A reality of war

Wedad is a single Iraqi mother of three little girls. Her one desire is that her daughters do not follow the same path she was forced down. She hopes that when they are grown, their husbands will not be killed in the war and they will not be forced into prostitution, like she was.

Prostitution is both illegal and highly stigmatized in Iraq, but uneducated single women do not have other options. If Wedad's family finds out about her new "career," she faces ostracism. If the government finds out, she will go to jail while her "customers" continue to dehumanize women like her.

After a jail sentence, the only thing a former Iraqi prostitute has to look forward to is a return to sexual exploitation.

The war in Iraq is allowing the suffering of women powerless in their own lives; it is facilitating their slavery. We are killing fathers and husbands and sons and families, on both sides of the conflict.

We must commiserate, or eventually we will only be killing ourselves.

For more information, read the full story at CNN.com: http://tinyurl.com/ybvol93.