tv Undercover with the Clerics BBC News October 13, 2019 3:30am-4:01am BST
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this is bbc news. welcome if you're watching here in the uk or around the globe. i'm maryam moshiri. our top stories: kurds under attack in northern syria say they will no longer prioritise guarding islamic state detainees if turkey's offensive continues. torrential rain and tornado—like winds claim at least nine lives injapan — in what could be the country's worst storm for 60 years. the president of ecuador places this is bbc news, the headlines: the country's capital, quito, under military control the fighting in north eastern syria in an attempt to end days
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of violent clashes. has intensified as the turkish army face stiff resistance from kurdish forces. an astonishing moment of sporting the fighting has already left history as eliud kipchoge becomes around 50 civilians dead. the kurd said they will no longer prioritise guarding detainees from the islamic state group if the offensive continues. typhoon hagibis has hitjapan with record—breaking amounts of rain. at least seven people have been killed and 15 people are reported missing. the storm has disrupted the rugby union word cup, but organisors have confirmed the match between scotland and the host nation will go ahead. the president of ecuador has placed the country's capital, quito, under military control to end days of violent clashes between security forces and indigenous protestors. in a tv address, mr moreno said the army would enforce a curfew and take all measures necessary to re—establish order.
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a bbc news arabic investigation filmed undercover in baghdad and karbala exposes a secret world of sexual exploitation of children and young women by a religious elite. muslim clerics acting like pimps. undercover in baghdad, we expose a secret world of sexual exploitation. widows of war forced to become halal prostitutes. men of god giving religious guidance on how to abuse children.
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in this holy sex trade, even children are for sale. the office of ayatollah sistani, one of the most senior clerics in shia islam tells us these are crimes that should be punished. in iraq today, conservative shia clerics have huge influence. after years of sectarian conflict, they've gained political leverage often with the backing of armed militias. activists say they are pushing women's rights back decades. we spoke to a campaigner who runs a network of women's
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shelters across iraq. there were laws that protected women, some protection for us in our marriages. it seems that all the things that we gained in decades of hard work of the generation of our mothers were just lost. once the islamic clerics rule, the first loser is the women. to try to understand what's happening, i've come to the courthouse in sadr city. just outside, clerics are conducting marriages and divorces but under islamic law, sharia. he is doing a sharia divorce.
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doesn't seem to bother some clerics. inside the court, i see the consequences. iraqi law doesn't recognise sharia marriages. so, to be legal, couples must have their marriage signed off by a judge. thejudges here should be enforcing the minimum age for marriage but that is not what i'm seeing. she is getting her marriage registered. she's dressed like a grown woman but actually, she's only 13 years old.
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a cleric married her to her husband under sharia law six months ago. now, she's pregnant. because she got married underage, herfather and groom could get two years in prison. instead, they've been fined $50. it's up to the judge and these days, many are lenient. there is a queue of fathers waiting for their daughters to get married before the judge. this man is here with his 14—year—old daughter.
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with her sister to support, she told me she met a man who offered her a pleasure marriage. in a pleasure marriage, a man pays a woman to be his wife for an agreed time. it's practised in shia islam though it is illegal under iraqi law. many clerics argue it helps for vulnerable women to get a fee. she accepted his offer and the marriage was conducted. after a few weeks, he left her. the cleric told her that now she would never find a real husband.
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you become vulnerable to that cleric that who whispers in your ear he has the solution. they call it temporary marriage being thrown off from one man to the other, to the third, to the fourth, until you find out that you're a prostitute with a religious cover. rasul has been pimped by the cleric for three years. forced to have sex with dozens of men. ali is a married professional in his 40s.
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the only way to get evidence on camera of clerics exploiting young girls using pleasure marriage was to go undercover. this is sayyid raad. his title means that he ascended from the prophet muhammad. at the holy shrine in kadhimiya, our reporter went with him to his marriage office. it was time for the crucial question. would the cleric agree to provide a girl?
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we can't identify which cleric has abused her, but she says that he is in one of these offices... the lucky ones reached our shelters. the ones that are not lucky... what happens to them? they end up in brothels and they don't live long. i would say their life expectancy is like 35. we saw many who were about to throw themselves off the bridge into the river.
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we had evidence clerics had ruined women's lives with pleasure marriages. we filmed a cleric boasting he had girls for sale. now, after months of preparation, we were about to see if we could catch a cleric introducing our undercover reporter to a girl he was pimping. our reporter set up another meeting with sayyid raad. once he felt safe, he signalled to a young woman in the back of his taxi. she says she's 26. to protect her, we have discussed her identity.
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we had captured evidence that a cleric was prepared to pimp a young girl. the cleric wanted his m00. he was willing to bring as young as he has to. he just did not want to let that deal go past him. that's a good franchise for the... ..these vampires. they suck the life out of young girls and leave them to deal with their miseries. we wanted to put our allegations to the clerics we filmed, but it was too dangerous to put it in person. i phone him from london.
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he said the abuses we'd seen were happening because... and an iraqi government spokesperson told bbc arabic if women don't go to the police against clerics, it is difficult for the authorities to act. but for many young women across iraq, there is no hope ofjustice. rasul is still being picked out by a cleric. she feels she has no other choice.
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hello. the unsettled autumnal theme to the weather continues through the remainder of the weekend. on saturday we had some heavy showers around. this was the picture in angus. we're going to be seeing similar scenes on sunday. still some heavy rain around at times. later in the day things will turn a little bit drier with some sunshine for some places, particularly towards the south and the west. but we start the morning initially, perhaps, with dry weather in the south—east. but the rain soon moves in here. the rain makes its way northwards across england and wales, at times pushing into eastern parts of northern ireland and southern and eastern scotland. some sunshine later in the day, especially returing to southern england, some parts of south wales as well. could be quite breezy here.
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the rain does clear away towards the north sea through sunday night and into monday. so a bit of a quieter start your new walking week. some mist and some fog possible first thing. monday, still some rain on the cards, particularly for northern ireland, perhaps brushing into pembrokeshire and cornwall. also the chance of heavy, potentially thundery downpours in the south—east. temperatures around 12—16. 00:29:15,763 --> 4294966103:13:29,430 bye— bye.
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