World

Iraq's Unspeakable Crime: Mothers Pimping Daughters

by zeet | March 8, 2009 at 07:08 am

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Nobody knows exactly how many Iraqi women and children have been sold into sexual slavery since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003, and there are no official numbers because of the shadowy nature of the business.

She goes by "Hinda," but that's not her real name. That's what she's called by the many Iraqi sex traffickers and pimps who contact her several times a week from across the country. They think she is one of them, a peddler of sexual slaves. Little do they know that the stocky, auburn-haired woman is an undercover human rights activist who has been quietly mapping out their murky underworld since 2006.

That underworld is a place where nefarious female pimps hold sway, where impoverished mothers sell their teenage daughters into a sex market that believes females who reach the age of 20 are too old to fetch a good price. The youngest victims, some just 11 and 12, are sold for as much as $30,000, others for as little as $2,000. "The buying and selling of girls in Iraq, it's like the trade in cattle," Hinda says. "I've seen mothers haggle with agents over the price of their daughters."

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sara star

at 08:13 on March 8th, 2009

It is courageous for Hinda to go undercover to report on this.

Atoor married her 19-year-old sweetheart, a policeman called Bilal, when she was 15. Three months later he was dead, killed during one of the many bloody episodes in Iraq's brutal war. After the obligatory four-month mourning period dictated by Islamic Shari'a law, Atoor's mother and two brothers made it clear that they intended to sell her to a brothel close to their home in western Baghdad, just as they'd sold her older twin sisters. Frightened, she told a friend in the police force to raid her home and the nearby brothel. His unit did, and Atoor spent the next two years in prison. She was not charged with anything, but that's how long it took for her to come before a judge and be released.

zeet

at 08:20 on March 8th, 2009

Extremely courageous! Where truth is, truth will persevere.

Nice link Sara!

Fred Miller

at 08:27 on March 8th, 2009

Thanks for bringing us this great story, zeet.

'Madams' and harem-keepers are nothing new, but it reminds us of what women have to do stay alive in different parts of the world.

zeet

at 08:30 on March 8th, 2009

Exactly! Thank you for your comment, Fred.

Pythiian1

at 09:13 on March 8th, 2009

Thanks for this piece about the plight of Iraqi women and children, which is another untold tragic consequence of war.

René

at 09:15 on March 8th, 2009

Many, men and women, feared to work while the terrorists reigned, and this is a tragic result.

zeet

at 09:19 on March 8th, 2009

Having traveled all over the World I have to admit as a man, that women are much tougher than we are. The things they have done to them - and yet they still survive on hope, love, and resiliency. They need our support 100%.