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HAZYEZ, YEMEN- MAY 2008 .Seven year old Sara is known locally as Òthe white girlÓ. She lives with her adopted Somali motherNasrin in a brothel at Hazyez; a popular rest stop for truck drivers heading out of Sana'a on theAden road. Sara will never know about her real mother Fatima, and the prostitutes with whom shestays don't talk about her out loud for fear that Sara might become upset if she ever hears the truth. Fleeing to Somalia nearly ten years ago as teenagers, friends Nasrin and Fatima were luredby a gang who were soon hustling them in and around Aden's dockyards and in the seedybars that come and go near the port. For the young girls it was a shameful life but they werescared, far away from home and penniless. Nasrin eventually moved on but around three years later received a message - Fatima had died and there was a baby. Nobody is quite sure what happened but rumours abounded that Fatima had been sick with HIV/ Aids - the baby's father was said to have been an Italian sailor who had been seeing her regularly. Still considering the friend that she made the dangerous journey from Somalia with as almost family, Nasrin took it upon herself to informally adopt the little girl called Sara.Bringing up Sara has been tough for Nasrin. As a refugee with a mixed-race child they are oftenlooked upon as outcasts, and so she keeps Sara indoors as much as she can. The local youths have been abusive, and she thinks it could be damaging for Sara in the long term. Inside the brothel however, Sara is completely adored and hates to be apart from her adoptive mother and the closeknit group of girls who work from the small bungalow. She loves dressing up, and when Nasrin gets ready for work in the evening she puts on make-up too, pouting and making provocative movements with her hips. As the mobile phone keeps ringing with potential customers, Sara puts on a mask of her mother's face she has made by cutting out a photograph. She looks at the picture, kisses it and says, ÒI love (KEYSTONE/NOOR/Alixandra Fazzina)