Damascus, Syria

Dear Mr. Ban Ki-moon,

First, allow me to congratulate you on your new post as secretary-general of the United Nations. I am writing to you from Syria, a country that co-founded the UN back in 1945. So determined were the Syrians for the UN to succeed that we sent some of our finest diplomats to its founding conference, and our late Prime Minister Faris al-Khury even co-designed its emblem, the same one that is printed on the UN Flag at your office desk, Mr. Moon. We really wanted the UN to achieve its declared objectives because this meant a better life for the Arabs in general, guaranteeing their right to self-determination after centuries of colonial rule by the French, the British, and before them, the Ottomans.

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I often tell my students that there is not a single question in life that cannot be asked or debated, then accepted or discarded by the human mind. I learned that many years ago as a student at the American University of Beirut (AUB). Today, the weekly question at the forum of The Washington Post is about prostitution and whether it should be legalized. I am asked to speak my point of view on Syria. By no means do I support the act of prostitution, nor do I think, however, that it can be eliminated. It is the oldest surviving “profession” in the world and outlawing it will only make it flourish in the Arab underground.

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