Some people still hold extreme views about women working in general, "even though [women] account for 49% of society," Intissar al-Jubouri, the rapporteur of parliament's Committee on Women, Family and Childhood, told Al-Monitor. As there are more job opportunities for men than for women, “The employment of girls in cafes, casinos and other sectors is a must because of the need for money," she added.
“The delay in the enactment of the Social Security Law is one of the causes behind the exploitation of girls in some places of work, where they have to endure persecution and harassment because of the need for money,” she said. “The Iraqi Constitution obliges the government to provide a decent living for citizens." She blamed the law's delay on the budget deficit.
"Human trafficking is rampant, even in some displacement camps,” she added. “I visited the Ministry of Interior to closely monitor the magnitude of … human trafficking, and I was surprised by the lack of statistics" despite the ministry's "obvious efforts to fight the phenomenon.”
She also mentioned another reason women and girls sometimes work in nightclubs: domestic violence.
“There are girls who run away from their families because of violence, and they resort to working in suspicious places. What worsens the situation is that Iraq lacks centers that accommodate battered women,” she said. “The absence of the culture of reporting about violence to security and competent authorities makes it easy to exploit women in human trafficking."
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