A Time Magazine has a horribly depressing article on a long held Iraqi custom that only seems to be growing worse, with the country still unstable: Child sex slavery. In many cases, it's their mothers who force them into it.
Clearly the parenting books are different over there, as I have yet to see a stateside copy of "What the Expect When You're Pimping Your Daughter, You Heartless (Fill in the Blank)."
Girls as young as 11 and 12 are fetching anywhere from $2,000 to $30,000 on the "human cattle market," and oftentimes it's their mothers who are looking to score the money, according to the article.
Take the case of 15-year-old Atoor. She married her husband, 19, but when he was killed, her mother tried to sell her into prostitution. The girl told authorities, who put her in prison for two years.
"I wanted to go to prison, I didn't want to be sold," she says. "I didn't think it would happen to me. My mother used to spoil me. Yes, she sold my sisters but she regretted that. I though that she loved me."
Wasn't this one of the 5,000 reasons given for the invasion of Iraq, improving human rights? Especially women's rights? How much are we culpable for this rising trend, and do we have an obligation to make this right -- not just for girls over there but so we can look our own in the eyes and say we tried?
[photo: Time]
