Is the Iraq Occupation Enabling Prostitution?
Military prostitution has long been seen around U.S. bases in the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand, and other countries. But since the U.S. has begun to deploy forces to many Muslim countries, it cannot be as open about enabling prostitution for its personnel. U.S. military deployments in the Gulf War, the Afghan War, and the Iraq War have reinvigorated prostitution and the trafficking of women in the Middle East.
Another major change has been the reliance of the U.S. military on private contractors, who have now surpassed the number of soldiers in Iraq. Public attention has begun to focus on the role of these contractors in U.S. war zones. Less attention has been paid to how private contractors are changing the nature of military prostitution. In the best known example, DynCorp employees were caught trafficking women in Bosnia, and some indications suggest that similar acts may be taking place in Iraq.
I am researching whether civilian contractors are enabling military sexual exploitation in Iraq, Afghanistan, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and other Muslim countries. My research is investigating new patterns of sexual exploitation of women by the U.S. for military purposes, and how institutionalized prostitution has changed as U.S. forces have been stationed in Muslim countries. I am especially interested in the possible role of civilian contractors in promoting prostitution of local women, or in importing foreign women into U.S. war zones under the guise of employment as cooks, maids or office workers.
I have come to this research as a feminist activist who has long worked on issues of women and militarism, influenced by women such as Cynthia Enloe, Katherine Moon, and Saralee Hamilton. I have organized against the sexual exploitation of Filipinas near U.S. military bases. More recently, I have worked on the related issues of sexual harassment and assault of women GIs within the U.S. military. I have also been actively opposed to the U.S. attacks on Iraq since the Gulf War.
During the brief Gulf War, the U.S. military prevented prostitution for its troops in Saudi Arabia, to avoid a backlash from its hosts. But on their return home, the troop ships stopped in Thailand for “R & R.” After the Gulf War, harsh economic sanctions forced many desperate Iraqi women into prostitution. The sex trade grew to such an extent that in 1999 Saddam ordered his paramilitary forces to crack down on it in Baghdad, resulting in the executions of many women.
The U.S. invasion of March 2003 brought prostitution back to Iraq within a matter of weeks. The Iraq War has now lasted eight times longer than the Gulf War deployments, and is marked by a huge reliance on private security contractors. A U.S. ban on human trafficking, signed by President Bush in January 2006, has not been applied to these contractors.
The rebirth of prostitution has generated fear that permeates all of Iraqi society. Families keep their girls inside, not only to keep them from being assaulted or killed, but to prevent them from being kidnapped by organized prostitution rings. Gangs are also forcing some families to sell their children into sex slavery. The war has created an enormous number of homeless girls and boys who are most vulnerable to the sex trade. It has also created thousands of refugee women who try to escape danger but end up (out of economic desperation) being prostituted in Jordan, Syria, Yemen or the UAE. Our occupation not only attacks women on the outside, but attacks them on the inside, until there is nothing left to destroy.
If foreign women are imported into Iraq for prostitution, they would almost certainly follow the already established channels of illegal labor trafficking, as documented in the Chicago Tribune series “Pipeline to Peril.” For example, independent journalist David Phinney has documented how a Kuwaiti contract company that imported workers to build the new U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad’s Green Zone also smuggled women into the construction site.
Within the Green Zone, a few brothels have been opened (disguised as a women’s shelter, hairdresser, or Chinese restaurant) but are usually closed by authorities after reports about their existence reach the media. The U.S. military claims that it officially forbids its troops to be involved in prostitution. But private contractors brag on sex websites that they have sometimes been able to find Iraqi or foreign women in Baghdad or around U.S. military bases. These highly paid security contractors have much disposable income, and are not held accountable to anyone but their companies.
One contractor employee living in the Green Zone reported in February 2007 that “it took me 4 months to get my connections. We have a PSD [Personal Security Detail] contact who brings us these Iraqi cuties.” Western contractors’ e-mails also suggest that some Chinese, Filipina, Iranian and Eastern European women may also be prostituted to Americans and other Westerners within Iraq. (Other reports indicate that Chinese women might also be prostituted in Afghanistan, Qatar, and other Muslim countries where it may be difficult for rings to find local women.)
On leave from Iraq in 2005, Army Reservist Patrick Lackatt said that “For one dollar you can get a prostitute for one hour.” But as the war has escalated in Baghdad and the other Arab regions of Iraq, it has become too dangerous for Westerners to move around outside of the military bases and the Green Zone. Contractors are now advising each other to do their “R & R” in the safer northern Kurdish region, or in the bars and hotels of Dubai, the UAE emirate that has become the most open center of prostitution in the Persian Gulf. Meanwhile, any prostitution rings in Iraq have to go deeper underground to hide from Iraqi militias.
As observed by Sarah Mendelson in her 2005 Balkans report Barracks and Brothels, many U.S. government protocols and programs have been implemented to slow human trafficking, but without enforcement they end up merely as public relations exercises. Military officials often turn a blind eye to the exploitation of women by military and contract personnel, because they want to boost their men’s “morale.” The most effective way for the military to prevent a public backlash is to make sure that the embarrassing information is not revealed. It is not necessary to cover up information if it does not come out in the first place.
It has been difficult for me (and other researchers and journalists) to get to the bottom of this crisis. In his book Imperial Life in the Emerald City, Rajiv Chandrasekaran observed, “There were prostitutes in Baghdad, but you couldn’t drive into a town to get laid like in Saigon.” The question of who is behind the trafficking of people is as hard to crack as the trafficking of drugs (if not more so). It is difficult enough to track the widespread illegal trafficking of workers to Iraq. But the trafficking of Iraqi or foreign women for prostitution is even better concealed. The prostitution rings keep their tracks well hidden, and it is not in the interest of the military or its private contractors to reveal any information that may damage the war effort.
The fact that information is difficult to find, however, is a reason to intensify the search, and to make military prostitution a major issues of the women’s and antiwar movements. It is our tax dollars that fuel the war in Iraq, and if any women are exploited as a result of the occupation, we owe it to them to take responsibility for these crimes.
I am currently writing a larger report on my findings, and am seeking any input from researchers and journalists, military veterans, private contract employees, exiles and refugees, or former prostituted women who may shed light on military prostitution in the Middle East, and the role of the military and its private contractors.
My ultimate purpose is doing this research is not only to help expose these crimes against women, but to help build a movement to stop them. Missing from the discussions about Iraqi women’s rights is how the U.S. occupation is creating new oppressions that destroy women’s self-worth. It is our responsibility as Americans to stop our military’s abuses of women, by ending the occupation.
Debra McNutt is a feminist and antiwar activist and researcher living in Olympia, Washington. She can be contacted at debimcnutt@gmail.com
So. many of the young men of the former Iraqi army join the paramilitary militias or the insurgency to find some way of providing for and protecting their oved ones in the American made chaos that is Iraq. Now lots of Iraqi women are becoming prostitutes (or sex workers for those of you offended by the “p” word).
Based on the observations of the past three years my bet is that the ladies who are selling themselves into prostitution, are receiving a lot more American “aid” by this less direct method than by the L Paul Bremmer inspired programs that have inexplicably lost more money than they have disbursed.
Bravo to Ms. McNutt for undertaking this study to objectively quantify and qualify what we all know must be true. When the world finally joins together to give the US a taste of its own medicine, it will be helpful to know what is in store for ourselves and our progeny.
Mr. Poet;
You don’t seem to understand what Ms. McNutt is talking about. These women are not “selling themselves,” they are being sold, sir! We are talking about sexual slavery, not promiscuity! The kidnapping and enslaving of women and children is BIG BUSINESS, and always has been. I would look to the international corporate Goliaths that are always responsible for the debasement of humanity for personal profit. I don’t believe for one minute that they would let such a global profit center continue to exist unless they were getting their share of the pie.
Thank you “bignosekate”, that’s right on. These aren’t college educated, high paid escorts, run by a savvy madam, the other end of the prostitution spectrum.
To all of the men who pay for prostitutes in Iraq (and other Muslim countries):
YOU are guilty of a tragedy much larger than you can conceive. Unlike the US, where a former prostitute may “reform”, and then maybe even lead a “normal” life afterwards, in places like Iraq, Muslim women risk death from their own families for defiling the family honor- even if they were kidnapped. So those fleeting moments of your self-indulgent behaviors reap a lifetime of ruination for the human beings YOU defile, creep.
This whole mess makes me want to cry. Knowing that these poor women and young girls (and probably some men and young boys) are suffering like this makes me ashamed to call myself a human being and a man. This is true terror. Not threatening to blow up buildings. And not just selling a human being, but BUYING one. Even worse, renting one. It made me want to throw up when the author quoted the contractor who called the victims “Iraqi cuties.” Where are all those morals that Bush & Co. keep pushing? I wonder if the UN has anything to say with specific regards to our abuse of women in Iraq and Afghanistan, and if they would ever actually do anything about it.
*EDIT*
I just found this: http://italy.usembassy.gov/viewer/article.asp?article=/file2003_09/alia/a3092302.htm. It’s from when Bush addressed the UN General Assembly trying to get help for invading Iraq. He says that we are fighting Saddam and terrorism to help get rid of human trafficking: “Human trafficking — especially young girls and women who are bought, sold, or forced across borders to work in the sex trade — is a form of slavery, the president said.” What is he doing to stop the soldiers who have vowed to obey his commands from engaging in what he explicitly calls “a modern form of slavery”?
talk about caring about the wrong things. Lets get out of Iraq and all its murdering and maiming before the feminists start us caring about things, that while important pale besides the other attrocities. Besides these feminists might as well use forms to write their obsessions, they are so simular and doctranaire each time. Stop us running dog males.
Ms Big Nosed Kate:
My point was not clear enough for you to understand and that is my fault for which I appologize.
My point was that the proximate casue of the great explosion of such sex slavery was the lame brained conduct of the Bushco and it’s holier than thou ideologically correct neocon morons who are (were) directly adminstering the campaign.
Placing tens of thousands of angry young men in a situation of “kill or be killed” and destroying any and all other options for youth to lead a normal life is what empowers the moraly corrupt people both on supply and demand side that drive such trade.
One reason that is often given for the ‘Comfort Women’ used by the Japanese military during WWII was that by providing the soldiers with prostitutes in brothels, they would be less likely to rampage through villages raping women. Perhaps that’s another reason the US military/contractor companies may tolerate some of this activity (not just for morale). Clearly, all governments and occupiers have a moral obligation to ensure that prostitutes are participating in the industry willingly, are free to leave at any time, have access to healthcare and education, and are fairly compensated. $1 an hour doesn’t seem fair.
The implication of this article is that the US military has the copyright on prostitution. This is inaccurate and dishonest, because there are so many cases of United Nations soldiers engaging in prostitution wherever they go. One such example I saw firsthand, in 1992 Cambodia, tens of thousands of “blue helmets” (United Nations soldiers, comprised mainly of soldiers from European and African countries) arrived to protect the national election and return of Shihanouk. Within no time there was a huge prostitution industry supported by UN soldiers, the African soldiers were particularly active in this as I recall and many were sent home. There is no doubt extensive literature on the UN experience in Cambodia with prostutition. Likewise, where I lived in Thailand for several years, the entire country has had a prostitution industry for over 100 years. To suggest US military “spawned” prostitution in Thailand is a popular myth though, no Thai thinks that but popular among some Americans. Before US military arrived, I believe go-go style–tacky striptease using a chrome pole on a stage–was not common and today only western going to this type of place which is only found in tourist areas. If anything, US military helped establish a new market for a few chrome pole manufacturing companies. Locals prefer ap op nuat which is readily available everywhere–every province every village. No relation to amount of tourism or foreign soldiers. As of 10 years ago, brokers were moving Uzbekistan (caucasian) women to Bangkok to serve wealthy Thais in exclusive clubs.
Back to Europe, the conflict in Kosovo saw an influx of concentrated groups of NATO soldiers from all over Europe, and a great deal of prostitution. Many of those women moved on to Dubai, Kuwait and other areas to serve arabs.
Is the author focused on prostitution around the world, or only prostitution where there are Americans? She should make it clear rather than suggest that the two are mutually inclusive.
I think you are missing the boat too there Country. Thousands of refugees have fled to other country’s. The countries can’t support the number of refugee’s. Children and teens are doing this to support their family. This has everything to do with the invasion of Iraq which USA is responsible for.
see http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/05/28/news/syria.php
The author could have mentioned the hundreds of thousands of
women that are imported from the indian subcontinent, the Phillipines, Bengalis, ect. to the oil countries of the middle east as “domestic workers”. Once in a place like Saudi Arabia, these women are often held as virtual sex slaves by the males of the household- since they think they now “own” them. There is also rampant prostitution in IRAN, far from any U.S. contractors. In a 2002 study it was estimated that there were 300,000 prostitutes working in Tehran alone. Many of these same countries fly in young BOYS by the planeloads, for the pleasure of high ranking males.
I won’t even get into the subject of “temporary” marriages (some lasting one hour)in this section of the world.
This is a serious problem and the author should be commended for bringing it up. It is,however, not solely a problem of having Americans nearby.
Have read that the sex slave trade is ~20 billion dollar a year industry. All those who participate in it are supporting terrorists.
More than anything else, we need to have huge wars on the sex slave trade, poverty, political & business corruption, and all the things that stand in the way of world peace.
The so called war on terror, like the war on drugs is rotten to the core.
———–
“Without sharing there can be no justice;
without justice there can be no peace;
without peace there can be no future…
Man must change or die.
There is no other course.”
The World Teacher
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whatever July 11th, 2007 6:45 pm
“talk about caring about the wrong things. Lets get out of Iraq and all its murdering and maiming before the feminists start us caring about things, that while important pale besides the other attrocities.”
This is the prevailing mentality that perpetuates the sex slave industry. I wonder if “whatever” would be willing to sell its mother, sister, wife or daughter to this inhumane industry?
Women have been divested of thier spiritual power to the point they don’t even realize they have it.
You have to look at cultures that celebrate the feminine to appreciate this world view or look at so many societies today with the absences of feminine spirituality. Feminists are the warriors that protect what remains. Sexual slavery is not a creative principal, it is a male exploitation of creation. It is just one of the symptoms of an imbalanced world.
I have a classmate and a nephew who have served 2 and 3 tours in Iraq respectively…niether got laid during their tours. Never saw a prostititute that was available to the US military on or off post. My nephew said there was a group of what the Iraqis called “gypsies” and they were servicing Muslim men not US soldiers or contractors. I suspect that as in most societies, Iraq had its share of prostitutes before, during and after Saddam.I doubt that they are available to the vast majority of the horny young men in US uniform. Now the green zone, considering the political nature of the hiring maybe another story!
Jager