Trafficking in Iraq

by FARAH EL-SHARIF

As if the American occupation of Iraq could not get any more chaotic, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has revealed a gruesome report on the escalation of the abduction of women in the land of the Two Rivers after the war. Muna B., a young Iraqi victim of sexual violence and abduction, describes how she and her sisters were to be sold to sex traffickers:

"They brought in people they wanted to sell us to. They would bring men, they would look at us, and then bargain, negotiate a price. One was a fat woman wearing a veil, and another time two men came. They bargained and negotiated the prices … Then they would talk to us, saying “don’t worry, we’ll make you happy, we’ll give you a happy life, don’t worry, don’t cry” … I think they wanted us to be dancers or something like that, they told us that. Ibtisam [the female captor], she dances, and she tried to teach me to dance. I didn’t want to, and I didn’t look at her when she danced."[1]

Although Muna escaped to tell her tale, her sisters are still nowhere to be found.

Unsuspecting women such as Muna and her sisters are the primary victims of the social chaos that has befallen Baghdad after the war – where immorality scavenges off the disorder of the war-torn Iraqi society. HRW quotes police investigators at the East

Baghdad station who have stated “it (abduction) is much worse” after the war.

Iraq witnesses countless similarly gruesome little Abu Ghraibs and Hadithas every day now, and the world stands unaware. It is perhaps true that the hard-nosed politicians and “peaceful negotiations” that have adorned the media today rob the Iraqi people of exposing their true suffering – stories of sexual violence and opportunist traffickers that gnarl away at innocent people.

It is appalling how war conditions disillusion people into committing crimes guiltlessly: perhaps they see women and children as “spoils of war” or means for survival in a “broken anyway” city.

An unidentified police official tells HRW:

"There is no safety, and there is too much crime, too many cases, even to pursue… Some gangs specialize in kidnapping girls, they sell them to Gulf countries. This happened before the war too, but now it is worse, they can get them in and out without passports. We have so many other cases, we have no authority to solve or investigate them."[2]

The war has made fear the norm. Beginning with the threat of the imaginary WMDs, up to the prevalent dread which prevents Iraqi women from leaving their homes, this US-waged conflict has long been fuelled by fear. While the current feeling of insecurity persists, further psychological and not to mention physical harm will continue to scar countless Iraqi families.

One Iraqi mother complains:

"We need security, then freedom. My husband told the Americans – you will make us say we prefer Saddam Hussein’s rule, because then it was safe, even though everyone hated him. Even though he was oppressive, at least it was safe. Yesterday I went to a funeral, and all the women were afraid, they were worried about themselves and what might happen to them for venturing outside, just to go to a funeral."[3]

Lacking the sufficient safety, some Iraqi women are forced to avoid medical help and sending their daughters to school. Attendance at Iraqi schools has significantly fluctuated since the beginning of the war, and many parents say they just won’t take the risk. And when it comes to seeking medical assistance, especially when faced with cases of rape or sexual violence, many girls are refused treatment at local hospitals anyway, which drives them to bleed silent shame in their own tormented homes.

With the existing vacuum in the legislative authority in Iraq, it is no wonder that most cases of abduction and trafficking go unnoticed – or worse yet, devoid of punishment due to an absence of policy making and policy makers. Police stations after the war are now on the whole formless and vulnerable. Beginning with lootings and militia attacks, it seems that the disorder in Iraq has caused a domino effect for further disorder. Citizens do not trust the US Army enough to turn to them, and their police no longer have the means to be their protectors.

Furthermore, crimes such as rape and abduction are felonies under Iraqi law and are punished by lengthy prison sentences. And yet, victims of abduction and sexual violence still face important legal and social barriers before they can obtain justice. Some of these barriers are the provisions in the Penal Code that allow a man to escape punishment for abduction if he marries the victim.4 A high ranking police official described the procedure to Human Rights Watch: “This is part of our law, the kidnapper and kidnapped are married so that there won’t be other cases, of revenge”.[5]

This is in itself – if I may say – a “sub” human rights violation; as a woman is doomed to marry the criminal which has great disregard for her well-being and integrity.

Iraq was clearly not perfect before the troops came in. But the truth remains that it certainly isn’t perfect now. Will four years into the war mark progressive democratization and reconstruction? Or will the anniversary be a milestone for record human rights violations and alarming insecurity? Let time not tell. Let every conscious man and woman take action and speak up.