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Downloaded from
YTS.MX

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Muslim clerics
acting like pimps

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Official YIFY movies site:
YTS.MX

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Undercover in Baghdad,

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we expose a secret world
of sexual exploitation.

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Widows of war, forced to
become halal prostitutes

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Men of God,
giving religious

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guidance on how
to abuse children.

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In this holy sex trade
even children are for sale.

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(mysterious music)

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I'm in Kadhimiya
Central Baghdad,

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one of Shia Islam's most
important pilgrimage sites.

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Millions visit
this holy shrine,

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and many couples come
here to get married.

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Just walking around the
shopping arcade,

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across from the main
shrine,

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I've come across multiple
marriage offices.

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We've heard that some
Shia clerics

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are performing a controversial
religious practice called mut'ah,

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or pleasure marriage.

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In this society, where sex for
unmarried couples is forbidden,

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a pleasure marriage allows a man
to pay for a temporary wife.

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But, they're illegal
in Iraq.

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And we've found they are
being used to exploit women.

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I have to be discreet
filming this,

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but we're here to
investigate allegations

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that some of the clerics
here

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are grooming women
for halal prostitution,

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and even acting
like pimps.

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(call to prayer)

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Pleasure marriage, or
mut'ah, is a Shia practice.

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But Sunni Islam
also recognizes

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another type of informal
marriage, which is calls Misyah.

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Many Iraqi clerics
say pleasure marriages

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are sanctioned
by Islamic law,

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and can even be good
for couples.

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This is Faris Al
Mousawi.

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Tell me about Mut'ah
marriage.

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What are the rules behind
mut'ah marriage?

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The man pays for
a sexual relationship.

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But the cleric said,
if the woman was poor,

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the man would be
helping her.

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But what's the difference between
Mut'ah marriage and prostitution?

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(mysterious music)

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Fifteen years of
war have had a

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devastating effect
on Iraq's women.

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A million have been
widowed,

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and many more are
still displaced.

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Clerics had told us
pleasure marriages

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were a way of helping
vulnerable women.

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But we'd started to
hear stories of abuse.

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We're concealing the real names
of the women we spoke to.

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When the so called Islamic
State took her city,

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Rana fled to Baghdad.

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Soon after, her
husband left her.

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(background market noise)

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(Sombre music)

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Rana says she trusted
her new husband,

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and didn't read the
marriage contract.

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She thought she was
starting a new life.

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(Sombre music continues)

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(suspenseful music)

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After a few days, Rana's
husband

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took her out shopping.

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Then, she says, without
any warming, he vanished.

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(street noise)

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She's thought her
husband was sincere.

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In fact, he'd tricked her into
a temporary pleasure marriage.

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When Rana's family
found out the marriage

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wasn't genuine,
they rejected her.

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Unable to support herself,
she became a prostitute.

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(suspenseful music,
street noise)

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A man and a cleric
had conspired to

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deceive Rana.

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The only way to get evidence
on camera of what clerics

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were doing behind closed
doors, was to go undercover.

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First, our reporter
had to get his hidden

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cameras through the
Khadimiya security cordon.

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His task would be
difficult and dangerous.

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We're concealing
his identity.

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When I arrived I was
really scared.

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First checkpoint was
really scary because

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I had a secret
camera.

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If they found this, no
way I can run away.

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Posing as a potential client, he
arranged to meet several clerics.

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I just went to
many of this office

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and start asking them if you do
a temporary pleasure marriage.

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Some of them they said yes.

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One of them was
Sheikh Hussein

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This is Hussein Al
Musawi.

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His office is opposite
the main shrine.

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My cover story was I am
Iraqi, living in London

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coming to Baghdad
for a short trip.

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Our reporter pretended
he'd met a girl,

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and wanted to have sex
with her.

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He asked if the cleric would
do pleasure marriage.

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The cleric said it was better
not to have a written contract.

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Without a contract, he said, it's
easier to cover your tracks.

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The cleric was giving
advice on how to use

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a woman for sex, and
then get rid of her.

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We had evidence they
said this but to

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see it for myself
was really shocking.

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I couldn't believe he
was telling me have sex

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with her and just
leave her in the street.

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His services came at
a price.

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We found an expert on
Islamic law, Ghaith Tamimi,

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who could help us
interpret our evidence.

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In Iraq, he’d been a high
ranking Shia cleric.

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But he started
speaking out

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against the clerical
establishment.

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After receiving death
threats,

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he’s now living in
exile in London.

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Ghaith told me this cleric
was breaking Islamic law,

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and his advice could
put a woman in danger.

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If she were caught
with a man, she

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risked being charged
with prostitution.

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Despite being
illegal in Iraq,

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we found pleasure marriage was
widely available in Khadimiya.

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Out of 10 clerics we spoke to,
eight said they performed them.

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One of them
was Sayyid Raad.

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His title, Sayyid, means he claims
descent from the prophet Mohammed.

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Our reporter told him he’d met a
girl and wanted to have halal sex.

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He said pleasure
marriages allowed a man

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to do pretty much
whatever he wanted.

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It’s illegal to rent
a hotel room In

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Iraq unless you’re
properly married,

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but Sayyid Raad said
this was no problem.

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(Atmospheric music)

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I wanted to find
out about the men

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who use clerics to do
pleasure marriages.

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I was meeting a married
professional in his forties.

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Speaking anonymously, Ali,
not his real name,

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told me he regularly does them,
sometimes, just for an hour.

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To me it sounded
like prostitution

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but Ali said he
wanted it to be halal.

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As we talked, Ali revealed
some men were paying

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for pleasure marriages
with children.

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(suspenseful music)

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We were discovering one of
Iraq's darkest secrets.

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Clerics making
money helping men

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who wanted sex with
very young girls.

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Sayyid Raad was prepared
to talk about it.

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Our reporter had told him,
he'd met a 13 year virgin

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and asked whether a pleasure
marriage would be Halal.

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Vaginal sex was forbidden,
according to the cleric.

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But other things he
said, were permissible.

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(busy crowd noise)

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Sayyid Raad said he was a follower
of Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani,

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Iraq's most senior Shia cleric.

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Like some other Shia
leaders in Iraq,

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Ayatollah Al-Sistani has
in the past written

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that if a child under
nine was promised

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in a marriage or
temporary marriage

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sexual touching was
religiously permitted.

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We approached the
Ayatollah's office to

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clarify his religious
advice on this matter.

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In a statement, he said,
times had changed.

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And this had been erased
from his current books.

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Ghaith has called for
all Iraq's religious

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leaders to condemn
these practices.

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(building string music)

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To continue our
investigation, we've come to

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the most important
site for Shia Muslims.

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(muffled loudspeaker)

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This is Karbala. It's the biggest
Shia pilgrimage site in the world,

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tens of millions of pilgrims
come here every year.

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We’d already seen how clerics
were helping men break the law,

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and even doing pleasure
marriages with minors.

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We wanted to know whether
the religious authorities

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in this holy city
condoned the practice.

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I spoke to Sheikh Emad Alassady.

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So we heard about
pleasure marriages

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- mut’a marriages -
do you do them here?

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But in the streets
around the shrine,

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some clerics were giving
very different advice.

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One of them was
Sheikh Salawi.

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(suspenseful music builds)

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Sheikh Salawi said he
was a member of one of

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Iraq's powerful and
well-armed militia groups.

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Our reporter pretended he’d met a
young girl who was still a virgin.

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We showed this footage
to Yanar Mohammed, who

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runs a network of women’s
shelters across Iraq.

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Nine years old...

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they are just opening a
shop for paedophiles,

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inviting them from
all over the world.

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The girl is looked at as
a piece of merchandise,

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and using the merchandise in
specific ways is allowed,

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but the virginity is
kept for that big sale

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that they will do
in the future.

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(traffic sound)

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The ‘big sale’
is marriage.

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Yanar told me that some families
see girls as a financial burden,

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and want to marry
them off.

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But parents can only
find a husband if

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their daughter’s
virginity is guaranteed.

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Pretending he had a
real girl in mind,

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our reporter asked Sayyid Raad
what would happen if he did

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take the girl’s virginity
during a pleasure marriage.

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They are speaking of
how a man can get away

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with the crime of
raping a young girl.

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So 'just leave
her and go',

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what does mean for
the girl involved?

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If the males of the family are
aware of what happened to her,

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they will be
killing her,

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and then the honour of the
male patriarchs is preserved.

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It is always the girl and the
women who pay the price.

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(tense music)

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I interviewed a girl
who is at grave

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risk of violence
from her relatives.

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She lost her virginity
in a pleasure marriage.

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We'll call her Mona

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and for her safety,

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we filmed an actor telling her
story, using Mona’s exact words.

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A few weeks later, the man took
Mona to a cleric in Khadamiya.

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She was only 14.

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Her parents knew
nothing about it.

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Did he ask for your
parents consent?

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When she tried to stop seeing the
man, he turned to blackmail.

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Mona had been groomed
by a sexual predator,

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with the help
of a cleric.

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We wanted to see how
difficult it would be

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to get a cleric to do a pleasure
marriage with a very young girl.

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It turned out to be easy.

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Sayyid Raad took our
reporter to a waiting taxi.

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Our reporter had told
him he wanted to do a

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pleasure marriage with
a 13 year old virgin.

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He didn’t ask to meet the girl in
person, or talk to her family.

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He agreed to do the
ceremony over the phone.

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Basically another colleague of
mine, she was in the hotel and

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when he ring the phone my
female colleague,

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she was on the other
end of the phone

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and she was ready
to answer.

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I’m not thinking this marriage
would be that simple.

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The only question he asks is,
what is your name?

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And he began the ceremony
without any questions.

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In just a few minutes, Sayyid
Raad had made $200 for a

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pleasure marriage with a girl
he believed to be only 13.

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For Mona, the consequences
of her teenage

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pleasure marriage
have been disastrous.

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(sullen string music)

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Her family are now pressuring
her to get married.

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She told us something similar
had happened to her cousin,

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with fatal results.

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00:29:49,587 --> 00:29:50,707
(sad string music continues)

245
00:29:56,993 --> 00:29:59,839
Mona’s in such an
impossible situation,

246
00:30:00,050 --> 00:30:02,339
what she thought was
her teenage love story

247
00:30:02,364 --> 00:30:05,003
has ended up ruining
her entire future.

248
00:30:05,976 --> 00:30:09,039
And if it wasn’t for the
cleric convincing her that

249
00:30:09,064 --> 00:30:12,185
it’s religiously OK, this
would have never happened.

250
00:30:16,534 --> 00:30:17,534
(suspenseful music)

251
00:30:22,181 --> 00:30:25,064
In Iraq today,
Conservative Shia clerics

252
00:30:25,089 --> 00:30:27,048
give far more than
just spiritual advice.

253
00:30:27,454 --> 00:30:31,165
After years of sectarian conflict,
they've gained political leverage

254
00:30:31,475 --> 00:30:34,014
often with the
backing of armed militias.

255
00:30:37,767 --> 00:30:40,487
Activists say they're pushing
women's rights back decades.

256
00:30:43,536 --> 00:30:45,918
There were laws
that protected women,

257
00:30:46,960 --> 00:30:49,080
some protection for
us in our marriages.

258
00:30:50,940 --> 00:30:56,331
It seems that everything
we gained in decades of

259
00:30:56,356 --> 00:31:02,185
hard work by our mothers'
generation were just lost.

260
00:31:03,120 --> 00:31:07,960
Once the Islamic clerics rule
the first losers are the women.

261
00:31:09,280 --> 00:31:11,351
(tense music)

262
00:31:13,788 --> 00:31:17,474
Our findings show that Iraqi law
is failing to protect women.

263
00:31:17,953 --> 00:31:20,063
To try to understand
what's happening,

264
00:31:20,088 --> 00:31:22,419
I've come to the
Courthouse in Sadr City.

265
00:31:27,040 --> 00:31:29,160
(indistinct talking)

266
00:31:31,143 --> 00:31:34,357
Just outside, I see the
clerics I'd met earlier.

267
00:31:34,926 --> 00:31:37,574
They're operating a parallel
religious legal system,

268
00:31:38,231 --> 00:31:40,062
conducting Sharia
marriages and divorces.

269
00:31:54,636 --> 00:31:57,659
A Sheikh is doing
a Sharia divorce.

270
00:31:58,224 --> 00:31:59,891
It only takes 5 minutes.

271
00:32:10,043 --> 00:32:13,483
Divorce under Sharia law is
easier than Iraqi civil law.

272
00:32:13,957 --> 00:32:15,558
And leaves women
with fewer rights.

273
00:32:16,476 --> 00:32:18,598
Sharia also allows
child marriage.

274
00:32:19,596 --> 00:32:21,525
What's the youngest
age that you'll marry?

275
00:32:41,775 --> 00:32:45,602
Under Iraqi law
a girl must be 15 to marry.

276
00:32:46,055 --> 00:32:48,101
But this doesn't seem
to bother some clerics.

277
00:33:11,791 --> 00:33:14,274
Inside the court, they're
dealing with the consequences.

278
00:33:15,940 --> 00:33:18,485
Iraqi law doesn't
recognise Sharia marriages.

279
00:33:18,975 --> 00:33:20,763
So to be legal,
couples must have

280
00:33:20,788 --> 00:33:22,784
their marriage signed
off by a judge.

281
00:33:24,237 --> 00:33:27,117
The law on the minimum age for
marriage should be enforced.

282
00:33:27,755 --> 00:33:29,152
But that's not happening.

283
00:33:30,400 --> 00:33:31,933
(talking)

284
00:33:36,233 --> 00:33:38,484
Haneen is getting her
marriage registered.

285
00:33:38,509 --> 00:33:39,802
She's dressed like
a grown woman,

286
00:33:39,827 --> 00:33:41,996
but actually she's
only 13 years old.

287
00:33:43,217 --> 00:33:44,491
(sad music)

288
00:33:44,742 --> 00:33:48,275
A cleric married Haneen to
her husband six months ago.

289
00:33:49,697 --> 00:33:51,030
Now she's pregnant.

290
00:34:01,757 --> 00:34:03,890
Because she got married underage,

291
00:34:04,405 --> 00:34:06,965
Haneen's father and groom
could get two years in prison.

292
00:34:08,098 --> 00:34:10,621
Instead they've been fined $50.

293
00:34:13,068 --> 00:34:16,384
It's up to the judge.
These days many are lenient.

294
00:34:32,880 --> 00:34:34,200
(indistinct talking)

295
00:34:35,027 --> 00:34:37,314
There's a queue of fathers
waiting for their

296
00:34:37,339 --> 00:34:39,523
daughters to get married
before the judge.

297
00:34:41,747 --> 00:34:45,147
Sami Okaybi is here with
his 14-year-old daughter.

298
00:34:45,485 --> 00:34:47,042
He didn't want her face shown.

299
00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:50,107
Why are you marrying
her off so young?

300
00:35:17,103 --> 00:35:18,436
(indistinct talking)

301
00:35:21,643 --> 00:35:23,706
The court's social
worker is registering

302
00:35:23,731 --> 00:35:26,197
the teenage brides
and their grooms.

303
00:35:39,950 --> 00:35:43,139
She's processed 126 underage
marriages in the last six weeks.

304
00:35:45,850 --> 00:35:48,444
She predicts almost all these
teenagers will end up divorcing.

305
00:36:15,101 --> 00:36:19,426
If you're a divorced woman
you don't have a future.

306
00:36:19,947 --> 00:36:23,348
You're looked at as
a tainted person.

307
00:36:23,373 --> 00:36:26,161
You become very
vulnerable to that cleric

308
00:36:26,820 --> 00:36:30,816
who whispers in your ears
that he has the solution.

309
00:36:31,664 --> 00:36:33,731
They call it temporary marriage,

310
00:36:34,042 --> 00:36:36,842
being thrown off from
one man to the other

311
00:36:36,867 --> 00:36:39,117
to the third, fourth,

312
00:36:39,520 --> 00:36:41,589
until you found out that
you're a prostitute,

313
00:36:42,198 --> 00:36:44,105
with a religious cover.

314
00:36:45,576 --> 00:36:48,435
(ominous music)

315
00:36:51,731 --> 00:36:53,943
Far from pleasure
marriage helping women,

316
00:36:54,416 --> 00:36:57,016
we found that clerics were
using it to exploit women.

317
00:36:58,255 --> 00:37:00,255
Preying on the most vulnerable,

318
00:37:00,296 --> 00:37:02,802
recruiting them and
pimping them out.

319
00:37:04,275 --> 00:37:05,771
Rusul is 16.

320
00:37:06,240 --> 00:37:10,216
For her safety, an actor is
speaking her exact words.

321
00:37:23,253 --> 00:37:27,206
Rusul was married off at
twelve and divorced at thirteen.

322
00:37:27,809 --> 00:37:30,221
Then she did a pleasure
marriage to survive.

323
00:37:30,906 --> 00:37:33,106
But soon after the man left her.

324
00:37:34,042 --> 00:37:35,433
(sorrowful music)

325
00:37:49,037 --> 00:37:53,437
The cleric told her that now she
would never find a real husband.

326
00:38:10,003 --> 00:38:11,707
With her sister to support,

327
00:38:11,975 --> 00:38:15,442
Rusul had little choice
but to work for the cleric.

328
00:38:27,384 --> 00:38:30,451
Rusul's been pimped by
the cleric for three years,

329
00:38:31,365 --> 00:38:33,965
forced to have sex
with dozens of men.

330
00:39:28,840 --> 00:39:29,973
(dramatic music)

331
00:39:43,786 --> 00:39:46,091
Ali, who does pleasure
marriages for sex,

332
00:39:46,577 --> 00:39:49,249
says he always pays
clerics to find him girls.

333
00:41:03,120 --> 00:41:05,695
We had evidence the clerics
we'd been secretly filming

334
00:41:05,720 --> 00:41:07,556
would perform
pleasure marriages.

335
00:41:07,885 --> 00:41:10,009
But would they also
procure the girls?

336
00:41:15,640 --> 00:41:18,920
Our reporter went back to
Khadimiya to Sayyid Raad's office.

337
00:41:28,320 --> 00:41:30,538
It was time to ask
the crucial question:

338
00:41:30,984 --> 00:41:32,773
would he provide a girl?

339
00:42:11,287 --> 00:42:12,374
(sad music continues)

340
00:42:12,884 --> 00:42:15,612
In Karbala, Sheikh Salawi hadn't
seemed to think he was doing

341
00:42:15,637 --> 00:42:18,055
anything wrong in arranging
pleasure marriages either.

342
00:42:35,453 --> 00:42:38,455
A few days later, our
reporter rang the Sheikh

343
00:42:38,480 --> 00:42:41,162
to ask him if he too
would provide girls.

344
00:43:22,960 --> 00:43:26,095
He told our reporter he could
offer him a choice of women.

345
00:43:45,200 --> 00:43:46,267
(wings flapping)

346
00:43:46,907 --> 00:43:50,032
Many of the young women
pimped out are destitute.

347
00:43:51,012 --> 00:43:54,011
They're vulnerable to clerics
handling charitable donations.

348
00:44:26,694 --> 00:44:28,781
Ghaith Tamimi says
he's seen clerics

349
00:44:28,806 --> 00:44:31,319
luring women into
the sex trade.

350
00:44:56,357 --> 00:44:58,487
Our undercover
reporter had been

351
00:44:58,512 --> 00:45:00,834
promised girls by
the Sheikh Salawi.

352
00:45:01,200 --> 00:45:03,849
Now he was about to
meet him in Baghdad.

353
00:45:12,259 --> 00:45:14,665
The Sheikh said he
had a girl waiting.

354
00:45:37,161 --> 00:45:39,626
The Sheik said he had
arranged a place where

355
00:45:39,698 --> 00:45:41,724
our reporter could
have sex with her.

356
00:45:58,419 --> 00:46:01,999
We have enough proof
he can provide girls,

357
00:46:02,438 --> 00:46:04,185
so we left it there.

358
00:46:18,231 --> 00:46:19,551
OK, salaam.

359
00:46:22,318 --> 00:46:23,384
(dramatic music)

360
00:46:27,379 --> 00:46:29,494
The Sheik had proved
himself willing

361
00:46:29,519 --> 00:46:31,348
to break the law
and sell women.

362
00:46:33,933 --> 00:46:37,800
By now, we had evidence that
this practice was widespread.

363
00:46:39,106 --> 00:46:42,347
I was about to meet a widow
whose story revealed a senior

364
00:46:42,372 --> 00:46:46,038
cleric running what appeared
to be a prostitution ring.

365
00:46:48,457 --> 00:46:51,457
Reem's husband was killed
in an ISIS bombing.

366
00:46:52,213 --> 00:46:55,746
Soon after, she and her two
children lost their home.

367
00:47:07,307 --> 00:47:10,533
When the cleric contacted
Reem a few days later,

368
00:47:10,557 --> 00:47:11,957
he made a suggestion.

369
00:47:31,869 --> 00:47:32,936
(dramatic music)

370
00:47:33,400 --> 00:47:37,133
Reem says the cleric started
selling her to his friends.

371
00:47:37,791 --> 00:47:40,791
It began one night when
he brought three men.

372
00:48:32,416 --> 00:48:34,483
(ambient sounds of town square)

373
00:48:38,924 --> 00:48:42,970
We can't identify which cleric
Reem alleges abused her.

374
00:48:43,635 --> 00:48:46,968
But she says she was raped in one
of these offices in Kadimiya.

375
00:48:53,818 --> 00:48:56,218
The lucky ones reached
our shelters.

376
00:48:56,966 --> 00:48:58,966
The ones that are not lucky...

377
00:49:00,553 --> 00:49:02,086
- What happens to them?

378
00:49:02,970 --> 00:49:06,427
They end up in brothels,
and they don't live long.

379
00:49:07,349 --> 00:49:10,349
I would say their life
expectancy is like 35.

380
00:49:12,309 --> 00:49:13,309
We...

381
00:49:13,342 --> 00:49:15,787
so many who were about
to throw themselves

382
00:49:15,812 --> 00:49:17,879
off the bridge, into the river.

383
00:49:21,635 --> 00:49:22,635
(tense music building)

384
00:49:24,562 --> 00:49:26,832
We had evidence
clerics had ruined

385
00:49:26,935 --> 00:49:29,464
women’s lives with
pleasure marriages.

386
00:49:30,148 --> 00:49:33,615
We’d filmed a cleric boasting
he had girls for sale.

387
00:49:35,164 --> 00:49:38,830
Now, after months of
preparation, we were about to try

388
00:49:38,855 --> 00:49:42,121
to catch a cleric
in the act of pimping.

389
00:49:44,117 --> 00:49:47,983
Our undercover reporter set
up a meeting with Sayyid Raad.

390
00:49:55,375 --> 00:49:57,787
Once he felt safe,
he signaled to a

391
00:49:57,812 --> 00:50:00,289
young woman in the
back of his taxi.

392
00:50:19,383 --> 00:50:21,242
She says she’s 26.

393
00:50:21,618 --> 00:50:24,078
To protect her,
we’ve disguised her identity.

394
00:50:25,305 --> 00:50:28,398
Our reporter makes it clear
he’s only here to talk.

395
00:50:30,890 --> 00:50:32,577
It was a very difficult meeting

396
00:50:32,806 --> 00:50:36,673
but it was important to prove
Sayyid Raad he brings girls.

397
00:50:46,094 --> 00:50:48,760
Sayyid Raad took
charge of negotiations.

398
00:51:12,859 --> 00:51:15,171
Sayyid Raad seemed
keen to get the

399
00:51:15,196 --> 00:51:17,574
deal done as quickly
as possible...

400
00:51:39,398 --> 00:51:41,398
We had the evidence we needed.

401
00:51:41,625 --> 00:51:43,691
It was time to end the meeting.

402
00:51:43,991 --> 00:51:46,481
Our reporter took Sayyid
Raad aside and said he

403
00:51:46,506 --> 00:51:48,889
wouldn’t go ahead with
the pleasure marriage.

404
00:52:04,599 --> 00:52:08,092
But Sayyid Raad wasn’t ready
to give up on the deal.

405
00:52:28,662 --> 00:52:31,175
We’d captured evidence
that a cleric

406
00:52:31,200 --> 00:52:33,577
was prepared to
pimp a young girl.

407
00:52:34,935 --> 00:52:38,169
The cleric wanted his $400.

408
00:52:38,920 --> 00:52:42,387
He was he was willing to
bring as young as he has to,

409
00:52:43,072 --> 00:52:46,339
he just didn’t want to
let that deal go past him.

410
00:52:48,478 --> 00:52:53,751
It’s a good franchise
for these vampires.

411
00:52:55,564 --> 00:52:58,197
They suck the life
out of young girls.

412
00:52:59,173 --> 00:53:02,133
And leave them to deal
with their miseries.

413
00:53:45,251 --> 00:53:48,649
We wanted to put our allegations
to the clerics we’d filmed,

414
00:53:48,955 --> 00:53:51,213
but it was too dangerous
to do it in person.

415
00:53:51,924 --> 00:53:54,190
I phoned Sayyid Raad from London.

416
00:54:39,191 --> 00:54:40,191
He hung up.

417
00:54:44,425 --> 00:54:46,625
The other clerics didn't respond.

418
00:54:48,191 --> 00:54:51,448
We put our evidence to Iraq's
Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani,

419
00:54:51,917 --> 00:54:54,526
one of the most senior
clerics in Shia Islam.

420
00:54:56,098 --> 00:54:57,698
In a statement, he said:

421
00:55:22,814 --> 00:55:25,542
He said the abuses we'd
seen were happening because

422
00:55:25,567 --> 00:55:27,822
the authorities were
not enforcing the law.

423
00:55:29,056 --> 00:55:32,009
An Iraqi government
spokesman told BBC Arabic,

424
00:55:32,502 --> 00:55:34,293
"if women don't go
to the police with

425
00:55:34,318 --> 00:55:35,939
their complaints
against clerics,

426
00:55:35,964 --> 00:55:38,764
it's difficult for the
authorities to act".

427
00:55:40,916 --> 00:55:43,049
But for many young
women across Iraq,

428
00:55:43,261 --> 00:55:45,219
there's no hope of justice.

429
00:55:46,454 --> 00:55:50,001
Mona can never let her family find
out about her pleasure marriage,

430
00:55:50,517 --> 00:55:53,184
so going to the police
seems impossible.

431
00:56:14,548 --> 00:56:17,815
Since we spoke to Mona,
she’s run away from home.

432
00:56:20,127 --> 00:56:22,321
Rusul is still working
for the cleric

433
00:56:22,767 --> 00:56:24,701
She feels she has no choice.

434
00:56:36,431 --> 00:56:38,831
Reem escaped the
cleric in Kadimiya.

435
00:56:39,430 --> 00:56:41,030
She’s still traumatized.

436
00:57:01,916 --> 00:57:03,649
(weeping, heavy breathing)