Iraq: Outrage over infidelity network in Basra, 27 arrested

Dubai: Iraqi security forces have arrested 27 individuals — both wives and husbands — in a covert “wife swapping” network that has provoked widespread moral outrage and highlighted a gap in the country’s penal code.

Mid-May raids by the Ministry of Interior, National Security Service and local police in multiple Basra neighbourhoods followed weeks of social-media tip-offs and undercover surveillance.

Authorities traced an Instagram page where participants arranged spouse-exchange meetups at Metro stations and private venues. Investigators monitored the page for weeks, mapping profiles and gathering locations before executing coordinated dawn raids.

Officials recovered phones, hard drives, and screenshots documenting the network’s activities.

Under current Iraqi law, no statute explicitly bans consensual spouse exchange. Prosecutors have charged those arrested under broad “moral depravity” and prostitution statutes, but legal experts warn this approach leaves loopholes.

“We urgently need legislation that directly addresses spouse swapping,” said Mehdi Al Tamimi, director of Basra’s Human Rights Office.

Religious authorities decried the network as “a direct threat to our societal values,” and Iraq’s Higher Judicial Council has formed a committee to propose new penalties.

Netizens — outraged both by the operators and the more than 5,000 followers of the Instagram page — are demanding that police press charges against everyone involved.

A local shopkeeper, who asked not to be named, said: “In my thirty years here, I’ve never seen something like this. It’s eroding trust in our community.”

Meanwhile, civil-society groups warn that declining economic conditions and weakening family structures may fuel similar underground practices if left unaddressed.

The joint security–judicial committee is drafting a bill to explicitly criminalize spouse exchange. Parliament is expected to debate the proposal in the coming session.

In the meantime, investigators continue to track online chatter for other networks that may be operating elsewhere in Iraq.

-- Huda Ata is an independent writer based in the UAE