“They shot my friend, and then they burned him”
The Melon Farmers report on the plight of adult video an salesman in Iraq.
The adult 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, according to a Reuters story. 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.
But like the tens of thousands signing up for the new, US-trained police and army, selling adult videos 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.
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.
Monday 15 Aug 2005 | Paul | Iraq
