How Some Iraqi Clerics Are Facilitating the Country’s Secret Sex Trade | FRONTLINE

In an excerpt from “Iraq’s Secret Sex Trade,” a cleric officiates a temporary marriage he believes is with a 13-year-old girl over the phone, from inside a taxi.

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With undercover reporting, "Iraq’s Secret Sex Trade" exposes how -- to increasing concern among other Iraqi Shias -- some Iraqi clerics are abusing an ancient Islamic marriage practice to exploit women and girls.

The film exposes clerics who offer to perform what’s known as muta’ah or munqata’a — “pleasure” or “temporary” marriages — between adult men and girls as young as 13 in exchange for money.

In the above scene from the documentary, an undercover reporter posing as a man seeking a “pleasure marriage” with a 13-year-old girl (who in reality, is also an adult undercover reporter) films a cleric as he officiates the temporary union.

For more on how some clerics are facilitating "Iraq's Secret Sex Trade," watch the full documentary starting Tues., Nov. 12

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