More than 17,000 people have demanded the BBC take down a documentary about young Iraqi girls being sold for sex – calling it ‘disrespectful’ to law-abiding Shia Muslims.

The corporation broadcast ‘Undercover With The Clerics – Iraq’s Secret Sex Trade’ on October 3 – an investigation into sexual exploitation of children and young women by clerics in Iraq.

Journalists caught clerics offering ‘pleasure marriages’ to girls as young as nine – where men banned from sex outside marriage can pay a dowry for an interim wife.

The practice is banned in Iraq but eight out of 10 Shia clerics who were approached were willing to carry it out, the BBC World investigation found.

But now more than 17,000 people have signed an e-petition demanding the BBC removes the show from iPlayer.

The petition to the change.org petition – set up by ‘Mo K’ – accused the corporation of ‘cherry-picking’ […] ‘misguided men who do not represent Shia Islam in any way’.

But a BBC spokesman told MailOnline it won’t be deleted and said: ‘This thorough investigation was conducted over an 11-month period and exposes the sexual exploitation of children and young women. The documentary fully complies with BBC Editorial Guidelines.’

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