ok it's Iraq but it's interesting

Here is a link to a blog put up by Morgan on a different Blog. There are a number of entries that tie more to your topic than theirs. Enjoy.

Iran Tracks Down the Porn Industry

In its biggest crackdown of pornographic web sites, Iran has arrested 26 men and women on a wide array of charges from producing adult and child porn content to mocking Islamic beliefs.
The arrests, made by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards also mark another operational change for a complex military organization. Looking into activity of these IR Guards, I found that they not only make long-range missiles and run businesses in Iran, but they are also accused of supporting militants from Iraq and Lebanon and trying to militarize Iran's nuclear program.
The special guards new proactive approach on morality has closed down 90 porn sites, all based and run from Iran. They also have a type of make-shift website (I'll post a link at the bottom) that has regularly updated the details of the operation by publishing and broadcasting what it says are the "confessions" of the people accused of managing the sites.

It also has the terrifying statistic that over half of internet users in Iran have admitted searching for porn and about one third of them do it every day...

One of the porn boss heads operation run out of Tehran was recently accused of promoting orgies and incest, illegally uploading sex clips of young girls, and ridiculing Shia Islamic beliefs such as the death of the grandson of the Prophet Muhammad.

Another person arrested is accused of writing hardcore erotic stories, a taboo in a strictly censored country...

When searching the reasoning behind the big crackdown on other pro IR guard cites, one website eloborated on a psychoanalytical accessment on Iranian's reasoning behind these crimes against Islamic fundamnetalism. Mahmood states here that Iran has a very young population, many born after the 1979 Islamic Revolution that toppled the US-backed Shah, and brought to power a theocracy that opposed to Western values and liberties, while the colonial powers have brought too much of their dirty liberalism to stop its spread and scope.

Mahmood also emphasizes how the strict control of piety is difficult to enforce, however. Especially when it comes to the internet, I found it difficult to imagine how the IR guards can try to topple something as difficult as internet porn. Undoubtedly this trend can only become larger as an increasing amount of availibility will come to the country in the future, how will their measures escalate then? Iran's internet users number around 12 million now, and have been growing exceedingly in the past 2 years.


p.s. The website also claims that access to porn websites is blocked in Iran currenlty and will be sustained as vehemently as possible, which is a strange if not impossible claim to make.

Iran's Big Little Secret

(click on title for article)
Prostitution in the Persian Gulf has skyrocketed recently, and the number in Iran is staggering. In Tehran alone, there are an estimated 84,000 prostitutes, and an estimated 250 brothels. However, sexual slavery in Iran has become an international endeavour, so to speak—thousands more women are sold into sexual slavery abroad.

Most of the women and girls who are sold into prostitution are from rural areas, and are often sold by their parents to support drug habits (look at the post below this one). What's particularly sickening is that quite often, these young women are then bought at auctions. There are also scams in which Pakistani men will marry young, poor girls, then take them across the border into Pakistan and sell them to brothels.

Because prostitution is so lucrative for the ones who run it, many of whom are corrupt politicians or connected to them, it will be hard to quell the growing tide of human trafficking within and going out of Iran. In a country that outlaws pornography, one can still own slaves.

Afghan Opium, Iranian Drug Addicts, and a Worldwide Epidemic

Though a bit dated, this Washington Post article provides an interesting summary of Iran’s problem with opiates. About 60% of Afghan opium travels through Iran on its way to other foreign markets and, according to this Guardian article, there has been a fivefold increase between 2003 and 2008 in the amount of opium passing through Iran . But before the opium leaves the country, much of it is consumed as heroin and other opiates by the country’s huge population of drug addicts (200,000 known addicts; 2-4 million estimated users).

Although opium is not new to Iran – the elderly have traditionally used it for medicinal purposes – the use of opium derivatives among the young has really skyrocketed in the past decade. The reasons for this are several. First, when the Taliban forbid the production of opium in 2000-2001, this caused the price of opium to increase dramatically, and many stopped smoking and swallowing the drug and started injecting the comparatively cheaper heroin form. (It’s worth noting that at least in 2005 a hit of heroin was cheaper than beer or a sandwich.) Second, there is a “baby boom” generation that is now coming of age and there are nowhere near enough jobs available for them. Unemployment-related depression is a huge impetus to begin drug use and, according to the article, it is only exacerbated by the conservative lifestyle that has been forced upon this young generation. Without a vibrant club, music, and bar scene, there is very little entertainment to fill people’s free time and so they turn to the thrill of a drug high.

It seems that the government did not concern itself too much with this high rate of heroin consumption until HIV/AIDS began spreading through the drug-using community (about 2/3 of Iranians known to be living with AIDS were infected by contaminated drug paraphernalia). The government now offers subsidized needles and free methadone to drug addicts in an effort to combat the spread of the disease.

Unfortunately, it seems that Iran has been much more reluctant to deal with the sexual transmission of AIDS. Condom use is not encouraged, which is really a public health hazard when 70% of 15-20 year olds in Tehran are engaging in pre-marital sex. And as others have noted there is a huge problem with prostitution in Iran and that, combined with a large number of IDUs, makes for the perfect storm. No doubt drug users solicit the services of sex workers and perhaps some of these young women have taken up prostitution as a way to fund their drug habit or have been driven to drugs by their inability to find a job outside of prostitution. I think that if the government really wants to avoid the kind of exponential explosion in AIDS cases that countries like Russia have seen, they need to stop the prudery and start educating people about safer sex practices. Whether that will happen in a country as nominally conservative and religious as Iran, I don’t know. But the fact that drug use is no longer criminalized in the same way that it once was (after the Revolution, hundreds of thousands of drug users were thrown in jail) gives me some hope that the government will take a more pragmatic attitude toward sex education in the future. After all, what kind of moral reputation will Iran have if it falls victim to AIDS? And how can Iran hope to maintain its military might if the younger generation is weakened not only by drug use but by AIDS?

Oil Policy Iran and Iraq

This was an interesting article that compared the oil policies of both Iran and Iraq. In an effort to appease their populations, both the government of Iraq and Iran implemented a policy that allowed gas to be sold under half a dollar. This was ill advised because both governments ultimately had to import gasoline (odd, for gas-producing nations) and subsidize it to maintain those cheap prices.

Iraq changed their policy to raise the price of gas to above a dollar in 2006. By the time this article was written, in 2007, Iran tried to implement a similar reform, but riots broke out in response.

As a result, the gas prices between Iran and Iraq varied greatly, which led to a black market for Iranian oil. Sellers took Iranian oil and sold them at cheaper prices to Iraqis. Iran’s economic condition was suffering from these transactions because it was also the Iraqi population that benefited from Iran-subsidized oil.

This article clearly explained to me how a black market is encouraged when governments differently approach the issue of, for example, oil policy. From the perspective of the Iranian-oil dealers, it is interesting how simply jumping a border and entering a different “space” can promise so much more profit than doing the same activity in the previous space. This, of course, is not a new idea.

Space, in this sense, is obviously key in determining black market activity. It was the policy differences of these countries that determined the supply and demand for black market oil.

How to Spot a Persian Prostitute

Unintentionally, I found a great article relating back to geography and space for prostitutes in Iran. Where are they?

Qom may have become a prostitution hot spot due to the abundance of shrines. Young female runaways with no shelter come to the city knowing they can take refuge at holy sites by sleeping in rooms intended for pilgrims. They have no way of making a living, so after awhile they get involved with the sex trade. The city's young theological students and transient tourists form the main clientele.

It is interesting to note how the sacred space in Qom is being used in a very unholy way. Yet, it is prime real estate if one thinks about it. People look like they have legitimate reasons to be going to the shrine. It is free to not only have a place to sleep at night but a place that many people travel through so the girls can find clientele very easily. In Tehran, they stand by traffic circles in the suburbs. Where they are advertising their services are notable, they are public spaces around the city in Qom or outside the city in Tehran. It makes sense in Tehran because of the fact that it is the capital and religious/political spheres are more concentrated there.

What makes this noteworthy is the fact that even though Iran tries to crack down on all terrible things and is proud of the pureness of the country, it is the young theological students that are taking out the women. The repression made them ironically go to holy public places to seek out immoral activity. While it doesn’t talk much of who and where the clients are, it does say something that no place can ever get rid of the oldest profession in the world.

I also find it sad that since the rules are so strict and the unemployment rate reported by Iran in 2008 is 12.5% (probably higher) that women cannot find jobs. They need a means of living and have to turn to this as an option. The British Journal of Verneal Diseases said that Chlamydia was at common in Tehran and a city called Bandar Abbas.

The results indicate that in Iran prostitutes are commonly infected with C trachomatis and are probably a major reservoir of chlamydial genital infection.

If someone is picking up hookers in Tehran, it wouldn't be before long until it spread in other places.

The prostitutes there are very modest and the transaction rather efficient. In other places such as the US, women will go after the men, drawing attention to themselves rather visibly. There is very little subtleness in various Western countries compared the Iranian women. Culture still affects interactions of prostitution in both cases.

The Internet, Pornography and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard

The above link goes to a story in recent weeks that the Islamic Revolutionary Guards in Iran have added another duty to their already hefty work load (aside from the push for nuclear weapons, running Iranian businesses and allegedly supporting militants in places such as Iraq and Syria): fighting organized internet crimes. This includes arresting 26 men and women for their part in producing anything from pornography to mocking Islam, all posted on the internet.

Three of those arrested were Iranians living abroad, allegedly tricked into returning to Iran where they were arrested. Perhaps most interesting, in my opinion, is that the task force within the Islamic Revolutionary Guard say that the group was supported by foreign governments, including the all time favorite scapegoats of the US, Canada, and Israel. Sources, however, believe that the web sites shut down were simply hosted by private companies in foreign countries. Related to the belief that foreign countries actually financially backed the websites is that many in the Iranian government fear "the US, instead of going for a regime change policy through military invasion, is trying to undermine the young population by instilling liberal values, seen as decadent in the Islamic Republic." The fear of the internet in general is also because "the internet has revolutionized young people's lifestyle so dramatically that some hardliners, including conservative bloggers, have called for much tougher regulation and policing of the web."

Aside from the questions of regulating things on the internet, which is not unique to Iran but a common concern throughout the entire world, and the interesting belief that the US would use society to instill revolution, the very fact that Iran created a special task force to combat immoral use of the internet is important. Iranian sociologist Saeed Madani was quoted in the article: "Over half of internet users in Iran have admitted searching for porn and about one third of them do it every day." Even the Guards numbers are fairly high: "one of the busted porn sites had 300,000 registered Iranian users and some of the adult video clips were downloaded at least six million times." There is obviously a demand for pornography (perhaps because of the conservative stance toward sexuality-among other things-in Iran). And the Iranian government sees this as a significant threat to its Islamic society, although I do wonder how accurate those statistics are and why the Guard would admit to those numbers. Oh yes, to blame the US and Israel for ruining the morals of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

Iran Claims Nuclear Steps in New Worry

I found this article (a little dated-2006) about Iran's nuclear weapons program. According to the article, Iran received the blueprints for nuclear centrifuges through that black market operations of Abdul Qadeer Khan, the man who help develop Pakistan's nuclear program.   

This article brought into like the international ramifications of black market operations. While, obviously, sex trafficking is horrific and must be stopped, it does not pose an immediate risk to international security. 

What's more interesting is that no weapons, at least none mentioned in the article, were exchanged. It was merely blueprints. This information, unlike a nuclear weapon, can be used over and over again. It could form the basis of a dangerously strong military. Also, in my opinion, if this information gets into the wrong hands, it could be more dangerous than an actual nuclear warhead. In addition to the reasons above (multiple uses), the information can be spread easily without much being lost. Hostile nations can gain access to this information without the supplying nation giving up anything. 

I'm curious to find out what security measures are currently in place in order to slow this spread of information. Will it soon become impossible, as new technologies that makes the transfer of information easier continue to develop? Or will our defense technologies develop enough to counter this? Borders are difficult to protect in cyberspace; how will we stop the spread of dangerous information to hostile nations?

Taliban Hiding in a Forest...of Weed

Click here for the original article
In 2006, Canadian coalition forces in Afghanistan stumbled upon a dense forest of 10-foot high marijuana plants, that Taliban fighters were using to hide in. Since marijuana is good at absorbing and dissipating heat, it essentially rendered thermal imaging equipment useless. It's definitely a testament to the ingenuity of guerilla Taliban fighters—they use their own means of economic support as a physical means of protection as well.

It's unclear whether this marijuana was growing wildly or was cultivated, but it seems like based on the density of the forest in the middle of nowhere, it could very well be a farmer's operation. I think that this story may also point to the larger influence of drugs in Afghanistan—not only the drug trade in general, but also the ubiquitousness of it.

According to the article, the Canadians tried to penetrate the forest by setting it on fire. Only a few of the plants caught, since most of them were heavily laden with water. But the smoke from the few that did catch caught an unsuspecting group of coalition soldiers downwind by surprise, with "ill effects."

In Afghanistan, Hot Place to Shop is Bush Bazaar

This article, with it's portrait of a culture clash in Afghanistan's black market, reminded me of some of the things stated in a previous post about bribery with American products. It seems to me that Western products are in very high demand in Afghanistan. This article makes it seem that the the Afghanis are so eager to own Western products that they often buy them even if they have no idea what it is. It was interesting to know that even Americans go to these black markets to buy cheap computer hardware.

Another aspect of this culture clash is between conservative Islam law and the goods for sale at the black market. Many of the pre-made meals do not follow Islam's dietary rules, and therefore cannot be purchased (although some people buy them anyway.) 

When I think about the Afghanistan black market, I do not think of Western products. However, it seems like these products have a great appeal. Is it because these products are something new, different, and foreign? Is it because, in the words of an article previously posted, these 21st century products are in an 18th century society? Will these products lose their appeal once the younger generation grows up and, after being exposed to these products for so long, they lose their novelty?

Here is a link to a quick video of a black market in Bagram. A black market near the US military base in Bagram was mentioned briefly in the article, but I am not sure if this is it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97vDlEJpfm0

Sex, Make-Up, and the Responsibilities of a Shiite Wife

I really wanted to post this week's NY Times article on a women's protest against the new Afghan law that would force the country's Shiite women to have sex with their husband whether they want to or not (i.e. marital rape), to acquire the permission of their husband in order to go to work or school, and--ironically enough in a "devout" Muslim society--to dress up and use make-up if that is what their husband demands. President Karzai was most likely thinking about his chances for re-election when he signed in the law, and clearly there are plenty of Shiite men who are willing to make a fuss about this sort of thing, if the counter-protest in this article is any indication. Naturally the West has been putting considerable pressure on Karzai to re-consider his move.

And yet, what struck me as particularly interesting in the article was this quote by a local cleric: "We Afghans don't want a bunch of NATO commanders and foreign commanders telling us what to do."

Normally I am willing to blame Western greed, incompetence, and all-around meddling for a vast array of problems in the Middle East. But it took me a while to figure out if I really bought the argument that the law is a reaction to heavy-handed Western interference in the region. I can see how the prolonged presence of Western troops could cause offense, raising feelings of nationalism or, in a country as ethnically diverse as Afghanistan, enflaming religious sentiments. But is that really reason enough to demand that women become this politically, economically, and sexually subservient to men? The real explanation is a bit more complex in my view.

I would hypothesize that patriarchal attitudes and the ill treatment of women is usually tied to the amount of "life control" that a man has in a given society. In Afghanistan, where poverty is rampant and there are few opportunities for advancement into "respectable" professions, it is difficult for a man to occupy a position of power and esteem (40% of the population was unemployed in 2008 according to the CIA Factbook). Furthermore, it is hard for him to feel in control of his own life and property when access to clean water is limited, electricity is on the fritz, violence and corruption are everywhere. This recent Washington Times article argues that since the fall of the Taliban, the rule of law has disintegrated in Afghanistan as warlords take control and police have found it more profitable to shake down innocent citizens than enforce the law. Given this climate of insecurity, the average Afghan man may feel that it is only in his family relations that he can fulfill his urge to be "master" and Western culture and its advocacy of female liberation is, in his mind, an attack on this last vestige of his authority. If Western superpowers are guilty in anything here, it is in impoverishing the Afghan nation through invasion, which has led to destruction of property and life, the disruption of economic and political stability, and the rise of a black market economy that surely encourages steep social hierarchies.

I find this explanation for the divide on women's rights more convincing than any religious justifications that Afghan men might give (when did Allah ever concern himself with make-up? what about the fact that the top Shiite cleric in Afghanistan is opposed to the law?) or any "clash of civilizations" that Western politicians might propose (doesn't the West also have a long history of mistreating women?). I do not think there is a fundamentally unbridgeable cultural or moral gap between the two sides--I think it is merely a reaction to poverty, insecurity, and power imbalances. But if someone disagrees with me, or has other thoughts to add, please do...

The Opium Trade in Afghanistan

1. http://www.havocscope.com/data/tag/afghanistan/

2. http://www.state.gov/p/inl/rls/nrcrpt/2008/vol1/html/100779.htm

3. http://www.havocscope.com/regions/asia/afghanistan.htm

(the second source references an Article from the International Herald Tribute; which is not currently available online)

The State Department report that the Afghan drug trade is "undercutting efforts to establish a stable democracy with a licit economic free market in the country". Take for example the opium trade: The opium trade seems well and alive in Afghanistan. The UNODC (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime,) claims that it "exports 90 percent of the world's poppy crop" (source 2). It also hints an increase in poppy cultivation after the fall of the Taliban. For example, the amount of opium grown in 2007 almost doubles the amount grown in 2005. (source 2)

One policy attempt to handle the opium situations is advocated by Gulab Mangal. He is attempting to combat the marketing of opium by encouraging the farmers to not plant the poppy seed. This is deemed a better policy than previous policies which were enforced after the production of poppy seeds. The governor blames this policy for causing increased poverty. (source 2)

I make the same observation that other fellow bloggers have made regarding the rise of prostitution in Iraq after the fall of the Saddam; in that case, as well as this, some standards of law have been further compromised after the fall of a regime. These two cases hint of what can happen as a result of the vacuum created after the loss of a ruling system. While the fallen regimes were deemed as the cause of much corruption (hence why the American government supported their fall), they also suppress other forms of corruption.

Despite the previous Iraqi and Afghani regimes having serious faults, it is interesting that a compromised situation (lawlessness) can be exacerbated after removing faulty governments (that are often viewed as the source). If the U.S. would like to continue manipulating government structures in other countries, this example is yet another hint that managing the power vacuum after the coup is also a crucial task to establishing stability.

Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan

I remember hearing about this from "Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me" on NPR last year and thought how humorously tragic it was that we could not enforce rules or use our high tech spy network to get information. All it takes sometimes is some old fashion bribery. Yet, that also says more than how funny the situation is, it says that what we have in common in cooperation is so little. There are no hearts and minds to win in this war but bribery and patronage.

Four days later, when the Americans returned, the gift had worked its magic, the operative recalled.

"He came up to us beaming," the official said. "He said, 'You are a great man.' "

"And after that we could do whatever we wanted in his area."

It is interesting to note that the operative said that last line because it implies that they have no resistance to the drugs and that it was another way to exploit them for "whatever we wanted". Maybe it is all the colonialism that we've been reading from Gregory but this article does show some of that through the operatives' quotes. Such as how they are trying to bridge their primitive gap of life to the 21st by Viagra.

While it makes sense that you have to give something to get something and sex has been a motivator for everyone everywhere, does it make it okay? It is okay that the reasoning behind this is that if we don't do it, someone else will (Taliban, Iran, etc)? Morally, I want to say no. We are using them to our ends while they are perceived to give into carnal pleasure. The article portrays Afghanis as fickle backstabbers,especially as devious high libido old men, that need to be bribed just for cooperation.

Afghanistan and Drugs

When Afghanistan is in the news, it often relates to one of two things: the fight against the Taliban or the massive amounts of drugs coming from the region.

Drugs make up 60% of the economy of Afghanistan according to the BBC country report. The CIA world factbook lists Afghanistan as the world's largest producer of opium (which is used to make heroin, among other drugs). As such, there is also a problem of money laundering, which has (and is) used to finance terrorism in the region, including financing the Taliban regime.

To combat the drug problem, the US and coalition forces have instituted a major counter-narcotics force in Afghanistan. In recent weeks, however, the US special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Richard Holbrooke, has condemned the current policy as "the most wasteful and ineffective program I have seen in 40 years." Holbrooke, who spoke at Macalester a few years ago (and I met him too), went on to say that US policy would be more effective if it helped farmers, not corrupt police and officials. The article also notes that despite reduction in acreage cultivated, Afghanistan is estimated to produce 90% of the world's illicit heroin, according to the UN. (Interestingly, I was unable to find any articles on sites such as CNN or MSNBC referring to Mr. Holbrooke's comments regarding the current drug policy in Afghanistan. It could be the keyword search just didn't find those articles.)

What I find most intriguing about this situation is this: the Taliban, an ultraconservative, fundamentalist religious and social movement yet they profit from the not only illegal but immoral drug trade. Is this rationalized because the drugs go to the West were they destroy the minds and bodies of "infidels"? How can involvment in the drug trade be rationalized at all?

Mothers Pimping Daughters, in Iraq

Last month, Time Magazine reported on how mothers in Iraq and selling their daughters out to human traffickers. The report mentions that girls as young as 11 and 12 are being sold to traffickers at prices up to $30,000. Others are sold for upwards of $2,000. The girls are then trafficked primary to other areas in the Middle East, such as Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, however Iraq has become a major hub of this despicable and lucrative activity. The girls, once sold, are able to enter the destination country through the use of counterfeit passports or other forged documents. Occasionally the documents have been suspected to have been governmentally forged as well.

Unlike the typical sex industry, Iraq's underworld is a place where female pimps hold sway and where impoverished mothers sell their teenage daughters into a sex market that believes females who reach the age of 20 are too old to fetch a good price. In order to get some of the young girls into the country (many of them around the age of 14), men pose as their "husbands" and then divorce the girls upon arrival once out of the country.

Nobody knows exactly how many Iraqi women and children have been sold into sexual slavery since the fall of Saddam Hussein's regime in 2003. There is no official number because of the shadowy nature of the business. Baghdad-based activists like Hinda and others estimate it to be in the tens of thousands. Still, it remains a hidden crime, one that the 2008 U.S. State Department's Trafficking in Persons report says the Iraqi government is not combating. Baghdad, the report says, "offers no protection services to victims of trafficking, reported no efforts to prevent trafficking in persons and does not acknowledge trafficking to be a problem in the country."

While sexual violence has accompanied warfare for millenniums and insecurity always provides opportunities for criminal elements to profit, what is happening in Iraq today reveals how far a once progressive country (relative to its neighbors) has regressed on the issue of women's rights and how ferociously the seams of a traditional Arab society that values female virginity have been ripped apart.

Stealing Oil

A segment on CBS.com highlights what is considered the "most lucrative" job on the black market—stealing oil and selling it on the black market. Every year, stolen oil accounts for a $5 billion dollar "industry" of sorts in Iraq. Smugglers will fill up their trucks, bribing officials along the way to their final destination, where the oil will be sold for twice its original price at illegal gas stations.

The smuggling of oil seems to reflect a lot of the problems in Iraq— corruption runs rampant, and the extensive black market which this corruption fosters severely limits the economy of the country. What's particularly interesting is that many of the oil smuggling operations are run by militias that in turn have ties to political parties. According to the video, over 200 people have been accused by a state prosecutor of crimes, but many officials are able to wriggle out of prosecution by citing a legal clause that protects them.

However, what's more troublesome about the illegal oil market is that the fuel will often go to insurgent groups in the region, which is, for obvious reasons, dangerous for American interests in the region.

Although it is regrettable that this is happening, I must say that I don't blame the truck drivers who smuggle the oil. If I had the option of selling oil to one depot for a certain price, but also had the option of selling to another depot for twice the other price (and tax free!), I think I would choose the latter over the former.

And yet, it is very problematic that it seems pretty much everyone—the militias, insurgents, and political parties—all have their hands in the cookie jar. Because of the recent lost revenue from oil, (according to this newspaper article), the Iraqi government is having trouble paying for basic public services, like sewage treatment and power. I'm sure that the illegal market in stolen oil, which saps so much revenue from the legal market, is not helping the efforts to provide Iraqi citizens with basic human needs.

Iraq emerging as key route in global drugs trade

I found this article while looking for drug use among Iraqis. It is disconcerting to hear that since the border between Iraq and Iran are so "porous" that criminals are using that to get out west. The more west they are able to go, the more money they are able to make per pound of heroin. Given all the money that the US has poured into Iraq, the fact that the borders are not secure makes the money seem wasteful (you never know, those drug dealers could be Al-Queda!).

“The drugs come from Iran, then they are sold at the Saudi border. Smugglers are young and they use motorcycles or animals to cross the desert late at night.” According to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Afghanistan’s opium production soared to 8,200 tonnes in 2007 from 6,100 tonnes the year before, accounting for 93 per cent of global production."

The trade is really global as well since its Iranians and Syrians that are doing this trade. The deterioration of security that allowed this happen has global impact because these drugs from Afghanistan and other places will get to South America and feed into the Mexican drug war. Cutting off one link would make it harder for drugs to come in and out of places.
What will be interesting to see is what will happen once US soldiers leave Iraq and go into Afghanistan, will the geographic differences help or hinder the trade? Since so much of it comes from Afghanistan, will stopping it at the source help? Given the fact that they are unable to secure Iraq with the massive amount of money already poured in, I doubt that they can secure the hills of Afghanistan.
It is interesting to note that a lot of this comes after the fall of Saddam Hussein;

Officials say that the incentive to catch drug smugglers waned sharply after Saddam Hussein was toppled more than five years ago. Beforehand customs officers were offered market rates for uncovering contraband.

While Saddam did a lot of bad things, his control over everything made the country run more smoothly and the strong central government helped stability. Without people knowing how to run the country before the invasion, it would make a lot of sense why certain things that did not happen before now start to happen. Perhaps with some re-introduction of Baath party members, certain incentives can help restore Iraq. Yet, that political option is not popular with American politicians.

Hate Crimes in a "Free" Iraq

The status of gay men and women in Iraq has never been good. Gay sex was a criminal offense under Saddam and remains one today. But some gay Iraqis have argued that life was actually better under Saddam's secular regime because there was neither the political will nor the Islamic militias there to pursue a policy of active persecution. Balancing the human rights of this group and the traditional religious beliefs of the country will be a difficult task to be sure, especially as conservatives push to make Islamic law the basis of the country's legal system.

This week's article in the NY Times talks about how despite the relative decrease in violence in Iraq, a dangerous atmosphere for the openly gay remains very much intact in Sadr City. In the past two months, 25 men have been killed there most likely due to their sexual orientation and a café frequented by gays was burned down. And so, in a period when other Iraqi citizens are feeling more and more comfortable about going out at night, some gay Iraqis are feeling the pressure to stay inside day and night.

Blame for the killings is not concentrated on the Shiite “death squads” that we hear so much about in the news. Instead, local police say that the murders are being carried out by the victim’s own relatives, who feel that his homosexuality has brought shame upon the whole family.

This article forced me to think about a couple of uncomfortable questions. First, what casualties do we privilege in our death tolls? Of course every week we count up the American soldiers who have died, and sometimes we pay attention to losses in the Iraqi security services or civilian casualties within the theatre of war. But it seems to me that the casualties of “cultural transition” often go uncounted. I hate to admit it, but this is probably especially true as concerns freedom of sexual orientation. It is one of those freedoms and rights that many American supporters of democracy either outright oppose or feel little sympathy for. Even though we Americans have gotten rid of Saddam and supposedly allowed for the establishment of a freer society in Iraq, I don’t know whether we are ready to defend all elements of that freer society equally.

And so I wondered whether the U.S. army has interested itself in this issue at all up to this time or if their presence has inadvertently acted as a mild disincentive to violence? What is going to happen to men and women that push the limits of Iraqi sexual sensibilities when the U.S. army pulls out for good? Frankly, I doubt that the U.S. army gives much concern to the welfare of gays outside the Green Zone, yet I feel like the situation is likely to worsen when they are gone. It seems like the Iraqi police are already acting very nonchalant about these murders, denying the extent of the problem and the role of religious leaders in stirring up hate. Even if they wish that people would not break the law against murder, they do not show any sympathy for the victim in this article. In fact, they are put into the same categories as beggars, liars, and thieves. Furthermore, the families of the victims seem disinterested in cooperating with any investigations or even claiming the body. All this is sort of a perfect storm already for wiping out the openly gay community. And I feel that if the general rate of violence rises after the withdrawal of American troops, then between the general atmosphere of insecurity and the fact that hate crimes are likely to get totally lost in the shuffle, the gay subculture will be forced back underground or into the closet. And thus all of our fighting for a “freer” society in Iraq will have been totally meaningless for these people.

US Weapons on the Iraqi Black Market

I found this article while perusing various websites and found it quite interesting. The article is from June 2008, making it somewhat dated but I still think it is relevant. The Bush administration accused Iran of supplying the majority of the Shiite militia rocket propelled grenade launchers in Iraq. Well, it turns out that a US government study found that the vast majority of the RPGs confiscated came from one of two sources: US-purchased weapons intended for Iraqi security forces (which were then sold on the black market) and Saddam Hussein's old stockpiles of weapons (which were not properly secured when the US took over Iraq). Other RPGs, the RPG-29 (an anti-taken launcher) manufactured in Russia, came in through Syria (as these same weapons were used by Hezbollah against Israel, based on media reports from Israel and Lebanon). Look at all the other countries involved in this mess! These weapons cross the Iraqi border, aside from the one's looted within Iraq. The smuggling operation over the desert must be extensive.

More interesting (and related to the topic of black markets) is this quote: "Malcolm Nance, an Arabic-speaking 20-year veteran of military and civilian U.S. intelligence, recalls being offered more than 20 RPG-7 rocket launchers and dozens of RPG rounds in a single trip to an arms bazaar in Sadr City in September 2003. According to Nance, RPG-7s were also on sale in black markets at another location in Baghdad and in at least seven other Iraqi cities... the Iraqi RPG-7s were "so ubiquitous" that they were selling for a mere $50 each for the launcher and $5 each for an RPG missile." Related to Grace's post, the prevelance of these weapons (and these markets) is quite astonishing. The black markets, while internal to Iraq, invoke a host of other countries (including the US). And their effects certainly go beyond Iraq and the US but involve the rest of the volatile region including Iran and Syria.

Black Market Weapons in Iraq

I found this article about black market weapons in Iraq, published in 2006. It outlines how members of the Iraqi Army and police are selling their US issued weapons on the black market, where prices have been rising steadily. According to the article, one could easily buy a Glock or Kalashnikov in the back of grocery stores or in the back of a car trunk. 

It seems like the black market for weapons in Iraq is not very hidden or secretive. The article states that these weapons are "semi-hidden" in market places. If the practice is well known, and there is evidence that these weapons are coming from the US, through the Iraqi Army and police, why isn't the US halting its practice of supplying Iraqi security with weapons?

Obviously, an abundance of weapons in the hands of Iraqi civilians is not beneficial to the US, or the Iraqis. If it is as clear as it seems in the article, it is almost as if the US is arming Iraqi civilians. While tighter restrictions on weapon sales may help ebb the black market weapons wave, it appears that the most prudent solution would be for the US to stop supplying the Iraqi Army with weapons. While many of the weapons could have been stolen from fallen soldiers after raids, the article mentions that many of the guns were unused. This indicated that Iraqi military could have immediately turned their weapons into the market. If it is clear the American-supplied weapons are found in large quantities in the black market, why is the US continuing to supply them? Because this article is three years old, it is possible that the US has changed their practice. But if it hasn't, what factors would compel them to continue to supply guns to the Iraqi army and police? 

Prostitution in Iraq

Article #1: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1883696,00.html?iid=tsmodule

Article #2: http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/06/24/prostitutes/index.html

The first article describes how increasingly more women/girls entered prostitution following the break down of Saddam Hussein's regime. Few statistics about these girls are known because it is a socially taboo subject. There is also an ongoing controversy about the role sex traffickers play in the region: one Iraqi ex-politician, when asked about trafficking, believed that girls (for the most part) chose to engage in the activity. Yanar Mohammed, who heads the Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq, fervently disagrees.

The second article focuses more on the tragedy that women must turn to prostitution for survival. Regarding trafficking, the article states: "according to the report (U.S. State Department's 2005 "Trafficking in Persons Report), "There have been some reports that indicate Iraqi women may be subjected to sexual exploitation in prostitution in Syria at the hands of Iraqi criminal networks, but those reports have not been confirmed."

To contrast the ambivalence of the report's statement, Article #1 featured a lady with a first hand account of the activity. At this point, I began to feel that the issue of sex trafficking in Iraq was curiously suppressed. There is no doubt of some trafficking activity going on, but the Iraqi government has not yet prosecuted any traffickers since it has gotten into power (at the time of Article #1, Mar. 2009).

It is agreed that prostitution is an issue within the region. However, involuntary prostitution seems to be a hush-hush topic. There is no doubt of its occurrence: mothers are selling unwilling daughters to brothels; the first article reported a story about a girl who was married to a man, who promptly divorced her and gave her to a prostitution ring. I wondered if the reason for it being a hush-hush topic is the lack of information. I wondered if part of the in-action may be due to pride; perhaps it is less weight on a conscience to blame a girl for her individual "choice" than acknowledging that more individuals, besides the girl, were involved. I wouldn't know; these are speculations.

Selling cellphone numbers...illegally?

A Saudi telecommunications company shut down over 300,000 cellphone chips, due to their being sold on the internet at inflated prices. The people who sell the numbers will buy sometimes over 50 phone subscriptions, and then list them on the internet for a higher price. The problem is that these are prepaid subscriptions, so once a person buys a phone, he/she doesn't have to pay a bill each month, allowing for the black market in cellphones.

What's interesting about the repackaged sale of cellphones is that it shows just how sophisticated Saudi Arabia is technologically. Often, we think of prostitution and drugs coming from the country, but not much else. The use of the internet to sell cellphones shows that Saudis have access to many of the same, if not all the same, technologies as we are privy to. What's interesting is that the article doesn't speak of the government taking any action to rout out these kinds of crimes, but rather mentions the actions taken by the company to deal with the problem. It seems that there is very little regulation of any markets, especially the technology sector. It would be interesting to see the extent to which the government controls online activities as well.

I really enjoyed this brief article, in that it demonstrates how the Saudi black markets are adjusting and adapting with the times.

Another Grand Misuse of Diplomatic Immunity, by a Saudi Prince Nonetheless! (Florida might be involved)

Oh, the travesty! ...

In 2007, A Saudi Arabian prince used his private Boeing 727 to smuggle $15 million (for all you Euro-kids, approx. £7.6 million) of Colombian cocaine into France under the cover of diplomatic immunity, a court was told yesterday.
Prince Nayef Bin Fawaz al-Shaalan, a member of Saudi Arabia’s ruling family was caught in a vast drug-trafficking operation in March of 2007. He faces ten years’ imprisonment and a ban from setting foot on French soil after serving his sentence, after the alleged 2 tons of coke was found in a random check after an anonymous source tipped off french police.
The Prince did not attend his "court date" and is reported to be in Saudi Arabia. But his french lawyer denied all charges against him. Hélène Langlois (the State Prosecutor at the time) asked the court in Bobigny (a city north of Paris) for an international warrant for his arrest. None of the other defendants was present in court either.
The case has strained relations between France and Saudi Arabia, according to media reports.
Informants told detectives that the cocaine had been flown from Colombia on board the Prince’s Boeing 727 and arrived at Le Bourget airport, north of Paris. French Customs officers did not inspect the baggage because the Prince, who was on board the flight, had diplomatic immunity, the court was told.
Prince Nayef is alleged to have made contact with the Medellin drug cartel through a Colombian woman whom he met while he was studying at the University of Miami during the 1970s and 1980s.
In an interview last year, he said that he was the victim of a plot to discredit him, hatched by the American authorities.
His lawyer said yesterday: “The court is being asked to convict a man who has never been seen or interviewed here, and who is accused on the basis of statements by men who the French justice system has not seen or interviewed either.”
The court in Bobigny was expected to suspend its sentence last night.
This is an ironic twist on the seedy underbelly. This doesn't concern underworld brothels or drunk "devout Muslim" vagrants caught and sent for capital lashings. But instead involved a member of the vast Saudi Prince network. As I was looking into further claims against other royalty, drug smuggling was an obvious, though impressivly large, activity of the average affluent prince.
In such a conservative, misogynistic, and Islam-charged nation, how is this grand misuse of power so frequently associated with the royal family that the nation is so founded upon? This seems quite obvious, drugs and the powers of government are naturally enemies and associates... But when this is affecting other nations (France, for example) why is the outcry not larger? Are Saudi's offended by these charges, and is there any way in a police state to hold governmental officals to the codes they are supposed to embody?

Sex Trade in Saudi Arabia

This article includes elements of many previous posts, such as Saudi "embarrassment" regarding crimes and religious pressure.

One section of the article claims that:

"The Saudi authorities were interesting in pursuing the perpetrators, but they were more interested in keeping the story quiet and avoid embarrassment."

Later on, the article says that one of the woman who came forward with the issue was deported, possibly to prevent the Saudi police reputation from being "stained." This reminded me of what Rhiannon posted about the government not wanting to cause a "scandal." It seems to me that upholding a good reputation of the Saudi police is getting in the way of them earning the reputation. 

The article also talked about how many women would not come forward and seek police help because of the strict Islamic law in Saudi Arabia which has "zero tolerance for any kind of  interaction between men and women." The article also says that the women who remain in the prostitution ring are at risk for the severe punishment that is "applied to prostitution in compliance with Saudi law." 

In this situation, there doesn't seem to be much hope for those women trapped in Saudi Arabia's prostitution ring. If they come forward, their story may be silenced by the Saudi police more than helped by it, or they may be subject to discrimination because of their relationships with men. If they do not escape the ring, not only will they continue to be sexually exploited, they could be prosecuted under Saudi law. 

It really make me wonder how this practice can be stopped. I think one of the only ways to help stop this is increase global awareness to the problem, and try to stop the trade at all ends. Since many of the women are being brought in from other countries, like Morocco, awareness should be spread in these countries to prevent women from being trapped. While Saudi Arabia let's many people into the country to visit Mecca, more needs to be done to make sure sex slaves are not being smuggled in. 

Saudi Arabia Clamps Down on Red Roses

Main Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7239005.stm

Other Link: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/feb/12/saudiarabia.religion

Black market activities, in the American mind set, often connotates activities involving porn and drugs. In "Saudi Arabia's Sleazy Underworld", Natasha makes the point that these activities also exist in Saudi Arabia despite their strict adherence to Islam. After scouring the net, I've discovered that while the definition of illicit material in Saudi Arabia and the U.S. are sometimes similar, there are also differences; this was highlighted when Saudi officials banned the sale of red roses. This reportedly happened in the weeks following up to Valentine's Day (2008). To quote BBC News, because of this ban, "black market prices for roses were already rising ".

According to the BBC, "Saudi authorities consider Valentine's Day, along with a host of other annual celebrations, as un-Islamic.'

"In addition to the prohibition on celebrating non-Islamic festivals, the authorities consider Valentine's Day as encouraging relations between men and women outside wedlock - punishable by law...".

Despite this ban, orders of roses are being delivered stealthily in the night while some couples are contemplating celebrating Valentine's day in another country.

It's strange for us to see how our traditional holiday can be deemed dangerous from the perspective of other cultures. I've come to realize that what gets put on the black market is often a reflection of a society's standards (versus a universal standard). For example, I often assumed drugs and porn belonged on the market, but never in my dreams would I have thought to include red roses.

Saudi Arabia's "sleazy underworld"

This article from the BBC is old, written in 2001, but I think it still conveys a lot of the (mis)perceptions regarding Saudi Arabia and "seedy underculture." Popular perceptions of Saudi Arabia include strict adherence to Islam. Yet this article indicates that, as in many other places, an underculture of alcohol, drugs and sex is present, if one knows where to look.

I found two sections particularly interesting. The first is that these vices are "assigned" to specific ethinic foreigners. "Filipinos brew the illicit alcohol, he said, while Yemenis and Indians sell it. The prostitutes tend to be from Nigeria and Ethiopia, the drug peddlars are from Pakistan," Khaled told the BBC reporter, Frank Gardner. Although this is probably not true across the kingdom (or even eight years later), I found the fact that certain ethnic groups were identified with particular forms of illicit activities interesting.

The second section I found interesting was the punishment for crimes in illicit activities. "Jail and eighty lashes with the cane for alcohol, a serious prison sentence for drugs, and deportation for foreign prostitutes. Drug smugglers are executed." The thought of a jail sentence and whipping is somewhat incomprehensible to an American, as are the other punishments.

Even in areas not part of what is often characterized as a "seedy underculture," punishments are harsh. One case that I recalled reading in the news a few years ago was the punishment of a Saudi rape victim sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in jail (her attackers, once convicted, received prison sentences ranging from two to ten years, still low considering rape is a capital offense).

The strict adherence to religious prescriptions, by the state itself, is very different for an American where there is the (supposed) separation between Church and State. Yet, as the first article indicates, strict punishment and enforcement does not stop an underculture from taking root.

Abuse of Foreign Domestic Workers

There are an estimated 1.5 million foreigners working as domestic servants in Saudi Arabia, mostly from South/Southeastern Asian countries like Indonesia, the Phillipines, and Sri Lanka. The vicious abuses that they sometimes suffer and the difficulties they have in escaping these abusive environments are the subject of an open letter from Human Rights Watch to the governments of Indonesia and S.A. Saudi employment visas work in such a way as to prevent foreign workers from changing jobs or leaving the country until their employer allows them to. Saudi labor law does not apply to migrant workers, so they have no entitlement to time off and hence little opportunity to talk to law enforcement authorities and file a complaint.



The Saudis are not ignorant of the problem. A Saudi company is even sponsoring a media campaign about the abuse of foreign workers, appealing to religious decency with the exhortation: He who shows no mercy, will receive no mercy. What really struck me in the BBC reportage is that some Saudis seemed more upset about the abuses being revealed than about the abuses themselves. Campaign critics point out that domestic workers are abused in other countries too (as if this were an excuse) or say that "discussing domestic problems on satellite channels turns them into a scandal [for Saudi Arabia]". And why should it not be a scandal? Can't a scandal be a good thing if it finally forces a government to correct hidden actions that would be considered shameful according to international norms? The argument that many foreign domestics are treated just fine by their Saudi employers and therefore it shouldn't be broadcast as a serious problem is not very forcible, in my opinion. So long as any domestic workers are being abused and, just as importantly, are allowed to be abused by a fundamentally inadequate legal system, how can complacency be an option?

And, if anyone's interested, here is another little BBC article about the treatment of migrant laborers working outside the domestic sphere.

Bluetooth Used Mostly for Swapping Porn in Saudi Arabia

After embarrassingly scouring the web at the library searching for terms such as "porn Saudi Arabia", I found this article to be rather interesting. It is how men who bluetooth connectivity are abusing the technology against girls.

A recent study found that pornographic material accounted for nearly 70 percent of messages exchanged by teenagers. Abdullah ibn Mohammed Al-Rasheed, associate professor at the College of Dawa and Information in Riyadh, who conducted the study, said 88 percent of girls had been victims of such misuse.

It seems that human nature takes over no mater how strict things may get. It reminded me of something I heard last year about how boys and girls use bluetooth to check each other out and flirt.

There seems to be no real rules of conduct of bluetooth in Saudi Arabia because it is not being discussed about. All of it is underground in a way. Innocent flirting to pornographic messages all seem to be too taboo to establish what is okay and what is not. It is also harder to punish those because of how mobile and "minor" in a sense the infraction can be. While there seems to be some policing of this, it may not be enough. In a place that is very conservative, ingenious technology use is thwarting known social codes. As huge shocker to all of us, they are even on it in the mosque.

It will be interesting to see what, if anything the government is able to do about such technologies and incorporating them in sharia law.

Blogging a Theme

Thanks Danny for getting this new blogging experiment rolling! I'd just like to remind everyone what we are doing (and get it in writing). I would like you to each post something related to your theme and the country we will be discussing in the upcoming week. So for this week what can you find about the 'seedy underbelly' of Saudi Arabia? Then the following week your post would be related to Iraq, etc. With this structure you will get a deeper understanding of your theme, and how it relates to different countries, while still staying focused on a particular place so we can have conversations across the different groups.

So the assignment itself is at least 1 primary post and 1 comment. You may use your text from the blog within your moodle 'reflection paper' without penalty (not double dipping), but your reflection paper should also reflect on the reading assigned to the whole class.

If you have any questions, put them in the comments! :>