The Sale
The Dubai Mall is the largest shopping mall in the world. It
has more than 1,200 shops and at over 13 million square foot, it is the size of
more than 50 football pitches. It is also the place where Zara would be sold.
At its height, over 750,000 visitors visit the Dubai Mall
every week. After “The Plot” however, tourist numbers throughout the world
plunged into an abyss that the tourism sector never quite recovered from. The
Dubai Mall with its 250-room luxury hotel, 22 cinema screens, 120 restaurants
and cafes, became a virtual ghost town.
With all the open space came an opportunity.
When the Dubai government wanted a central location to
regulate all the returning slave trade, the Mall was the logical place to do it.
It was big, spacious, well-known, and unused. A decision that the people of the
region agreed with as the Dubai Mall has
now become the central slave market of not just Dubai, but the whole Middle
East. None of this mattered to Zara as the door of the IIC opened.
Her uncle Johari led her by the arm through the mall and
Zara felt nothing but shame. After the session in the IIC, she now knew the evil
within her and wanted nothing but to be locked back into the darkness of the IIC.
Even though she was gagged, shackled and hunched over, Zara felt shame even at the
fact she was walking in public. She felt unworthy of even standing and not for
the first time, secretly wished that her uncle was one of the men who do not
allow their women to walk but only to crawl on all fours. It was nothing less
than what women deserved.
However she wasn't going to defy her uncle. She was going to
be sold today. She only prayed that her new owner would be that strict with
her.
Uncle Johari led Stephanie to a set of doors with a sign that
state "Auction: Authorized Personal Only" above it. They entered the
room and Zara was immediately overwhelmed.
The room was filled with over a hundred people, most of whom
were women. Most of them were hunched over like her in her niqab, but some were naked with only
their gag on them. If not for her gag, she would have cried out in shock.
Putting a hand on her arm, Uncle Johari began to lead
Stephanie through the crowd. She was led to a man sitting behind a counter that
was filled with files and documents.
“Johari Dhall, here for the sale of his niece Zara.”
The man behind the table looked up at Uncle Johari and
picked up a piece of paper on the counter. After looking through it, he took
out a piece of paper and a look of surprise came to his face.
“Everything seems in order Mr. Dhall but…”
“Is there a problem?”
“Well, it states here you imposed 3 criteria for the buyers.
Buyer must be a Muslim, a citizen from the Emirates and…payment must be in
cash?”
“Yes, that’s correct. Is there anything wrong?”
“Well no but…Mr. Dhall, these conditions will severely
affect your selling price. Your girl is young but well, from the photos, she’s
not a great beauty. You will not get a good price with these conditions.”
“Which will affect the 10% cut the government takes from
every sale.”
“Now that’s not…”
“I understand perfectly where you’re coming from but a seller
is allowed to impose a maximum of 3 conditions right?” Silence was answer
enough. “So again I ask; it there anything wrong?”
“No there isn’t.” The officer stamped something on the piece
of paper and then said something that surprised Zara. “Let’s see her then.”
Zara now knew why so many of the women in the room were
naked as her Uncle Johari methodically took her chains away from her. First to
come off was the silver chain linking her two pairs of cuffs. Her uncle then released
Zara from her cuffs themselves, both on her feet and hands, leaving her
unshackled in public for the first time in years. Zara was still getting used
to being unchained when her uncle ordered her to undress herself.
It’s a show of her training that Zara complied without
thinking. Before she realized what she was doing, Zara had already taken off
her niqaab. Only after she realized she was showing her face in public did
she hesitated. Her uncle waved her to continue on.
Soon her dress, gloves and socks were all on the ground and
Zara was standing there naked with only her gag. She felt strange; ashamed at
her nakedness but at the same time proud of how well she obeyed the orders of
her uncle.
The officer looked at her naked form and stamped her paper
again. “Okay, we’ll take her from here.”
A second later, another man showed up. After a quick word
from the officer, the officer handed the man the piece of paper showing her
information. The man then locked a collar
around the neck of Zara and pulled on the leash attached to the collar. Zara
took a quick look to her uncle who motioned for Zara to follow the man.
The man pulled Zara and the duo slowly walked to the other
side of the room and out through a door. Slowly walking down a corridor, they
made a turn at the end of the corridor. Zara could tell that the man was
enjoying leading her by a leash. Still it was nothing less than normal and Zara
quietly followed the man.
They went through another open door and that was when Zara first
saw what was in store for her.
A row of naked women were standing at the far wall of the room
but Zara did not have time to stare. The man pulled her to the wall and led her to
the front of the line. Zara did not need an order to understand she need to
stand alongside the women. After she did so, the man locked her leash to a bar
above her. He then left.
Left in the room, Zara waited quietly with the other women. The
women could not speak with each other due to their gags and a silent tension steadily
built in the room. It was only broken occasionally when the man came in leading other women on their leashes. He always left after locking the women to the bar and
never spoke to the women.
Zara soon found herself shivering from the tension.
Wanting to stop the shivering, Zara went to the method that had
always served her well; trying to think of something to take her mind off her
current situation. Her thoughts went to the Dubai Mall.
She remember the first time she visited the Dubai Aquarium
and Discovery Centre. She remembered spending a wonderful afternoon watching
the beautiful fishes swimming leisurely in the huge tanks, before having dinner
with her family in one of the Mall's 120 restaurants and cafes. Zara remembered
the Dubai Mall as it was, not as it is now; the central slave market of the
Middle East.
Her thoughts were interrupted when a man dressed like a guard came
in. He was followed by another man, a fat man dressed in a white Arabic robe.
The guard was holding a file and looked over the row of women before checking
something on his file.
"So, Zara Dhall? She's up first?" Zara realized he
was looking at the paper the officer handed to the man earlier.
"Yes," the fat man said. "Her uncle want to
sell her cheap. Poor girl must have pissed him off somehow."
What? Panic filled Zara. Was Uncle Johari angry with her?
Did she do something wrong? Wait, was being sold cheap even a bad thing? She had
no idea and the lack of knowledge made her panic even worse.
"None of our business." The guard said.
"Nothing matters to us but the sale."
The fat man walked to the centre of the room and looked over
the women who stood with their eyes to the ground.
"Okay, if any of you slaves do not know yet let me tell
you now. You are here to be sold. In a few hours, all of you will be at the
home of your new master who, hopefully for all our sakes, will keep you all
from killing the world again." Zara let the insult washed over her. It was
nothing but the truth. The fat man continued. "What's going to happen now
is very simple. We will now proceed to the stage where all of you will first be
covered in a burqa and then you will all take turns, one by one, walk down a
catwalk. You will then walk back to the centre of the stage where we will take
the burqa off. You will then walk back down the catwalk naked where I will
try my best to sell you all off." So the fat man was the auctioneer and
had a low view of women. Somehow Zara wasn't surprised.
"Now one more thing," the auctioneer said smiling.
"Smile when you're out there."
Zara would have laughed if not for her gag. Everyone was
telling her to smile today!
The auctioneer gave a signal to the guard and he began to
unlock the women from the bar above them. He then chained the women to each
other, locking their leashes to the collar of the women next to her. As Zara
was the lead girl, the man took her leash and Zara obediently followed him.
They went out of the room and down a corridor where they entered through a double-door.
This was where Zara first saw the stage. Elevated a few feet
off the main floor was a T-shaped stage that was brightly lit with floodlights,
Zara could see there were arrow signs on the edges of the runway which indicate
the side where the women were supposed to walk to the front, and the side of
the stage where they were supposed to walk back. The man leading gave a sharp
tug on her leash and the row of women were on their way again.
The guard led the line of women to the back of the stage
where all the women were made to kneel against a wall. Their leash was then
locked to a ring on the floor and then, once again, they were left alone. After half an hour, Zara's knees began to
hurt but she knew better than to make any complaint. An hour later, there was
finally some movement. The sound from the front of the stage began to increase
and Zara knew the auction would start soon.
The man came back pushing a trolley and he unlocked Zara
from the floor. He motioned her to stand. Zara did as ordered and the guard picked
up a piece of cloth from the trolley. Zara did not know why but he showed it to
her; it was a beautiful white burqa.
Zara stood there stunned. The burqa must have cost hundreds...at
least!
Zara was still stunned when he put the burqa over her and led her to the
stage. Only when she saw the bright lights of the stage and heard the soft
Arabic music in the background did she came back to her senses and realized where she was. There
must have been over 50 men there looking at her. She immediately remember what
she need to do.
Step by step, she slowly walked down the runway. She put her
head down, hoping to show the crowd the perfect submissive woman. For all her
nerves, Zara found that she wasn't all
that unhappy being up there on the stage. Being up there, the centre of
attention of all these men; it wasn't an unpleasant feeling.
The runway wasn't that long and almost too soon, the walk
was over for Zara. She found herself in the centre of the stage where the guard
and the auctioneer came to stand beside her. The auctioneer began;
"Welcome gentlemen! Welcome to the sale of the latest
meat of Dubai!"
The men in room hollered and cheered! Zara's heart fell and
lifted at the same time. Terrified that she was considered nothing but meat to
these men but at the same time glad that anyone who bought her today would
clearly keep her in control. As the auctioneer continued his sales pitch, the guard
took her burqa off.
Her shivering returned as she stood naked in front of the
men with nothing on but her gag, collar and leash. The guard was the one who surprisingly
came to her rescue. "Walk slave." Zara unthinkingly responded to the
whisper. She slowly walked back down the runway again, only this time naked.
She got to the end of the runway and discovered she didn't know what to do. Does
she walked back? Do she just stand there? She didn't have any orders. When left
with that situation, she did what came naturally.
She knelt and bowed her head to the ground.
It was the right move as the bidding went faster. Zara could immediately hear the
auctioneer quickly recognizing one bid after another. The bidding quickly goes on till the winning
bid settled on six hundred dollars.
Zara quickly felt the guard coming up to her. He took her
leash and pulled her along. Crawling on her hands and knees, Zara followed the
man to the centre of the stage and through the back. Zara only stopped when the
man did. He spoke to another man and Zara quickly heard that this man was her
new owner. She kept her eyes to the
ground, not wanting to disrespect her new owner. The man left and Zara was left
with her new owner. Zara saw the foot of another man.
"Look up Zara."
Zara recognized the voice. She looked up and in shock, saw
her uncle. Her uncle bend over and unlock her from her gag.
"Uncle Johari?"
Her uncle nodded and pointed to her new owner. "I
believe you met Sharif before." Zara noticed her owner for the first time
and saw that he was familiar.
"It's been awhile Zara." Her new owner said and
Zara remembered him. He was the son of one of her father's friends. They used
to play together when they were children.
"Uncle Johari, what's going on?"
"Well, Sharif's father knew you were going to be sold and
approached me for permission to buy you for his son. I agreed."
"But...is that legal? I mean the slave market. They
allow this?"
"You were on sale and I bought you." Her new owner
said.
"True," Uncle Johari said. "The fact that
your new owner and your old guardian has a private agreement beforehand
is...well, a grey area."
The two men laughed in agreement and Zara now knew why her
uncle put it those conditions and wanted to sell her cheap. He already knew who
her new owner would be. Despite what her uncle said, Zara was pretty sure it
was illegal. After "The Plot", women outnumbered men by a hefty
margin and one of the main purpose of the slave market was to make sure all the
men had an equal chance at the women on offer. Men had the choice and all men
had an equal choice. That did not happen in her case and her uncle did it for
her!
Her uncle took a risk and made sure she would go to someone
who knew and cared for her. Zara didn't need anyone to tell her of the risk he
took. She also knew there was nothing she could do to repay his kindness.
So she did the only thing she could. She smiled!
