Iraq Boys Trapped In Commercial Sex Trade
- From: "CaliforniaLyme" <CaliforniaLyme1@xxxxxxx>
- Date: 17 Sep 2005 10:14:44 -0700
Source: www.alertnet.org
Published: August 8, 2005 Author: Source: IRIN
For Education and Discussion Only. Not for Commercial Use.
IRAQ: Focus On Boys Trapped In Commercial Sex Trade
08 Aug 2005 10:16:12 GMT
Source: IRIN
BAGHDAD, 8 August (IRIN) - Hassan Feiraz, a 16-year-old boy, has
started a desperate new life since being forced into the sex trade in
Baghdad, joining a growing number of adolescents soliciting in Iraq
under the threat of street gangs or the force of poverty.
"Every day I cry at night," Feiraz said. "I'm a homosexual and was
forced to work as a prostitute because one of the people I had sex with
took pictures of me in bed and said that, if I didn't work for him, he
was going to send the pictures to my family."
"My life is a disaster today. I could be killed by my family to restore
their honour," he said, explaining that homosexuality was totally
unacceptable in Iraq due to religious beliefs.
Following the conflict in 2003, there has been an increase in the
number of commercial sex workers (CSWs) in the country, especially
among teenagers, according to local officials.
This increase is attributed to economic pressure faced by families
countrywide and the presence of new prostitution rings that have sprung
up since the invasion. With society in turmoil and a raft of other
serious issues to address, child protection has not been uppermost in
the priorities of the transitional government.
The gangs use money or threats to get teenage boys to work for them,
officials said.
"Many of us are working under threat, but others are there because they
don't know how to survive and found it as an easy way of getting
money," Feiraz said. "Someone should help free us from these
criminals."
AN INCREASING PROBLEM
Saeed Muhammad, a senior official in the Ministry of Labour and Social
Affairs, said it was addressing the problem but was under-resourced.
"We have been informed about dozens of cases of male prostitution, and
all of them [the boys involved] were threatened," he said. "But we
don't have the capacity to deal with them."
Muhammad said a special commission had been set up, with help from the
Ministry of Interior, to tackle the rings forcing young men into the
sex trade.
According to Muhammad, unofficial information suggests there could be
as many as 4,000 male commercial sex workers. There are no statistics
on the number of boys caught up in the business countrywide, but
officials fear that it could be in the hundreds.
Boys are said to receive the equivalent of around US $10 for each
person they have sex with, with the gangs reportedly taking five times
that amount.
The leader of a ring of commercial sex workers told IRIN that the
livelihood they were offering Iraqi boys was "a job like any other". He
insisted that the boys were not threatened and that anyone who came to
work for them could leave at any time.
"Iraqis love boys and our work is to offer pleasure to them," the ring
leader, who calls himself Abu Weled (or "father of the boys"), said.
"They are all gay and, in Iraq, the homosexual is something cheap and
bad, but we make them feel special when working with us."
Abu Weled's gang also has some girls under 16 years of age soliciting
for him, he said.
HOMOSEXUALS UNDER THE LAW
Under Shari'ah or Islamic law, homosexual practise is a religious crime
that carries the death sentence.
The transition constitution in place in Iraq for the past two years
does not address homosexuality. A new constitution is currently being
drafted.
Whether or not homosexuality it illegal, it is a taboo subject in Iraq
and homosexual acts are strongly condemned by Muslims. Yet, these
prostitution rings suggest, there is a demand for commercial sex
workers to engage in homosexual acts.
Sheikh Hussein Salah, one of the heads of the Shi'ite Muslim community
in Iraq, told IRIN in Baghdad that the families of those boys engaged
in homosexual practices should "kill them", whether the situation was
forced on them or they entered into it freely.
During Saddam Hussein's regime, Salah said, homosexuality was illegal
and homosexual practices were punishable by death. "We hope that this
will be applied under the new constitution," he added.
Some Baghdadi families said they have stopped their children from going
to school or university for fear that they would be lured into the
unacceptable trade.
"If I found that my son was doing something like that, I would kill him
straight away, because it is an offence to our God and a crime against
our honour," Kudaifa Abdul Lateff, father of three teenagers said.
"Homosexuals are nothing more than animals."
ECONOMIC PUSH TO PROSTITUTION
Rising unemployment, compounded by conflict, has led to the desperate
search for money to survive, despite the physical, psychological and
health dangers involved in commercial sex work, local officials say.
According to a survey by the Iraqi Ministry of Planning and Development
Cooperation released in April, 48 percent of youths in the country are
unemployed, most of them discouraged by poor salaries in those jobs
that are available.
"We are a poor family and my husband cannot work because he has serious
epilepsy," Um Zacarias, a mother of two child sex workers, said. "Three
months ago, Abu Weled came to our house offering us money if we let our
two teenage [aged 13 and 14] boys work with them.
"Thanks to him, today we have a good income. People may find it
surprising, but at least we can eat now and I'm proud of them."
GOVERNMENT RESPONSE
The Ministry of Interior, after an appeal by the Ministry of Labour,
has started a new commission to search for the ring leaders and tackle
families sending their children into the sex trade.
A senior interior ministry official, who preferred to remain anonymous
for his own security, said that leaders of two gangs in Baghdad had
been captured so far.
More than 15 boys were also being questioned, he said. Their families
had not been given the real reason for their detention, in case they
responded with threats or violence to the boys.
"When you hear what the teenagers have been through, you really fear
for your own children," the ministry official said. "They could fall
victim any minute to these heartless gangs."
The Ministry of Labour has also developed a programme, focusing on
non-judgemental psychological counselling, to rehabilitate boys who
want to return to a normal life without suffering social
discrimination.
RESCUE EFFORTS
Based on information supplied by the Ministry of Labour, two small
local NGOs are trying to help the child sex workers. On of them, Iraqi
Peace and Better Future (IPBF), has collected the names of more than 50
teenage boys who say they cannot leave the trade because of threats.
Few cases have been resolved, however.
"We have been trying to do our best in taking those unlucky boys and
girls from the streets of the capital," said Abdallah Jassim, spokesman
for IPBF. "But sometimes we are stopped by the gangs, who threaten us.
And the government cannot offer us special security on a daily basis."
The Iraqi Red Crescent Society (IRCS) is also waiting for approval and
funding for a proposed rehabilitation project for teenagers, it said.
So far it has had few donors.
Meanwhile, with few positive prospects in sight, many boys in Baghdad
are living in fear, urging that someone, somewhere come up with a
solution to their plight.
"I hope that one day I will live without the fear that I may find my
father with a gun or a knife ready to kill me because he has discovered
what I do for a living," said Youssef Hatab, a 15 year-old boy.
.
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