Iraqi War Widows and Orphans Have Few Options But Prostitution

by Amanda Kloer

Published November 08, 2009 @ 09:00AM PT

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The war in Iraq and the continuation of violence has had devastating effects on Iraqi families, particularly women and children. As is often the case in areas of conflict, the wives and female children of men killed in the war, whether civilians or soldiers, find themselves with no way to support themselves. With no other viable choices, they are forced to turn to prostitution as a source of income.

CNN recently told the story of Wedad, who entered into prostitution after her husband was killed in order to feed herself and her three daughters. Here's Wedad's story, with more after the jump.

Iraqi womens' rights activist Yanar Mohammed believes thousands of women like Wedad are in the sex trade in Iraq because they have no other viable options. Those who are caught are arrested, even though the men who buy them are almost never punished. They are sent to jail for a couple months, and when they get out their pimps are waiting to pick them up and put them back to work. There are no services, no help, no alternatives, and no way out for these women.

War and conflict often reduce women and girls' already limited availability of economic support. Women who lose their male provider in war, female refugees, and internally displaced persons are often pushed into prostitution to feed themselves and their families. In entering the industry, they become vulnerable to all the dangers of prostitution -- contracting HIV and other STDs, rape and sexual assault, physical violence, social contempt, and violence from pimps. These women may be choosing prostitution and not being tricked, forced, or coerced by another person (the benchmark for human trafficking), but if they choice is prostitution or starvation, is that really a choice? It's certainly not an empowering one.

Wedad desperately hopes for a way out of her situation before her daughter gets old enough to understand and figure out what she is doing. But what Wedad and the thousands of women like her really need is a politically stable Iraq with economic opportunities for women and peaceful streets. And that is a cure that goes beyond prostitution or human trafficking.