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NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI, BBC News Arabic/FRONTLINE:
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 mut’ah or munqata’a, "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 are 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-Moussawi. He runs a marriage office in Sadr City, another Shia area of Baghdad.
What are the rules behind mut’ah marriage?
SAYYID FARIS AL-MOUSSAWI:
[Speaking Arabic] Widows and divorcees have the right to do temporary or pleasure marriages. A dowry is paid to the woman upfront and a time limit is set. For example, I could pay a woman a dowry of 1,000 dinars to become my wife for one month.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
He says he doesn’t conduct mut’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.
SAYYID FARIS AL-MOUSSAWI:
[Speaking Arabic] By marrying her he is getting closer to God. And if she has children, he is supporting them.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
But what's the difference between mut’ah marriage and prostitution?
SAYYID FARIS AL-MOUSSAWI:
[Speaking Arabic] Prostitution is illegal and irreligious. It's merely an agreement for sex in return for money. But if it is based on religious rules that society accepts, then it is halal, just like marriage.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
Fifteen 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 Rosul; for her safety, an actor is voicing her words.
ROSUL:
[Speaking Arabic] I wanted to have a life, a family, but that's not what happened. Now everything is destroyed.
NAWAL AL-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.
ROSUL:
[Speaking Arabic] I agreed because at the time I had no other choice. He convinced me and said he would look after me.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
Rosul 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.
ROSUL:
[Speaking Arabic] I looked for him but couldn't find him. There was nothing I could do, so I contacted the cleric. He told me, "Now that you have taken this path, you have no other choice. Why don’t you carry on? It's better for you, given your troubles."
I have no other solution. I have no one. There are many girls like me. It's very widespread.
NAWAL AL-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 the abuse of the practice was a significant and growing problem but warned us it would be difficult to expose.
To find out how widespread it is, we had one of our colleagues go undercover in Kadhimiya. If discovered, he risked being detained by one of Iraq’s feared Shia militias. We're concealing his identity.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
When I arrived I was really scared. The first checkpoint was really scary because I had a secret camera. If they found this, no way I can run away.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
While many clerics go through years of religious education, it's possible in Iraq to become a cleric and to open a marriage office with very little formal training.
Posing as a potential client, our reporter met with 10 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.
SAYYID RAAD:
As-salaam alaikum.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
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 decent from the prophet Muhammad.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] How’s your health?
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] Fine.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
He agreed to do a pleasure marriage if our reporter brought a girl to him.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] I won't forget about you, God is my witness, OK?
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] OK.
Welcome, our sayyid.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
Our undercover reporter met him again in an upscale mall. He told him he had now found a 13-year-old girl and had her family’s permission.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] Have you agreed on the marriage duration?
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] Half an hour or an hour, no more than that.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] It's better to do it for one day, in case you get distracted. With a whole day, you can relax.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
Sayyid Raad was willing to proceed without even speaking to the girl’s family.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] Sayyid, I just spoke with the girl on the phone, and her aunt is not around. Do you think it's possible without her aunt?
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] Does the girl agree? She knows it's a temporary marriage?
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] Yes.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] Then it's fine.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
Sayyid Raad said a man could do as many pleasure marriages as he wanted.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] You can marry a woman for half an hour and as soon as it's over, you can marry another one right away.
NAWAL AL-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.
MALE SPEAKER:
[Speaking Arabic] If a religious man tells you that this thing is—
FEMALE VOICE:
Halal.
MALE SPEAKER:
—then it doesn’t count as a sin, and they’re cleaner than women from the streets.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
The man said he regularly does mut’ah marriages with women in their 20s. But he's heard that some men want much younger girls.
MALE SPEAKER:
[Speaking Arabic] A 12-year-old girl is prized. She's still "fresh"—they say she's "fresh." She will be expensive—$500, $700, $800.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
Our reporter had told Sayyid Raad that the girl he wanted a mut’ah marriage with was 13 years old and a virgin.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] You know, the girl is very young, so I'm a bit worried about this.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] She's never been married before, correct?
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] Yes.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] Just be careful she doesn’t lose her virginity.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
What Raad said next was alarming.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] Foreplay. I will tell you what you can do. Lie with her, touch her body, her breasts.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] Can you explain a bit more?
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] You can’t penetrate her from the front.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] What about from the back?
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] From the back is fine. But not to the front so she loses her virginity.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] What if she gets hurt?
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] It's between you and her whether she can take the pain or not.
NAWAL AL-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.
GHAITH TAMIMI:
[Speaking Arabic] What that man is saying is a crime that must be punished by law.
NAWAL AL-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 mut’ah marriage being used to enable men to marry children.
GHAITH TAMIMI:
[Speaking Arabic] I'm an Iraqi citizen and a Shia cleric. I know these laws and I've personally witnessed hundreds of pleasure marriages, but I can’t believe that this act could be considered "holy."
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
We'd been told that abusive mut’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.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
So we have heard about pleasure marriages, mut’ah marriages. Do you do them here?
SHEIKH EMAD ALASSADY:
[Speaking Arabic] It is forbidden and would be punished with three to 15 years in prison, even if the perpetrator was a cleric.
NAWAL AL-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?
SHEIKH EMAD ALASSADY:
[Speaking Arabic] You can’t say it’s a bad thing because it has come from God. But maybe the way some people practice it is abusive.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
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.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] Such an honor to meet you.
SHEIKH SALAWI:
[Speaking Arabic] I am at your service.
NAWAL AL-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.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] I want to marry a 12-year-old. She's an orphan. I don’t want to commit to a permanent marriage. I want to do a temporary marriage. Are you sure it's all right if she's a young girl?
SHEIKH SALAWI:
[Speaking Arabic] Yes, 9 years old-plus, there's no problem at all. According to Sharia, there is no problem. In foreplay you can’t enter her, but you can do everything else.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] OK, I told you she's only 12 years old.
SHEIKH SALAWI:
[Speaking Arabic] Yes.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] I'm worried she might get injured.
SHEIKH SALAWI:
[Speaking Arabic] It's up to you how you want to do it. She’s permitted to you; do what you desire.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
We showed this footage to Yanar Mohammed. She runs a network of shelters across Iraq that help victims of sexual abuse and mut’ah marriage.
YANAR MOHAMMED:
Nine years old? They are 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 abuses.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
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.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] What if, God forbid, she loses her virginity, what do I do?
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] That's not acceptable. Her family could come after you and ask you to marry her. Then she's your responsibility.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] If this happens, God forbid, how can I get rid of her?
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] Do they know where you live?
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] No, they don’t.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] Then you can leave her and go.
YANAR MOHAMMED:
They are speaking of how a man can get away with his crime of raping a young girl.
NAWAL AL-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:
[Speaking Arabic] I was a schoolgirl. This guy started following me home from school. We talked and he said he wanted to marry me.
NAWAL AL-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:
[Speaking Arabic] I told him I was a virgin.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
So the sheikh knew you were a virgin?
MONA:
[Speaking Arabic] Yes, he knew.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
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:
[Speaking Arabic] I'm afraid because I'm not a virgin anymore. I have nightmares that my family will find out and kill me. I'm really scared.
NAWAL AL-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.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
Basically another colleague of mine, she was in the hotel, and when he rang the phone, my female colleague, she was around the phone and she was ready to answer.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] How are you, my dear Shayma?
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
I'm now thinking this marriage will be that simple. The only question he asked of her, "What's your name?" and he started making the ceremony without any question.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] Do you agree to the marriage?
FEMALE COLLEAGUE:
[Speaking Arabic] Yes.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] A temporary marriage, right?
FEMALE COLLEAGUE:
[Speaking Arabic] Yes.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] Open your hands and pray with me. Do you, Shayma, give me your consent to do this marriage? He'll pay a dowry of 150,000 dinars for one day. If you agree, say, "Yes, I give my consent."
FEMALE COLLEAGUE:
[Speaking Arabic] Yes, I give you my consent to marry me.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] Mohammed, do you agree to marry Shayma for one day? And that you will pay her 150,000 dinars? If you agree, say, "Yes."
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] Yes.
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] Now you are both married and it is halal to be together.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
Rosul 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.
ROSUL:
[Speaking Arabic] When he phones me and says he's found someone, I can’t say no. The sayyid brings drugs for me to make sure I don’t get pregnant, mostly injections.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
She says she's been made to do more than a dozen temporary marriages.
[Speaking Arabic] How much does he give you for each man?
ROSUL:
[Speaking Arabic] It depends on what the man desires. It's not up to me.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
[Speaking Arabic] Are there any sexual things they force you to do?
ROSUL:
[Speaking Arabic] Yes, certain things. It depends what the man wants. I am forced to do things I don’t want. Even if I resist, it still happens.
NAWAL AL-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.
SHEIKH SALAWI:
[Speaking Arabic] My dear doctor, how are you?
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] How are you, sheikh?
SHEIKH SALAWI:
[Speaking Arabic] I am good, thanks. How’s everything with you?
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] I wanted to ask if I can marry a girl through your contacts?
SHEIKH SALAWI:
[Speaking Arabic] You want a temporary marriage, right?
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] Yes, temporary.
SHEIKH SALAWI:
[Speaking Arabic] So it will be for two, three or five days? Or a month?
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] Yes.
SHEIKH SALAWI:
[Speaking Arabic] These are good ones. They only go out on special occasions. Like when I sign them up for a temporary marriage. For this work, these girls ask for $150 to $200.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] Excellent.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
He told our reporter he could offer him a choice of women in their 20s and 30s.
SHEIKH SALAWI:
[Speaking Arabic] They won't send photos. When you see them face to face, they're good, beautiful women. If you don’t like one, there is a second and a third and so on. But the women are good. They're beautiful.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
Back in Kadhimiya, we put the same question to Sayyid Raad: Would he provide a woman?
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] So, I am coming back in a month. Can you find me someone?
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] When you come back? Fine. I can take a photo of her and send it to you. I'll arrange it with her, then when you come back, she's yours.
MALE UNDERCOVER REPORTER:
[Speaking Arabic] Let's stay in touch, thank you, goodbye.
NAWAL AL-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.
SAYYID RAAD:
Hello?
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
Hello, as-salaam alaikum.
[Speaking Arabic] Am I speaking with Sayyid Raad?
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] Yes, that's me.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
[Speaking Arabic] This is Nawal Al-Maghafi, a journalist in London. Do you carry out temporary marriages in your office in Kadhimiya in Baghdad?
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] No we don’t! No we don’t! Only permanent marriages, only permanent ones.
NAWAL AL-MAGHAFI:
[Speaking Arabic] So you don’t do temporary marriages?
SAYYID RAAD:
[Speaking Arabic] Where did you get this number? We don’t do anything like that.
NAWAL AL-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 that 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.
Rosul is still working for the cleric. She feels she has no choice.
ROSUL:
[Speaking Arabic] When a girl starts, she's destroyed. Her life ends the first day she takes this road. She has no future.
