Ongoing Rape Of Iraq ...

For all the faux-patriot prats preferring to pretend the Iraqi people should show some sort of appreciation for the 'freedom' they've been brought by Bush & Blair Co, here we present another opportunity for the pricks to puff up their chicken boned chests with counterfeit pride, while simultaneously slapping themselves on the their pathetic good ole backs. Pricks.

In Iraq, sex is traded for survival

By Afif Sarhan in Baghdad

The US invasion and the sectarian war have created thousands of widows in Iraq [AFP]

When Rana Jalil, 38, lost her husband in an explosion in Baghdad last year, she could never have imagined becoming a prostitute in order to feed her children.

(snip)

"When I came home with some food I had bought from that money and saw my children screaming of happiness, I discovered that honour is insignificant compared to the hunger of my children."

Iraqi widows desperate

Prior to the US invasion, Iraqi widows, particularly those who lost husbands during the Iran-Iraq war, were provided with compensation and free education for their children. In some cases, they were provided with free homes.

However, no such safety nets currently exist and widows have few resources at their disposal.

According to the non-governmental organisation Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI), 15 per cent of Iraqi women widowed by the war have been desperately searching for temporary marriages or prostitution, either for financial support or protection in the midst of sectarian war.

Nuha Salim, the spokesperson for OWFI, told Al Jazeera: "Widows are one of our priorities but their situation is worsening and we are feeling ineffective to cope with this significant problem. Hundreds of women are searching for an easy way to support their loved ones as employers refuse to hire them for fear of extremists' reprisals."

She said the NGO has documented the disappearance of some 4000 women, 20 per cent of whom are under 18, since the March 2003 invasion.

OWFI believes most of the missing women were kidnapped and sold into prostitution outside Iraq.

Although few reliable statistics are available on the total number of widows in Iraq, the ministry of women's affairs says that there are at least 350,000 in Baghdad alone, with more than eight million throughout the country.

And if you think those statistics are shocking, you need to read the rest of this report right now.

Some sort of sick, sodding sob liberators we in the West turned out to be, eh?

We should be ashamed.

And when the day we are called to account comes, may our own sorry souls (somehow), be shown (at least a little) more mercy than we deserve.

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