For thousands of Iraqi women and girls, the conflict that began in 2003 was only the start of their ordeals.
In the chaos of war and the confusion, lawlessness and poverty that followed, an untold number have become victims of sexual traffickers, some within Iraq and others sold over the borders.
But the problem of trafficking has gone almost unreported, kept in the shadows by a combination of corruption, religious and cultural taboo and lack of interest by the region’s authorities in tackling it, researchers say.
A report released by the London-based non-governmental group Social Change for Education in the Middle East (SCEME) Wednesday hopes to change that.
Entitled Karamatuna, or Our Dignity, the study highlights the plight of girls as young as 10 or 12 who have been trafficked from post-war Iraq into countries including Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia for sexual exploitation.
Other victims trafficked within Iraq end up in nightclubs or brothels, often in Baghdad, the report says. Some of those brothels "have been established purely to meet the demand created by United States service personnel," it adds.
Abou-Atta also encountered resistance when she raised the issue with the British and U.S. authorities whose forces’ presence in Iraq has been a contributing factor to the problem, she says.
While sexual exploitation existed in Iraq, as anywhere, long before the war began in 2003, “the invasion and instability that followed led to an environment where young women and girls became much more vulnerable to trafficking,” she told the hearing.
**
where is the US propagandist centcom?? where are the big mouth apologists for america this is the fruits of US invasion of Iraq, muslim girls some even young as 10 years old sent into prostitution to be degraded, used and abused!! the people involved in this are biggest low lives on the planet. The blame is fully at the door of the US administration who instigated the destruction of iraqi security and society. **
