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Undercover With The Clerics – Iraq’s Secret Sex Trade
Every year, millions of Shia Muslims visit the holy shrines in Karbala and Baghdad. In marriage offices nearby, some clerics are offering so-called pleasure marriages. In this shocking investigation, Nawal Al-Maghafi uncovers the grooming and exploitation of vulnerable girls and young women, trapped into prostitution and pimped out. A young widow alleges that a cleric from an important shrine sold her to his friends in a prostitution ring, while secret filming reveals another cleric conducting a ‘pleasure marriage’ with a girl he believes to be only 13.
Filmed & directed by Patrick Wells
Executive producer: Monica Garnsey
