NGO: 3,500 Iraqi women have gone missing, many traded for sex work

[sabra]

http://www.irinnews.org/report.asp?ReportID=56065&SelectRegion=Middle_East&SelectCountry=IRAQ-SYRIA-UNITED_ARAB_EMIRATES

IRAQ-SYRIA-UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Sex traffickers target women in war-torn Iraq

DUBAI, 26 Oct 2006 (IRIN) - Mariam, 16, relives the day her father in Baghdad sold her off as a domestic worker in one of the prosperous Gulf nations. Instead, she was forced into the sex trade.

“I was a virgin and didn’t understand what sex was. I was told that they (the traffickers) were going to get good money for my first night with an old local man who paid for my virginity. He was aggressive and hit me all the time,” Mariam, who refused to reveal her real name, told IRIN.

Thousands of Iraqi women are being taken advantage of by unscrupulous sex worker traffickers seeking to exploit young girls’ desperate socio-economic situation for profit, United Nations agencies have reported.

...

The teenager’s story is not uncommon. While accurate statistics are hard to come by, the Women’s Freedom NGO estimates that nearly 3,500 Iraqi women have gone missing since the US-led occupation of Iraq began in 2003 and that there is a high chance many have been traded for sex work. It says 25 percent of these women have been trafficked abroad since the start of 2006, many unaware of their fate.

“People are desperate to get money to support their families … just to have something to eat. If the government does not act on this issue, more women will be abused outside Iraq,” Nuha Salim, spokeswoman for the NGO, said.

[aquart]

1. Ah, improving women's rights again, eh, George?

How many did your friends buy?

Or do they only like the boys?

[whistle]

2. Sounds like it could have been Donald Rumsfeld or Dick Cheney

...who paid for this young girl's virginity

[rodeodance]

3. How horrible for them.

[rodeodance]

4. rec

[me b zola]

5. Just when you think that it could be any worse....

...one more atrocity committed against the people of Iraq.

[Double T]

6. When one administration could create SO MUCH damage........

you really have to wonder WHY ANYBODY would want to vote for them or MEMBERS OF THEIR PARTY.

[Mabus]

7. adds a new meaning to "No child left behind"

They are destroying the lives of children all over the world. Bush & Co have destroyed their homes, schools, lives; Bush & Co. have robbed these children of their parents, family and friends; They are killing them in so many ways.

:cry:

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

8. Dyncorp?

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0512270176dec27,1,2117782.story?page=1&coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true
TRIBUNE UPDATE
U.S. stalls on human trafficking
Pentagon has yet to ban contractors from using forced labor

By Cam Simpson
Washington Bureau
Published December 27, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Three years ago, President Bush declared that he had "zero tolerance" for trafficking in humans by the government's overseas contractors, and two years ago Congress mandated a similar policy.

But notwithstanding the president's statement and the congressional edict, the Defense Department has yet to adopt a policy to bar human trafficking.

A proposal prohibiting defense contractor involvement in human trafficking for forced prostitution and labor was drafted by the Pentagon last summer, but five defense lobbying groups oppose key provisions and a final policy still appears to be months away, according to those involved and Defense Department records.
Continued at above link


Then there is this one

http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=11119

[shance]

9. This is how the Bush Administration values women.

Who controls Iraq right now?

The occupiers.

Who's occupying Iraq.

We are.

Who's allowing/profiting from the sex traffiking?

You decide.

[Zodiak]

10. Remember this:

this sort of thing happens in EVERY WAR, which is exactly why it is morally reprehensible to start a war in the first place.