New Tax just for Deadenders?

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Given the story below, shouldn't we be taxing the remaining 23% Bush supporters to help Iraqi women? or perhaps just go eminent domain on their a$$es. Sure, they hate us for our freedom. Can't think of any other reason.

Iraqi women: Prostituting ourselves to feed our children

By Arwa Damon
CNN

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- The women are too afraid and ashamed to show their faces or have their real names used. They have been driven to sell their bodies to put food on the table for their children -- for as little as $8 a day.

"People shouldn't criticize women, or talk badly about them," says 37-year-old Suha as she adjusts the light colored scarf she wears these days to avoid extremists who insist women cover themselves. "They all say we have lost our way, but they never ask why we had to take this path."

A mother of three, she wears light makeup, a gold pendant of Iraq around her neck, and an unexpected air of elegance about her.

"I don't have money to take my kid to the doctor. I have to do anything that I can to preserve my child, because I am a mother," she says, explaining why she prostitutes herself.

Anger and frustration rise in her voice as she speaks.

"No matter what else I may be, no matter how off the path I may be, I am a mother!" VideoWatch a woman describe turning to prostitution to "save my child" »

Her clasped hands clench and unclench nervously. Suha's husband thinks that she is cleaning houses when she goes away.

So does Karima's family.

"At the start I was cleaning homes, but I wasn't making much. No matter how hard I worked it just wasn't enough," she says.

Karima, clad in all black, adds, "My husband died of lung cancer nine months ago and left me with nothing."

She has five children, ages 8 to 17. Her eldest son could work, but she's too afraid for his life to let him go into the streets, preferring to sacrifice herself than risk her child.

She was solicited the first time when she was cleaning an office.

"They took advantage of me," she says softly. "At first I rejected it, but then I realized I have to do it."

Both Suha and Karima have clients that call them a couple times a week. Other women resort to trips to the market to find potential clients. Or they flag down vehicles.

Prostitution is a choice more and more Iraqi women are making just to survive.

"It's increasing," Suha says. "I found this 'thing' through my friend, and I have another friend in the same predicament as mine. Because of the circumstance, she is forced to do such things."

Violence, increased cost of living, and lack of any sort of government aid leave women like these with few other options, according to humanitarian workers.

"At this point there is a population of women who have to sell their bodies in order to keep their children alive," says Yanar Mohammed, head and founder of the Organization for Women's Freedom in Iraq. "It's a taboo that no one is speaking about."

She adds, "There is a huge population of women who were the victims of war who had to sell their bodies, their souls and they lost it all. It crushes us to see them, but we have to work on it and that's why we started our team of women activists."

Her team pounds the streets of Baghdad looking for these victims often too humiliated to come forward.

"Most of the women that we find at hospitals [who] have tried to commit suicide" have been involved in prostitution, said Basma Rahim, a member of Mohammed's team.

The team's aim is to compile information on specific cases and present it to Iraq's political parties -- to have them, as Mohammed puts it, "come tell us what [they] are ... going to do about this."

Rahim tells the heartbreaking story of one woman they found who lives in a room with three of her children: "She has sex while her three children are in the room, but she makes them stand in separate corners."

According to Rahim and Mohammed, most of the women they encounter say they are driven to prostitution by a desperate desire for survival in the dangerously violent and unforgiving circumstances in Iraq.

"They took this path but they are not pleased," Rahim says.

Karima says when she sees her children with food on the table, she is able to convince herself that it's worth it. "Everything is for the children. They are the beauty in life and, without them, we cannot live."

But she says, "I would never allow my daughter to do this. I would rather marry her off at 13 than have her go through this."

Karima's last happy memory is of her late husband, when they were a family and able to shoulder the hardships of life in today's Iraq together.

Suha says as a young girl she dreamed of being a doctor, with her mom boasting about her potential in that career. Life couldn't have taken her further from that dream.

"It's not like we were born into this, nor was it ever in my blood," she says.

What she does for her family to survive now eats away at her. "I lay on my pillow and my brain is spinning, and it all comes back to me as if I am watching a movie."

[dhoward]

What?
Their late husband's insurance, pensions and social security benefits don't cover their living expenses?

Oh, that's right, IT'S A THIRD-WORLD COUNTRY!

[Superman]

$8 per day? Is there a quantity discount for more than one?

[sammyg2]

There was absolutely no poverty or prostitution over there until Bush got involved. There was no war, no death, no widows. it's all bush's fault. What a crock.

PS I've got your taxes.

[lendaddy]

In other news:

"Due to increased demand via economic progress, prostitution charges in Baghdad are up 40% to $8 / day."

[Superman]

Bringing important Western values to desert savages. Thank you, Shaun, for that uplifting report of booming commerce in Iraq.

[lendaddy]

Originally Posted by Superman

Bringing important Western values.....

The western value taught here is not "Sell your ass", it's "If you're going to sell your ass make sure you get a fair price for it."

[Shaun @ Tru6]

[dhoward]

It''s not like this just started happening.
It's the birthplace of prostitution fer chrissakes...

I'll bet there's one or two chicks right here in the good ol' US of A sellin' 'tang for extra cash.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

so you've been to Craig's List?

[dhoward]

More than once.
It's full of bargains, right in your own neighborhood!

[Shaun @ Tru6]

The key is showing up.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by dhoward

It''s not like this just started happening.
It's the birthplace of prostitution fer chrissakes...

I'll bet there's one or two chicks right here in the good ol' US of A sellin' 'tang for extra cash.

The Lot story about offering his virgin daughters to the mob outside his home while hosting angels always creeps me out. You gotta wonder what the angels were thinking. Throw Lot out and keep the daughters for themselves? I would think being an angel oughta have perks.

[kach22i]

I'm pretty sure the old world concept of extended family typicaly would of taken care of this family after her husbands passing. Maybe they were all killed by Saddam or later by terrorist, or just fled the country.

I don't see a lot of humor in the story, you guys have tougher skin than I do.

[dhoward]

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa

The key is showing up.

[dhoward]

Originally Posted by kach22i

I'm pretty sure the old world concept of extended family typicaly would of taken care of this family after her husbands passing. Maybe they were all killed by Saddam or later by terrorist, or just fled the country.

I don't see a lot of humor in the story, you guys have tougher skin than I do.

There is no humor in the story.
No news, either.
The Craigslist reference may not be too far off, as people struggle to keep their sub-prime morgages....

[Mule]

It's called capitalism. Before they got raped by saddam's henchmen. Now they get market value.

[legion]

Can we get just bleeding hearts to pay for social programs?

Can we get just Chicago to pay for its mass transit?

Can we get just Boston to pay for its Big Dig?

You may be on to something Shawn...

[Shaun @ Tru6]

Originally Posted by legion

Can we get just bleeding hearts to pay for social programs?

Can we get just Chicago to pay for its mass transit?

Can we get just Boston to pay for its Big Dig?

You may be on to something Shawn...

Sell free stuff on eBay found on Craig's List?

when we end corporate welfare, we'll end social welfare. Deal?

the Big Dig is corporate welfare on steroids BTW. What a füching joke. Took years and billions to build and looks like it was built in 1952, most of it leaks, exposed lines and cables and rough concrete in all the tunnels. There's one part in a sharp curve that leaks in the winter time and when extra cold the roadway is a sheet of ice. You should see the jersey barriers on the outside of the curve.

Put another way, the government bought a $12 screwdriver for $3000 and got an old butter knife. Every time I drive through it I want to shoot the architects, construction companies, Romney, MA legislature and the Federal DOT. the tough decision is which gun to use. My preference is my ancient Win 3030.

[legion]

Originally Posted by Shaun 84 Targa

when we end corporate welfare, we'll end social welfare. Deal?

As long as we end farm subsidies too.