Japanese
human shield now the the Madam of Baghdad
By
Ryann Connell
A Japanese woman who went to Iraq as a human shield is now
copping flak in the war-torn country for opening a Baghdad
brothel for American servicemen, according to Shukan Shincho.
Iraqi
communists are up in arms, claiming the human shield who entered
their country because she was opposed to the U.S. starting
a war there is now operating a sex service for GIs.
"A
Japanese woman called Yukiko Muragishi came to Iraq with her
friends to act as a human shield and stayed there when the
war had finished. She stayed because, inside Baghdad's Green
Zone being protected by the U.S. military, she is running
a whorehouse for U.S. servicemen and Iraqi politicians and
it has made her very rich. All you Islamic leaders in your
palaces in the Green Zone, your prayers are worthless as long
as American soldiers are playing around in brothels,"
Shukan Shincho quotes an article listed on the Iraqi Communist
Party's website last month.
Other
Arabic publications have picked up on the story and reported
it widely through the Middle East.
Yukiko
Muragishi, however, the woman accused of being the Madam of
Baghdad, vehemently denies the accusations. The 33-year-old
native of Shiga Prefecture says she thought only of humanitarian
concerns after developing a love for Iraq while visiting the
country as a dancer a decade ago.
"It's
true that I did run a massage parlor in the Green Zone from
April to September last year. I'm also aware that there were
snide rumors about the place being spread. But I want to state
emphatically that there were never sexual services offered
there. If there had been, the U.S. military would have expelled
me," Muragishi tells Shukan Shincho, going on to explain
why she opened a massage parlor for American servicemen. "Right
after the war ended, I had the chance to talk to loads of
American soldiers. Many were traumatized by what they'd had
to do. To try and rid themselves of this feeling, they'd try
and justify their actions. They often got so wound up with
their justifications, you couldn't shut them up. The more
I came in contact with American military members, the more
I realized they were the victims of war, too. I wanted to
do something to help them. The idea I came up with to do so
was to provide them with therapeutic massages."
Muragishi
arranged to borrow the second floor of a restaurant a long-time
Chinese friend had operated and used the space as her massage
parlor. Four massage students were employed as masseuses at
the parlor, providing rubdowns for 30 dollars an hour-long
session.
"There's
no way I got rich out of it," Muragishi says. "When
it got to dangerous, I returned to Japan in November last
year and have since been working part-time at a factory near
my parents' home."
Iraq
experts are not surprised there's ballyhoo in Baghdad over
"Madam" Muragishi.
"You've
got a situation where somebody who went to Baghdad to act
as a human shield because they were opposed to the U.S. war
has suddenly turned around and started providing services
for the American military," Yasuyuki Aizawa, head of
the NGO Peace On operating in Iraq, tells Shukan Shincho.
"Little wonder the Iraqis are mad."
|