Muhammad Idrees Ahmad

As I had argued earlier, the Gulf States bear as much responsibility for the ongoing genocide in Iraq as the chief perpetrators — US and UK. However, it is not just the decadent despots who should bear all the blame; if it wasn’t for the passive acquiescence of their people they would not have been able to provide the logistical support necessary to carry out this war. Here I would relate another incident which highlights the limits of outrage in the so-called ‘Arab street’. As the first bombs fell on Baghdad, students at the University decided to make their own statement. Since most had opted not to attend the earlier state sanctioned march, for the simpe reason that they did not want to be seen walking next to the immigrant workers — the untermenschen — who comprised the majority, a high-brow bourgeois alternative was deemed necessary. I was invited to the organizing meeting. The sorry byproducts of affluence started by stressing, whatever they do, they won’t label it ‘antiwar’ because that could be perceived as opposing American policy; they will instead label it a ‘pro-peace’ gesture. Yes; it could only go downhill from there. My interventions were not appreciated — everyone started walking out. The head of the Indian society said he had no intention to lose sponsorships for future events by taking a political position on something. Others agreed. Afterwards, one student who did not attend the meeting confided that he was glad he did not attend because he heard the meeting got – God forbid — political!

The final statement from these intrepid souls no doubt made the walls tremble in Washington: On a nice sunny day everyone made a big peace sign on the grass, and had a photo taken. One person was even moved to declare that the Iraqis being bombed and the invading army are equally innocent.  Having just read Sy Hersh’s latest report on Abu Ghraib — it describes amongst others the circulation of such trophies as ‘a video of a male American soldier in uniform sodomizing a female detainee’ – I wonder how many of them are willing to volunteer their brothers or sisters to be sodomized by the invading innocents. After all, it will only add up to one collective act of innocence, meriting a peace sign in the grass on a sunny day.

Independent has a follow up on the story of the Iraqis driven into prostitution by the war(and the punters from the Gulf who are flocking to this new destination for their sex-tours) that I had reported on earlier.

It’s Monday night in a dingy club on the outskirts of the Syrian capital. Two dozen girls are moving half-heartedly on the dance floor, lit up by flashing disco lights.

They are dessed in tight jeans, low-cut tops and knee-high boots, but the girls’ make-up can’t disguise the fact that most are in their mid-teens. It’s a strange sight in a conservative Muslim country, but this is the sex business, and it’s booming as a result of the war in Iraq.

Backstage, the manager sits in his leather chair, doing business. A Saudi client is quoted $500 for one of the girls. Eventually he beats it down to $300. Next door, in a dimly lit room, the next shift of girls arrives, taking off the black all-covering abayas they wear outside and putting on lipstick and mascara.

To judge from the cars parked outside, the clients come from all over the Gulf region – many are young Saudi men escaping from an even more conservative moral climate. But the Syrian friend who has brought me here tells me that 95 per cent of the girls are Iraqi.

Most are unwilling to talk, but Zahra, an attractive girl with a bare midriff and tattoos, tells me she’s 16. She has been working in this club since fleeing to Syria from Baghdad after the war. She doesn’t like it, she says, “but what can we do? I hope things get better in Iraq, because I miss it. I want to go back, but I have to look after my sister”. Zahra points to a thin, pubescent girl with long black hair, who seems to be dancing quite happily. Aged 13, Nadia started in the club two months ago…

There are more than a million Iraqi refugees in Syria, many are women whose husbands or fathers have been killed. Banned from working legally, they have few options outside the sex trade. No one knows how many end up as prostitutes, but Hana Ibrahim, founder of the Iraqi women’s group Women’s Will, puts the figure at 50,000…

Fatima is in her mid-20s, but campaigners say the number of Iraqi children working as prostitutes is high. Bassam al-Kadi of Syrian Women Observatory says: “Some have been sexually abused in Iraq, but others are being prostituted by fathers and uncles who bring them here under the pretext of protecting them. They are virgins, and they are brought here like an investment and exploited in a very ugly way.”