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Muslim clerics
acting like pimps

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YTS.MX

Undercover in Baghdad,

we expose a secret world
of sexual exploitation.

Widows of war, forced to
become halal prostitutes

Men of God,
giving religious

guidance on how
to abuse children.

In this holy sex trade
even children are for sale.

(mysterious music)

I'm in Kadhimiya
Central Baghdad,

one of Shia Islam's most
important pilgrimage sites.

Millions visit
this holy shrine,

and many couples come
here to get married.

Just walking around the
shopping arcade,

across from the main
shrine,

I've come across multiple
marriage offices.

We've heard that some
Shia clerics

are performing a controversial
religious practice called mut'ah,

or pleasure marriage.

In this society, where sex for
unmarried couples is forbidden,

a pleasure marriage allows a man
to pay for a temporary wife.

But, they're illegal
in Iraq.

And we've found they are
being used to exploit women.

I have to be discreet
filming this,

but we're here to
investigate allegations

that some of the clerics
here

are grooming women
for halal prostitution,

and even acting
like pimps.

(call to prayer)

Pleasure marriage, or
mut'ah, is a Shia practice.

But Sunni Islam
also recognizes

another type of informal
marriage, which is calls Misyah.

Many Iraqi clerics
say pleasure marriages

are sanctioned
by Islamic law,

and can even be good
for couples.

This is Faris Al
Mousawi.

Tell me about Mut'ah
marriage.

What are the rules behind
mut'ah marriage?

The man pays for
a sexual relationship.

But the cleric said,
if the woman was poor,

the man would be
helping her.

But what's the difference between
Mut'ah marriage and prostitution?

(mysterious music)

Fifteen years of
war have had a

devastating effect
on Iraq's women.

A million have been
widowed,

and many more are
still displaced.

Clerics had told us
pleasure marriages

were a way of helping
vulnerable women.

But we'd started to
hear stories of abuse.

We're concealing the real names
of the women we spoke to.

When the so called Islamic
State took her city,

Rana fled to Baghdad.

Soon after, her
husband left her.

(background market noise)

(Sombre music)

Rana says she trusted
her new husband,

and didn't read the
marriage contract.

She thought she was
starting a new life.

(Sombre music continues)

(suspenseful music)

After a few days, Rana's
husband

took her out shopping.

Then, she says, without
any warming, he vanished.

(street noise)

She's thought her
husband was sincere.

In fact, he'd tricked her into
a temporary pleasure marriage.

When Rana's family
found out the marriage

wasn't genuine,
they rejected her.

Unable to support herself,
she became a prostitute.

(suspenseful music,
street noise)

A man and a cleric
had conspired to

deceive Rana.

The only way to get evidence
on camera of what clerics

were doing behind closed
doors, was to go undercover.

First, our reporter
had to get his hidden

cameras through the
Khadimiya security cordon.

His task would be
difficult and dangerous.

We're concealing
his identity.

When I arrived I was
really scared.

First checkpoint was
really scary because

I had a secret
camera.

If they found this, no
way I can run away.

Posing as a potential client, he
arranged to meet several clerics.

I just went to
many of this office

and start asking them if you do
a temporary pleasure marriage.

Some of them they said yes.

One of them was
Sheikh Hussein

This is Hussein Al
Musawi.

His office is opposite
the main shrine.

My cover story was I am
Iraqi, living in London

coming to Baghdad
for a short trip.

Our reporter pretended
he'd met a girl,

and wanted to have sex
with her.

He asked if the cleric would
do pleasure marriage.

The cleric said it was better
not to have a written contract.

Without a contract, he said, it's
easier to cover your tracks.

The cleric was giving
advice on how to use

a woman for sex, and
then get rid of her.

We had evidence they
said this but to

see it for myself
was really shocking.

I couldn't believe he
was telling me have sex

with her and just
leave her in the street.

His services came at
a price.

We found an expert on
Islamic law, Ghaith Tamimi,

who could help us
interpret our evidence.

In Iraq, he’d been a high
ranking Shia cleric.

But he started
speaking out

against the clerical
establishment.

After receiving death
threats,

he’s now living in
exile in London.

Ghaith told me this cleric
was breaking Islamic law,

and his advice could
put a woman in danger.

If she were caught
with a man, she

risked being charged
with prostitution.

Despite being
illegal in Iraq,

we found pleasure marriage was
widely available in Khadimiya.

Out of 10 clerics we spoke to,
eight said they performed them.

One of them
was Sayyid Raad.

His title, Sayyid, means he claims
descent from the prophet Mohammed.

Our reporter told him he’d met a
girl and wanted to have halal sex.

He said pleasure
marriages allowed a man

to do pretty much
whatever he wanted.

It’s illegal to rent
a hotel room In

Iraq unless you’re
properly married,

but Sayyid Raad said
this was no problem.

(Atmospheric music)

I wanted to find
out about the men

who use clerics to do
pleasure marriages.

I was meeting a married
professional in his forties.

Speaking anonymously, Ali,
not his real name,

told me he regularly does them,
sometimes, just for an hour.

To me it sounded
like prostitution

but Ali said he
wanted it to be halal.

As we talked, Ali revealed
some men were paying

for pleasure marriages
with children.

(suspenseful music)

We were discovering one of
Iraq's darkest secrets.

Clerics making
money helping men

who wanted sex with
very young girls.

Sayyid Raad was prepared
to talk about it.

Our reporter had told him,
he'd met a 13 year virgin

and asked whether a pleasure
marriage would be Halal.

Vaginal sex was forbidden,
according to the cleric.

But other things he
said, were permissible.

(busy crowd noise)

Sayyid Raad said he was a follower
of Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani,

Iraq's most senior Shia cleric.

Like some other Shia
leaders in Iraq,

Ayatollah Al-Sistani has
in the past written

that if a child under
nine was promised

in a marriage or
temporary marriage

sexual touching was
religiously permitted.

We approached the
Ayatollah's office to

clarify his religious
advice on this matter.

In a statement, he said,
times had changed.

And this had been erased
from his current books.

Ghaith has called for
all Iraq's religious

leaders to condemn
these practices.

(building string music)

To continue our
investigation, we've come to

the most important
site for Shia Muslims.

(muffled loudspeaker)

This is Karbala. It's the biggest
Shia pilgrimage site in the world,

tens of millions of pilgrims
come here every year.

We’d already seen how clerics
were helping men break the law,

and even doing pleasure
marriages with minors.

We wanted to know whether
the religious authorities

in this holy city
condoned the practice.

I spoke to Sheikh Emad Alassady.

So we heard about
pleasure marriages

- mut’a marriages -
do you do them here?

But in the streets
around the shrine,

some clerics were giving
very different advice.

One of them was
Sheikh Salawi.

(suspenseful music builds)

Sheikh Salawi said he
was a member of one of

Iraq's powerful and
well-armed militia groups.

Our reporter pretended he’d met a
young girl who was still a virgin.

We showed this footage
to Yanar Mohammed, who

runs a network of women’s
shelters across Iraq.

Nine years old...

they are just opening a
shop for paedophiles,

inviting them from
all over the world.

The girl is looked at as
a piece of merchandise,

and using the merchandise in
specific ways is allowed,

but the virginity is
kept for that big sale

that they will do
in the future.

(traffic sound)

The ‘big sale’
is marriage.

Yanar told me that some families
see girls as a financial burden,

and want to marry
them off.

But parents can only
find a husband if

their daughter’s
virginity is guaranteed.

Pretending he had a
real girl in mind,

our reporter asked Sayyid Raad
what would happen if he did

take the girl’s virginity
during a pleasure marriage.

They are speaking of
how a man can get away

with the crime of
raping a young girl.

So 'just leave
her and go',

what does mean for
the girl involved?

If the males of the family are
aware of what happened to her,

they will be
killing her,

and then the honour of the
male patriarchs is preserved.

It is always the girl and the
women who pay the price.

(tense music)

I interviewed a girl
who is at grave

risk of violence
from her relatives.

She lost her virginity
in a pleasure marriage.

We'll call her Mona

and for her safety,

we filmed an actor telling her
story, using Mona’s exact words.

A few weeks later, the man took
Mona to a cleric in Khadamiya.

She was only 14.

Her parents knew
nothing about it.

Did he ask for your
parents consent?

When she tried to stop seeing the
man, he turned to blackmail.

Mona had been groomed
by a sexual predator,

with the help
of a cleric.

We wanted to see how
difficult it would be

to get a cleric to do a pleasure
marriage with a very young girl.

It turned out to be easy.

Sayyid Raad took our
reporter to a waiting taxi.

Our reporter had told
him he wanted to do a

pleasure marriage with
a 13 year old virgin.

He didn’t ask to meet the girl in
person, or talk to her family.

He agreed to do the
ceremony over the phone.

Basically another colleague of
mine, she was in the hotel and

when he ring the phone my
female colleague,

she was on the other
end of the phone

and she was ready
to answer.

I’m not thinking this marriage
would be that simple.

The only question he asks is,
what is your name?

And he began the ceremony
without any questions.

In just a few minutes, Sayyid
Raad had made $200 for a

pleasure marriage with a girl
he believed to be only 13.

For Mona, the consequences
of her teenage

pleasure marriage
have been disastrous.

(sullen string music)

Her family are now pressuring
her to get married.

She told us something similar
had happened to her cousin,

with fatal results.

(sad string music continues)

Mona’s in such an
impossible situation,

what she thought was
her teenage love story

has ended up ruining
her entire future.

And if it wasn’t for the
cleric convincing her that

it’s religiously OK, this
would have never happened.

(suspenseful music)

In Iraq today,
Conservative Shia clerics

give far more than
just spiritual advice.

After years of sectarian conflict,
they've gained political leverage

often with the
backing of armed militias.

Activists say they're pushing
women's rights back decades.

There were laws
that protected women,

some protection for
us in our marriages.

It seems that everything
we gained in decades of

hard work by our mothers'
generation were just lost.

Once the Islamic clerics rule
the first losers are the women.

(tense music)

Our findings show that Iraqi law
is failing to protect women.

To try to understand
what's happening,

I've come to the
Courthouse in Sadr City.

(indistinct talking)

Just outside, I see the
clerics I'd met earlier.

They're operating a parallel
religious legal system,

conducting Sharia
marriages and divorces.

A Sheikh is doing
a Sharia divorce.

It only takes 5 minutes.

Divorce under Sharia law is
easier than Iraqi civil law.

And leaves women
with fewer rights.

Sharia also allows
child marriage.

What's the youngest
age that you'll marry?

Under Iraqi law
a girl must be 15 to marry.

But this doesn't seem
to bother some clerics.

Inside the court, they're
dealing with the consequences.

Iraqi law doesn't
recognise Sharia marriages.

So to be legal,
couples must have

their marriage signed
off by a judge.

The law on the minimum age for
marriage should be enforced.

But that's not happening.

(talking)

Haneen is getting her
marriage registered.

She's dressed like
a grown woman,

but actually she's
only 13 years old.

(sad music)

A cleric married Haneen to
her husband six months ago.

Now she's pregnant.

Because she got married underage,

Haneen's father and groom
could get two years in prison.

Instead they've been fined $50.

It's up to the judge.
These days many are lenient.

(indistinct talking)

There's a queue of fathers
waiting for their

daughters to get married
before the judge.

Sami Okaybi is here with
his 14-year-old daughter.

He didn't want her face shown.

Why are you marrying
her off so young?

(indistinct talking)

The court's social
worker is registering

the teenage brides
and their grooms.

She's processed 126 underage
marriages in the last six weeks.

She predicts almost all these
teenagers will end up divorcing.

If you're a divorced woman
you don't have a future.

You're looked at as
a tainted person.

You become very
vulnerable to that cleric

who whispers in your ears
that he has the solution.

They call it temporary marriage,

being thrown off from
one man to the other

to the third, fourth,

until you found out that
you're a prostitute,

with a religious cover.

(ominous music)

Far from pleasure
marriage helping women,

we found that clerics were
using it to exploit women.

Preying on the most vulnerable,

recruiting them and
pimping them out.

Rusul is 16.

For her safety, an actor is
speaking her exact words.

Rusul was married off at
twelve and divorced at thirteen.

Then she did a pleasure
marriage to survive.

But soon after the man left her.

(sorrowful music)

The cleric told her that now she
would never find a real husband.

With her sister to support,

Rusul had little choice
but to work for the cleric.

Rusul's been pimped by
the cleric for three years,

forced to have sex
with dozens of men.

(dramatic music)

Ali, who does pleasure
marriages for sex,

says he always pays
clerics to find him girls.

We had evidence the clerics
we'd been secretly filming

would perform
pleasure marriages.

But would they also
procure the girls?

Our reporter went back to
Khadimiya to Sayyid Raad's office.

It was time to ask
the crucial question:

would he provide a girl?

(sad music continues)

In Karbala, Sheikh Salawi hadn't
seemed to think he was doing

anything wrong in arranging
pleasure marriages either.

A few days later, our
reporter rang the Sheikh

to ask him if he too
would provide girls.

He told our reporter he could
offer him a choice of women.

(wings flapping)

Many of the young women
pimped out are destitute.

They're vulnerable to clerics
handling charitable donations.

Ghaith Tamimi says
he's seen clerics

luring women into
the sex trade.

Our undercover
reporter had been

promised girls by
the Sheikh Salawi.

Now he was about to
meet him in Baghdad.

The Sheikh said he
had a girl waiting.

The Sheik said he had
arranged a place where

our reporter could
have sex with her.

We have enough proof
he can provide girls,

so we left it there.

OK, salaam.

(dramatic music)

The Sheik had proved
himself willing

to break the law
and sell women.

By now, we had evidence that
this practice was widespread.

I was about to meet a widow
whose story revealed a senior

cleric running what appeared
to be a prostitution ring.

Reem's husband was killed
in an ISIS bombing.

Soon after, she and her two
children lost their home.

When the cleric contacted
Reem a few days later,

he made a suggestion.

(dramatic music)

Reem says the cleric started
selling her to his friends.

It began one night when
he brought three men.

(ambient sounds of town square)

We can't identify which cleric
Reem alleges abused her.

But she says she was raped in one
of these offices in Kadimiya.

The lucky ones reached
our shelters.

The ones that are not lucky...

- What happens to them?

They end up in brothels,
and they don't live long.

I would say their life
expectancy is like 35.

We...

so many who were about
to throw themselves

off the bridge, into the river.

(tense music building)

We had evidence
clerics had ruined

women’s lives with
pleasure marriages.

We’d filmed a cleric boasting
he had girls for sale.

Now, after months of
preparation, we were about to try

to catch a cleric
in the act of pimping.

Our undercover reporter set
up a meeting with Sayyid Raad.

Once he felt safe,
he signaled to a

young woman in the
back of his taxi.

She says she’s 26.

To protect her,
we’ve disguised her identity.

Our reporter makes it clear
he’s only here to talk.

It was a very difficult meeting

but it was important to prove
Sayyid Raad he brings girls.

Sayyid Raad took
charge of negotiations.

Sayyid Raad seemed
keen to get the

deal done as quickly
as possible...

We had the evidence we needed.

It was time to end the meeting.

Our reporter took Sayyid
Raad aside and said he

wouldn’t go ahead with
the pleasure marriage.

But Sayyid Raad wasn’t ready
to give up on the deal.

We’d captured evidence
that a cleric

was prepared to
pimp a young girl.

The cleric wanted his $400.

He was he was willing to
bring as young as he has to,

he just didn’t want to
let that deal go past him.

It’s a good franchise
for these vampires.

They suck the life
out of young girls.

And leave them to deal
with their miseries.

We wanted to put our allegations
to the clerics we’d filmed,

but it was too dangerous
to do it in person.

I phoned Sayyid Raad from London.

He hung up.

The other clerics didn't respond.

We put our evidence to Iraq's
Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani,

one of the most senior
clerics in Shia Islam.

In a statement, he said:

He said the abuses we'd
seen were happening because

the authorities were
not enforcing the law.

An Iraqi government
spokesman told BBC Arabic,

"if women don't go
to the police with

their complaints
against clerics,

it's difficult for the
authorities to act".

But for many young
women across Iraq,

there's no hope of justice.

Mona can never let her family find
out about her pleasure marriage,

so going to the police
seems impossible.

Since we spoke to Mona,
she’s run away from home.

Rusul is still working
for the cleric

She feels she has no choice.

Reem escaped the
cleric in Kadimiya.

She’s still traumatized.

(weeping, heavy breathing)