This week in Time Magazine there is an article entitled Iraq's Unspeakable Crime: Mothers Pimping Daughters.
While sexual violence has accompanied warfare for millennia and insecurity always provides opportunities for criminal elements to profit, what is happening in Iraq today reveals how far a once progressive country (relative to its neighbors) has regressed on the issue of women's rights and how ferociously the seams of a traditional Arab society that values female virginity have been ripped apart. Last month Baghdad's minister of women's affairs, Dr. Nawal al-Samarraie, resigned in protest at the lack of resources provided to her office by the government. "The ministry is just an empty post," she told TIME. "Why do I come to the office every day if I don't have any resources?" Yet even Samarraie didn't think sex trafficking was an issue. "It's limited," she says, adding that she believed the girls involved chose to engage in prostitution. (Read it and weep.)Umm, can we talk about why this "once progressive country" is now home to these "unspeakable crimes"? It did not just happen. The war and chaos and ripping apart of the seams of society did not just happen. Never never forget that this is the result of the criminal war consciously perpetrated by the handful of people who pimped it, who all should be tried for war crimes in the ICC. Oh yeah, I forgot -- the freedom loving U.S. is one of the countries that has refused to sign on to the ICC.
Let's not forget also that Iraq was a once progressive country under Saddam Hussein. I'm not defending the guy, but the fact is when the "coalition of the willing" shocked and awed Iraq, irreparable damage was done. These are the implications of war. War is always unwinnable, immoral, and stupid. And this one, predicated on lies, is just heinous.
Finally, let's not let President Obama forget that he was elected with a mandate to end the shameful war on Iraq. To watch him flex his muscles in Afghanistan and Pakistan is horrifying. He's rumored to be smart and well-read. Has he not read his history of that area?
Note: This amazing photograph was taken by the lovely and talented Mr. Ether.
