Iraqi Girl Imprisoned For Using A Forged Passport To Escape Sexual Slavery
Posted: Friday, May 07, 2010
by Jennifer Stewart
Stepping out of History
In societies where women have no value, girls have even less. Surely one of the cruelest injustices is when a girl is abused, has to commit a crime to escape, is imprisoned for that crime - and then outcast by her family because she brought shame on them. Meanwhile the perpetrators of the injustices committed against her get away scott free.
This is what happened to a 15 year old Iraqi girl, Zeina. She was abducted and sold into sexual slavery by her father, who told her was taking her to visit her grandfather in Syria. But he sold her instead, and she was sent to the United Arab Emirates.
She had the courage to run away, and to appeal to the police. They assisted her, but of course she didn't have a passport, so to get home she bought a fake one. When she arrived in Baghdad she was arrested and thrown in jail where she is now serving a two year sentence.
Zeina is one of many Iraqi girls and young women, who are lured into this life of horror with the promise of work or marriage, or simply sold, as Zeina was. Sometimes their only way out is to commit a crime. Many choose to remain in prison because they know what awaits them at home.
The likelihood of Zeina ever being able to re-integrate into her family and society are zero. She will held responsible for what happened to her, further punished and outcast for the dishonor she has brought on family and community. Her father, on the other hand, will emerge unscathed.
Human traffickers in this region are not being prosecuted. In Iraq it is a crime to travel on a forged passport but not to sell your daughter into sexual slavery.
This is what happened to a 15 year old Iraqi girl, Zeina. She was abducted and sold into sexual slavery by her father, who told her was taking her to visit her grandfather in Syria. But he sold her instead, and she was sent to the United Arab Emirates.
She had the courage to run away, and to appeal to the police. They assisted her, but of course she didn't have a passport, so to get home she bought a fake one. When she arrived in Baghdad she was arrested and thrown in jail where she is now serving a two year sentence.
Zeina is one of many Iraqi girls and young women, who are lured into this life of horror with the promise of work or marriage, or simply sold, as Zeina was. Sometimes their only way out is to commit a crime. Many choose to remain in prison because they know what awaits them at home.
The likelihood of Zeina ever being able to re-integrate into her family and society are zero. She will held responsible for what happened to her, further punished and outcast for the dishonor she has brought on family and community. Her father, on the other hand, will emerge unscathed.
Human traffickers in this region are not being prosecuted. In Iraq it is a crime to travel on a forged passport but not to sell your daughter into sexual slavery.
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Top-level comments on this article: (2 total)Jennifer,
Sadly this is all too common. With every instance I hear about, my heart sinks inside of me with sorrow.
The horrors humans inflict on each other are innumerable and impossible to comprehend. I find it incomprehensible to see how fathers/husbands or so-called human males can inflict upon a female such horrific deeds. The stoning, the oppression, the less-than-human treatment of females, the injustices - the inhumanity of it all!!! How and why do some populations consider the female of such diminished value over the males? Why should women drag around in burkas and black shrouds when men have no restrictions whatever? On and on go my questions - Your article puts a name and face to a huge problem of humanity. It seems in our present day of "enlightenment" we are merely stepping back into barbarism and inhumanity. It grieves me to see and read about such unbelievable suffering with nary a hope of anything but suffering for some of our women and girls. Where is the outcry. Where are the saviors. Why are men still so callous in some parts of the world? Jennifer, thank you for your thought provoking and informative article. History does repeat and much never changes.Thanks. The only consolation I took from this was that at least these hideous injustices - which aren't at all new - are being exposed now. I think the only thing that will free women is when they learn that they're entitled to better treatment, and they fight for their rights. I feel this is slowly happening.
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