"There is no way I am going to join the police or army because the insurgents
are killing many of them every day."
Relentless guerrilla violence has killed thousands of Iraqis, ravaged the
economy and pushed up unemployment, forcing people like Abu Mustafa to scramble
for a job.
But like the tens of thousands signing up for the new, U.S. -trained police and
army, selling pornography 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.
Militant Vice Squad
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."
Muhammad al-Turaifi, a spokesman for the Badr Brigades, denied that the militia
takes the law into its own hands.
"We don't interfere in these matters personally. We go through official
procedures and raise the issue with the police. To suggest we go and beat up
these people is absurd," he said.
After Saddam Hussein's fall, pornography salesmen openly set up shops in
Baghdad's Bab al-Sharjee (East Gate) market, a once bustling marketplace Iraqis
say is now dominated by criminal gangs, thieves, pimps and guerrilla
informants.
Pornography salesmen don't dare show their faces, secretly arranging by
telephone the sale of American, European and Arab porn films hidden in music
video or cartoon cases from the back seats of cars.
"The Badr Brigades left notes on our kiosks saying 'We will kill you and burn
your shops'," said Ahmed Saad, 32, a father of two with a degree in fine arts.
"The police have arrested us and demanded money from our families to free us."
The governmant says it is fighting police corruption. On Tuesday, porn video
dealers attended the 40-day mourning ceremony for their slain 21-year-old
colleague Amir. Gunmen killed him in broad daylight as he headed home, they
said.
But it was business as usual on Wednesday in Bab al-Sharjee, where Abu Mustafa
said 30 other dealers operate, despite the risks.
He sells about 50 DVD videos a day, fetching a total of $10. But the goods are
only offered to friends or long-time customers.
"Sex movies from Lebanon and other Arab countries are the most popular. But we
have all kinds of movies," he said.
"We just have to work secretly."
(Additional reporting by Mussab Khairalla and Taimour Talal)
Reuters
