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rustoffa
08-15-2005, 10:19 PM
Iraq's porn dealers risk wrath of religious right
BAGHDAD (Reuters)

Islamic militants threatened to kill him for it, but Abu Mustafa says it was the only way he knew to make a living in the chaos that is Baghdad today.

The pornographic video salesman is among many traders caught between two faces of the new Iraq, one liberated from the state censorship of Saddam Hussein, the other gripped by religious zeal.

"I am scared but what else can I do? I tried lots of other jobs. I worked in a factory, but you just can't make any money in Iraq. It's the only way to support my son," he said on Wednesday.

"There is no way I am going to join the police or army because the insurgents are killing many of them every day."

Relentless guerrilla violence has killed thousands of Iraqis, ravaged the economy and pushed up unemployment, forcing people like Abu Mustafa to scramble for a job.

But like the tens of thousands signing up for the new, U.S. -trained police and army, selling pornography has become an especially high-risk profession in Iraq, where a religious Shi'ite-led government swept to power in January, raising fears in some quarters of an Islamic state modeled after Iran.

As Iraqi leaders drafting a constitution this month debate the role of Islam in the state, alarming liberals and women's groups, Abu Mustafa and others complain they live in fear.

MILITANT VICE SQUAD

He accused the Badr Brigades, the Iranian-trained militia associated with the leading Shi'ite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, of targeting colleagues in the pornography business and threatening many others.

"They shot my friend Haider and then they burned him," said Abu Mustafa, who identified himself by a nickname for fear of being identified.

"They have issued me written death threats in notes telling me to stop selling sex movies."

Muhammad al-Turaifi, a spokesman for the Badr Brigades, denied that the militia takes the law into its own hands.

"We don't interfere in these matters personally. We go through official procedures and raise the issue with the police. To suggest we go and beat up these people is absurd," he said.

After Saddam Hussein's fall, pornography salesmen openly set up shops in Baghdad's Bab al-Sharjee (East Gate) market, a once bustling marketplace Iraqis say is now dominated by criminal gangs, thieves, pimps and guerrilla informants.

Pornography salesmen don't dare show their faces, secretly arranging by telephone the sale of American, European and Arab porn films hidden in music video or cartoon cases from the back seats of cars.

"The Badr Brigades left notes on our kiosks saying 'We will kill you and burn your shops'," said Ahmed Saad, 32, a father of two with a degree in fine arts.

"The police have arrested us and demanded money from our families to free us."

The governmant says it is fighting police corruption. On Tuesday, porn video dealers attended the 40-day mourning ceremony for their slain 21-year-old colleague Amir. Gunmen killed him in broad daylight as he headed home, they said.

But it was business as usual on Wednesday in Bab al-Sharjee, where Abu Mustafa said 30 other dealers operate, despite the risks.

He sells about 50 DVD videos a day, fetching a total of $10. But the goods are only offered to friends or long-time customers.

"Sex movies from Lebanon and other Arab countries are the most popular. But we have all kinds of movies," he said.

"We just have to work secretly."

(Additional reporting by Mussab Khairalla and Taimour Talal)

Link (http://asia.news.yahoo.com/050810/3/25fzx.html)

Unchainme
08-15-2005, 10:31 PM
Irad is becoming more like the us everyday lol.

Phil theStalker
08-15-2005, 10:45 PM
Wot happened t2o da gay Iraqi men who met up wit da British troops out in da desert in da illegal invasion? huh huh huh



:spank:

Hardrock69
08-16-2005, 12:10 AM
Right on.

Not so much for selling porno (though I am in favor of that for anyone who wants to buy), but mainly because I say ANYTHING AT ALL to push the boundaries there so that people are allowed more and more to be free from religious oppression & persecution, which by the way, is what many Christians are trying to achieve in THIS country:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/04/24/justice.sunday/index.html

They claim they are Conservatives who support the Constitution.

What those fucking dumbasses fail to realize is that A) The Constitution is BASED UPON SEPERATION OF CHURCH AND STATE, and B) One of the many reasons there were people leaving the UK to come to the New World was to ESCAPE a GOVERNMENT SANCTIONED RELIGION.

The United States Of America cannot BY LAW have a government ruled by FUCKED UP RELIGIOUS ZEALOTS!

Yet these fucking assholes are trying to accomplish just that!

We ought to put together a big package of porno magazines, books, DVDs, Videotapes, Dildos, and more and send it to some of these porn dealers to assist them in their pursuit of freedom, happiness, and orgasms!!!!

:cool:

BITEYOASS
08-16-2005, 11:19 PM
Fuck I'll go one step further and have this Abu whatever his name is start a porno shop with me in Vegas! :D

FORD
08-16-2005, 11:44 PM
Originally posted by BITEYOASS
Fuck I'll go one step further and have this Abu whatever his name is start a porno shop with me in Vegas! :D

Vegas is a saturated market. You would probably make more money in Iraq. Set up shop in the north country, the Kurdish area where there's not as many Shiites, and that cuts down on the religious oppression.