>>
NAWAL Al-MAGHAFI
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 come here because of increasing concerns among Iraqi Shias that some clerics are abusing an ancient marriage practice to exploit women and girls. It's called "muta'ah" or "munqata"-- pleasure or temporary marriage-- and it allows a man to pay for a short-term wife. I have to be discreet filming this, but we're here to investigate allegations that some of the clerics here are grooming women, and even acting like pimps. There are no reliable statistics about how often this custom is actually used today. It's illegal under Iraqi law. But some clerics say there are occasions when it is appropriate. This is cleric Faris al-Mousawi. He runs a marriage office in Sadr City, another Shia area of Baghdad. What are the rules behind muta'ah marriage? >>
AL-MOUSAWI
>>
MAGHAFI
He says he doesn't conduct muta'ah marriages himself, because they're illegal. But he tells me that sometimes they are permitted under religious sharia law, and they enable a man to help a woman in need. >> But what's the difference between muta'ah marriage and prostitution? >> 15 years of war have had a devastating effect on Iraq's women and girls. It's been estimated that there are more than a million widows in Iraq, and more than 800,000 children who've lost parents. This 16-year-old girl asked to be called Rusul. For her safety, an actor is voicing her words. >>
RUSUL (dramatized)
>>
MAGHAFI
She says her father died when she was 12, and her family was left destitute. By the time she was 13, she was already married and divorced. Then a man offered her a pleasure marriage. >>
RUSUL (dramatized)
>>
MAGHAFI
Rusul says a cleric from Kadhimiya did the ceremony, and that she didn't understand what she was getting into. After two months, the man left her. >>
RUSUL (dramatized)
(sighs) >>
MAGHAFI
Over more than a year of reporting, our team spoke to around 25 women and girls who said pleasure marriages had been used to exploit them. All feared reprisals if they showed their faces. Iraqi lawyers, journalists, and human-rights workers told us that abuse of the practice was a significant and growing problem, but warned us it would be difficult to expose. (rustling) To find out how widespread it is, we had one of our colleagues go undercover in Kadhimiya. (car horn honks) If discovered, he risked being detained by one of Iraq's feared Shia militias. 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. >> While many clerics go through years of religious education, it's possible in Iraq to become a cleric and open a marriage office with very little formal training. Posing as a potential client, our reporter met with ten clerics here, telling them he wanted a pleasure marriage with a 13-year-old. Eight of those clerics agreed to conduct such a marriage if he had the parents' consent. One of them was Sayyid Raad. >> Salaam alaikum. (Raad speaking Arabic) >> Our reporter met him outside the main shrine and went with him to his nearby office. He saw his license to conduct marriages issued by the Iraqi Ministry of Justice. Raad said he had two offices in Kadhimiya and employed four other clerics. His title, "Sayyid," means he claims descent from the prophet Muhammad. >>
RAAD AND REPORTER
>>
MAGHAFI
He agreed to do a pleasure marriage if our reporter brought a girl to him. >>
REPORTER
>>
MAGHAFI
Our undercover reporter met him again in an upscale mall. He told him he'd now found a 13-year-old girl and had her family's permission. >>
RAAD
>>
REPORTER
>>
RAAD
>>
MAGHAFI
Sayyid Raad was willing to proceed without even speaking to the girl's family. >>
REPORTER
>>
RAAD
>>
REPORTER AND RAAD
>>
MAGHAFI
Sayyid Raad said a man could do as many pleasure marriages as he wanted. >>
RAAD
(muezzin calling adhan) >>
MAGHAFI
Our team spoke to two dozen men who said they did brief temporary marriages to get sex. They told us the practice is widespread. One of them agreed to give an interview if we didn't show his face. >>
MAN
>>
MAGHAFI
The man said he regularly does muta'ah marriages with women in their 20s, but he's heard that some men want younger girls. >>
MAN
>>
MAGHAFI
Our reporter had told Sayyid Raad that the girl he wanted a muta'ah marriage with was 13 years old and a virgin. >>
REPORTER
>>
RAAD AND REPORTER
>>
RAAD
>>
MAGHAFI
What Raad said next was alarming. >>
RAAD
>>
REPORTER
>>
RAAD
>>
REPORTER
>>
RAAD
>>
REPORTER
>>
RAAD
>>
MAGHAFI
We went to the Iraqi Ministry of Shia Affairs to ask about what we'd found. They said they had no oversight over marriage offices in Kadhimiya and declined to give an interview. The Ministry of Justice, which issues licenses to conduct marriages, also refused to talk to us. We approached more than 20 senior Shia clerics. Some condemned the abuse we found, but none would go on camera to discuss it. One former high-ranking cleric agreed to talk to us-- Ghaith Tamimi. >>
TAMIMI
>>
MAGHAFI
He's become an outspoken critic of the religious leadership in Iraq. After receiving death threats, he's now living in exile in London. He says that most Shia Muslims would be horrified at muta'ah marriage being used to enable men to marry children. >>
TAMIMI
>>
MAGHAFI
We'd been told that abusive muta'ah marriages were happening near the holiest site in Shia Islam. This is Karbala, it's the biggest Shia pilgrimage site in the world. Tens of millions of pilgrims come here every year. I spoke to Sheikh Emad Alassady, the head of the shrine's marriage office. So we've heard about pleasure marriages, muta'ah marriages. Do you do them here? >>
ALASSADY
>>
MAGHAFI
But he said they do still happen in secret-- and are allowable under sharia law. Don't you think these pleasure marriages exploit vulnerable girls? >> In the streets around the shrine, our reporter asked four clerics if they would conduct a pleasure marriage. Two said they would. One of them was Sheikh Salawi. >>
REPORTER AND SALAWI
>>
MAGHAFI
Sheikh Salawi said he had completed extensive religious studies, and also said that he was a member of one of Iraq's powerful and well-armed Shia militias. Our reporter told him he'd met a young girl who was still a virgin. >>
REPORTER
>>
SALAWI
>>
REPORTER AND SALAWI
>>
REPORTER
>>
SALAWI
>>
MAGHAFI
We showed this footage to Yanar Mohammed. She runs a network of shelters across Iraq that help victims of sexual abuse and muta'ah marriage. >> Nine years old? They are just opening a shop for pedophiles, inviting them from all over the world. The cleric is trying to make it sound as legal and religiously accepted, but in the community, they look at it as prostitution. It's not acceptable. In our shelter, we see women over and over again who were the victims of these abusers. >> We showed her footage of Sayyid Raad. Our reporter had asked him what would happen if he took a girl's virginity during a pleasure marriage. >>
REPORTER
>>
RAAD
>>
REPORTER
>>
RAAD AND REPORTER
>>
RAAD
>> They are speaking of how a man can get away with his crime of raping a young girl. >>
MAGHAFI
I met a young woman who asked to be called Mona. She says she lost her virginity in a pleasure marriage. For her safety, an actor is speaking her words. >>
MONA (dramatized)
>>
MAGHAFI
She says the man took her to a cleric in Kadhimiya for a pleasure marriage. She was only 14. Her parents knew nothing about it. >>
MONA (dramatized)
>>
MAGHAFI
So the Sheikh knew you were a virgin. >> Mona had been groomed by a sexual predator with the help of a cleric. But now she's most afraid of her own family. >>
MONA (dramatized)
>>
MAGHAFI
Sayyid Raad had agreed to conduct a pleasure marriage with a 13-year-old. But would he actually go through with it? The cleric now offered to do the ceremony in a taxi-- over the phone-- for around $200. He didn't ask to meet the girl in person or talk to her family. >> Basically, another colleague of mine, she was in the hotel. And when he ring the phone, my female colleague, she was on another end of the phone, and she was ready to answer. >>
RAAD
>> I'm not thinking this marriage will be that simple. The only question he ask of her, "What's your name? " And he start make the ceremony without any question. >> >>
REPORTER 2 (on phone)
>>
RAAD AND REPORTER 2
>>
RAAD
>>
REPORTER 2
>>
RAAD
(reporter 1 replies in Arabic) >> (talking in Arabic) >>
MAGHAFI
Rusul says that since her first pleasure marriage, she's been forced to work for the cleric who conducted it. She wouldn't tell us his name, only that his office is in Kadhimiya. >>
RUSUL (dramatized)
>>
MAGHAFI
She says she's been made to do more than a dozen temporary marriages. >> >>
RUSUL (dramatized)
>>
MAGHAFI
>>
RUSUL (dramatized)
>>
MAGHAFI
We were now hearing from multiple sources that some clerics were using pleasure marriages to pimp women and girls. We wanted to find out if the clerics we had secretly filmed were doing this. Our reporter rang Sheikh Salawi. >>
SALAWI (on phone)
>>
REPORTER
>>
SALAWI
>>
REPORTER
>>
SALAWI AND REPORTER
>>
SALAWI
>>
REPORTER
>>
MAGHAFI
He told our reporter he could offer him a choice of women in their 20s and 30s. >>
SALAWI
>>
MAGHAFI
Back in Kadhimiya, we put the same question to Sayyid Raad. Would he provide a woman? >>
REPORTER
>>
RAAD
>>
REPORTER
>>
MAGHAFI
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. (phone ringing) >> (on
phone)
Hello. >>
MAGHAFI
Hello, salaam alaikum. (Raad speaking on phone) >>
RAAD
>> >>
MAGHAFI AND RAAD
>>
RAAD
(phone beeps) >>
MAGHAFI
He hung up. We also rang Sheikh Salawi, but he didn't respond. We approached Iraq's most senior Shia cleric, Grand Ayatollah al-Sistani. He declined to be interviewed, but replied in a statement. "If these practices are happening in the way you are saying, then we condemn them unreservedly. Temporary marriage is not allowed as a tool to sell sex in a way that belittles the dignity and humanity of women." He said the abuses we'd seen were happening "because the authorities were not enforcing the law." We approached the Iraqi government on multiple occasions to ask them why they weren't cracking down on abusive pleasure marriages, but they declined to provide anyone for interview. A spokesman told "Frontline," "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. Rusul is still working for the cleric. She feels she has no choice. >>
RUSUL (dramatized)
>> For more on this and other "Frontline" programs, visit our website at pbs.org/frontline. "Frontline's" "Kids Caught in the Crackdown" and "Iraq's Secret Sex Trade" are available on Amazon Prime Video.
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