, the local accused person goes more or less straight to jail without too much questions asked.
So if you ever get into SERIOUS problems, you should report to police.

About the rape story inside Small Petra, I cannot say if it is true or not 100%. I have not heard this story. It could be partially true but I doubt about being drugged and being raped by "10 bedouins" part.

Anyway, the truth is that we consider mostly Petra to be a very safe place with many good hearted Bedouin people living it. The chances of you getting into possible dangerous situations mostly depends on your decisions made by your common senses.

Dinner parties inside Small Petra is very common here (we do it all the time with or without tourists) and I cannot say that it is totally a dangerous activities to do.

But here in Petra, one truth is that there are quite many young (age 18-30) "homeless" bedouin guys, very jaded and infected by too much influence by thewestern tourism these days, who are very known to be alcoholic, irrespectful of their own religious duties, and also, majorly known as "romantic gigolos" who always hussle every single women they see, in the most sweet credible manners (I mean "sweet" until you fall for it). They litterally ONLY THINK ABOUT SEX ALL DAY LONG.

They invite you for a beautiful sunset and million stars at night... or to have a party in small Petra or in the desert (with alcohol it could be more dangerous because when these "homeless" guys get drunk they could get VERY aggressive and horney)

With their cheesy romantic words or sudden invitation for marriage, they make you fall in love with you, then they will have sex with you, then try to suck up money from you pretending to sound poor and in need of money for the family. (typical way to do this is by saying something like: "my donkey died and therefore I cannot work")

Anyway, the point that I am trying to make is that, when you travel anywhere, you should be open minded about many things, talk to local people, try things that you don't do usually back at home...etc.

BUT HERE INSIDE PETRA, ESPECIALLY IF YOU ARE A WOMAN TRAVELLER ALONE OR WITH ANOTHER FRIEND, WATCH OUT FOR THOSE WHO ARE TOO SWEET WITH YOU OR WHO WANT TO TALK ABOUT LOVE OR SEX.

Last thing: I want to say that this "homeless" culture has NOTHING to do with the real bedouin culture. The real bedouins are good, respetful and hospitable people who will make your visit wonderful and unforgettable.
There is absolutely no doubt about it... so PLEASE TRY TO SAVE YOURSELVES AND TIME FROM THESE "HOMELESS".
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Yes, unfortunately, this is one fact that not many tourists know about.

They get into small arguements or problems with the locals and easily go to complain about the police... and they head back to their home countries..., maybe most of the time not even realizing that this accused person has been thrown into jail for some days or weeks.
It happens sometimes.

How you can use this tourist police service effectively... maybe if you are ever being harrased by someone in Petra, tell them that you will report them to police. Maybe this would scare them and it could be one way to stop them from saying/doing whatever they are doing
.
If you do decide to actually report them to the tourist police after an incident... it might be a good idea to think about it twice before you do it, though. Reply to this

hmm mixed response to this. I felt quite safe when i was there. And i did go off on my own with a guy, including having the dinner thing, no probs whatsover at that time and although I was thinking "what am i doing i would never do this at home" it was in fact perfectly safe. Not that I would ever recommend to any woman that it is a good idea to go off to an isolated place with a man - you can be lucky or you can be unlucky.

However, I did fall for the cheesy romantic rubbish to the extent of making a second trip there. After a few weeks of promising me the moon and the stars and all that, The lovely romantic stuff did not come to much, the trip cost me way more than promised, and i felt like it was just about having a quick shag. Of course, it could just be one of those things where people aren't the same as what you thought, that's nothing to do with the place or where they come from, just doesn't always happen how you think it will. Especially if you allow yourself to get caught up in some romantic charm. And they can certainly be charming! The fact that makes me think that there is something not so nice going on here is that one of his friends also had a girl over at the same time, she had also been persuaded to come back (quite a long distance) by lots of telephone romantic charm, and she was treated rather badly, again disagreements over money (we had both gone to spend time with someone to get to know them, not spend lots of money on a tourist trip), and was treated unpleasantly when it didn't work out. I am sure there are some cases where it does work out, but in general it seemed that respect towards women was somewhat lacking!
Romantic gigolos exist in lots of places not just there and are known worldwide to prey on single women travellers who are vulnerable to the whole schmooze stuff. Just think - would I do this at home? I know I wouldn't have done. No matter how much i liked someone. Moral of the story girls!!
.It certainly was NOT a safety issue in this case, and anything i did was quite willingly, but it left me feeling quite upset. And I think there are plenty of places where the gang rape scenario is more likely to happen - London, Paris, perhaps??
If you do decide to get involved in anyway with any of these guys, I would recommend taking their words with a large pinch of salt. If I'd been back home and someone was making declarations of how much they liked me/missed me/ blah blah blah after having met me for one afternoon, I'd be a bit suspicious. Just seems easier to fall for crap when you are away somewhere on your own.
If no funny business had been involved the ones I met, in particular the one I went to see, actually seemed like rather nice and friendly people. And certainly no "danger" to women in my opinion. only saw evidence of one of them out of a group being a drinker. Rest of them appeared to be teetotal. But i'd recommend staying away from anything too friendly too quickly. Reply to this

Exactly what i meant when i wrote that. There are murders in New York, just cos you go there doesn't mean you are going to get killed does it?! Reply to this

I’m very sad to hear such story. I can confirm that rules in Jordan are applied. Justice takes place as soon as any accident takes place. There is great respect for tourist at the same time, the locals are supported and never accused by the Jordanian law.

It is very important not to generalize. Especially when we know that this story was given by a receptionist who just wanted to entice this couple to have dinner at her hotel. The big mistake about that is the way how she frightened those people and the big mistake this couple did is that they disturbed our reputation in Petra.

I would like to stress on the fact that amongst the Jordanian and the Bedouins in particular, there is no single homeless. I’m responsible for confirming this fact. If one person misbehaves, it doesn’t mean that everyone does the same. In out society we all keep an eye on everyone. When someone errs, then hundreds of our people correct him/her. I do not pretend that we as Bedouin are perfect because there is no one is perfect but god. We all do mistakes in this world, but it depends on how big is that mistake. In our case, we are very small community. Every mistake, no matter how big or small is highly monitors. By people themselves first, and by our outstanding security.

During my work as a tourist guide for the last 15 years I’ve never ever heard anything thing as worse as this. I know how warm and loving our people are. They welcome everyone, mail and female. If they invite you to have dinner at Little Petra, I don’t think that there is anything wrong about that. Little Petra as it is all over the tourist attraction in the country are all under the full control of the Jordanian outstanding security members. Not only general police who keep Petra safe, but also the local people who care about the environment which provides them by caring about its guests. We’ve been doing this all the time.

We must admit that there are some sociocultural impacts of tourism on the local people. At the same time, we must be faire to the local people. We must understand that tourism is supporting most of our people at Petra. We need to be careful when we use such great forum to share our thoughts with the others. We must be fair by writing the write and honest experiences as we must select our words in order to show great respect for all those kind people who may want to share their thoughts with us as well. In the same vein, I can give thousands of examples on successful and memorable tours in Jordan. Some of then are single women, men, couples and groups. They enjoyed their time in Jordan. At the same time their memories are rich with great experiences with and about our people.

Here in Jordan, while we anticipate of inviting new guests to share the love of our country with us, we make sure that we can retain our dear guests. Those guests normally arrive as guests and they leave us as friends. We care about them because we know that they become our ambassadors who certainly promote our tourism worldwide.

May I ask all of our kind friends from the whole world to remain as friendly and loving as we are? Please read about our culture in a proper way prior to your visit so you can avoid any cultural encounter with our people. Exchange respect and honesty. Think of us as highly as we think of you and trust us we trust you. Only then you will realise that you are in one of the safest countries in the world. You will certainly find us very friendly loving and very warm.

Sami Alhasanat

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OK, I think this thread has now run its course. Locking.

Mel Reply to this