Jacob Siegel is in the Iraqi capital, monitoring the revival of hardline Shiite militias whose ideologies aren’t much friendlier than that of ISIS. In his latest dispatch, he reports on the threats faced by a local NGO that protects abused women and gay Iraqis:
It was the police who phoned the organization Sunday morning, [Dalal] Jumaa [who heads the office of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq] said. They told her they had heard she harbored gay men and runaway girls. But the threat, which the police were relaying, came from Asaib Ahl al Haq, a powerful and notoriously brutal Shia militia in Baghdad. “I cannot stop Asaib Ahl al Haq,” the policeman told her, “they received this information and will kill you if you don’t leave.”
The Organization, as everyone calls it, stood accused of pimping out the young women in its shelters, which Jumaa said is a lie commonly used to slander Iraqi groups advocating for women’s rights. She convinced the policeman of her innocence but the militia wouldn’t be waiting to hear her out. Asaib Ahl al Haq is the group believed to have slaughtered 29 women alleged to be prostitutes last week in the upscale neighborhood of Zayouna.
The Dish 