Baghdad secure enough to sin again

[Soontir948]

[quote="MSNBC"]NYT: Baghdad secure enough to sin again
As curfews, abductions and killings lessen, many rediscover illicit pleasures
By Rod Nordland
The New York Times
updated 3:59 a.m. ET, Sun., April 19, 2009

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Vice is making a comeback in this city once famous for 1,001 varieties of it.

Gone, for the most part, are nighttime curfews, religious extremists and prowling kidnappers. So, inevitably, some people are turning to illicit pleasures, or at least slightly dubious ones.

Nightclubs have reopened, and in many of them, prostitutes troll for clients. Liquor stores, once shut down by fundamentalist militiamen, have proliferated; on one block of busy Saddoun Street, there are more than 10 of them.

Abu Nawas Park, previously deserted for fear of suicide bombers seeking vulnerable crowds, has now become a place for assignations between young people so inclined. It is not that there are hiding places in the park, where trees are pretty sparse; the couples just pretend they cannot be seen, and passers-by go along with the pretense.

It is a long way from Sodom and Gomorrah, but perhaps part way back to the old Baghdad. The Baathists who ruled here from the 1960s until the American invasion in 2003 were secular, and more than a little sinful. Baghdad under Saddam Hussein was a pretty lively place, with street cafes open until 2 or 3 a.m., and prostitutes plying their trade even in the bowling alley of Al Rashid Hotel.

“Everything is going back to its natural way,â€

[frigidmagi]

[quote]One police detective said he would not dream of enforcing the law against prostitutes. “They’re the best sources we have,â€

[General Havoc]

[quote]“If I had my way, I’d destroy all the mosques and spread the whores around a little more,â€

[Cynical Cat]

[quote="frigidmagi"][quote]One police detective said he would not dream of enforcing the law against prostitutes. “They’re the best sources we have,â€