Name Your Price

                                                             NAME YOUR PRICE
                                                                By: Nydia Zapata

( Source: Humanitarian Alliance Blog/http://humanitarianalliance.wordpress.com/tag/offenders/)

Slapped, punched, scratched, slammed, any other violent remark that you could imagine is happening at this moment to a female in this world. This abuse is coming from middle aged men, men like this that are leaving their wives at home and paying these under aged girls for sex. That right here is called sex trafficking, things like this are happening as we speak. Today, yesterday, and the day before that, things like this will even happen tomorrow. Poor innocent little and teenaged girls throwing away their lives to do something someone is forcing them to do. None of this was ever their choice, this life was chosen for them. These girls are going through so much in so little time. They say it takes 9 months for someone to be born, but only a second to die. These girls had no choice in their lives to make the certain discussions they wanted too. Their owners were quick to grab, but even quicker to pull the trigger and end their lives within that one second. This is an issue that has continued to expand over the years.

When I was 5 I was in school, I played with my toys, and I had a nap time. Thats what 5 year olds do, they eat, play, sleep and do other things kids do. One thing a 5 year old doesn't do is be put into sex trafficking. Around the world between 50 and 60 percent of the children who are trafficked into sexual slavery are under age 16 (http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Child-Sex-Trafficking-The-Facts). Not only that but an estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year. (http://www.oprah.com/oprahshow/Child-Sex-Trafficking-The-Facts) Around the world children are being sold and or trade into sex trafficking for a living. These children aren’t only being put into sex trafficking, but these little girls are having their vaginas sewed back together, so that they would be picked again. One example around the world would be “Men in Cambodia will pay thousand dollars to rape a virgin for a week.” (Mam, pg 59) In my opinion this sounds like the sickest thing that was ever introduced to me as a 15 year girl. When I think about topics like this I put myself in the situation. When I think about things like this I just say to myself that, that one person could be me. That could be me getting punched and slapped. Having the wind knocked right out of me. That could be me bleeding non stop, I could be that 5 year old little girl feeling that needle piercing straight down there. Feeling the thread going in and out and through my vagina. Having the screaming killing my throat. Not only that but having my vagina being reopen over 3 times due to sex. Feeling the cuts and tairs of my vagina being reopened, sewed, reopened, then sewed again. Almost feeling like a knife being cut right into me. Starting off slow, then increasing the pressure. Somebodies nasty sweat falling on my body, having to take all those hits and coming out with scars and bruises, scars and bruises that hold stories. But not only a story but a memory. A memory that would lie with me for as long as I would be able to remember. That memory just might be my whole life, haunting me likes its haunting Somaly Mam today.

(Source: Road of Lost Innocence by Somaly Mam)

    Somaly Mam is one women I would forever respect. This woman wrote a book called The Road of Innocence having to do with everything I’m talking to you about. If anyone were to ever tell me that they hate their lives one more time, I’m seriously going to mention this amazing woman. I respect this woman so much, everything that she’s ever been through has been nothing but hell. She went through rape, being sold to the botherl by her own family. Not only that but this woman right here was only 14 when she got into the lifestyle of being a prostitute. And im only 15, that could’ve been me. Somaly is a strong women that went through alot, there was alot of times that she could’ve ended her life, but she didn’t want too. Even though she was lied too, beaten, raped, sold a few times she forever kept her head held high. She made it through everything, surprisingly. One thing i noticed as I was reading her book was that, she wasn’t always thinking about herself, but other people. Even though it was a situation that requires you to depend on yourself and just try to make out there alive, she actually thought about some people that she had working along with her within the botherl. Somaly Mam opened not only my eyes, but others as well. The amount of awards she won are phenomenal.

• Prince of Asturias Award for International Cooperation in the presence of Queen Sofia of Spain, 1998
• CNN Hero, 2006
• Glamour Woman of the Year 2006
• Olympic flag bearer, 2006 Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony, Torino, Italy.
• Honorary Doctor of Public Service from Regis University
• US State Department “Heroes of Anti-Trafficking” award
• World's Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child in Sweden for her "dangerous struggle" to defend the rights of children in Cambodia.]
• Roland Berger Human Dignity Award 2008
• TIME magazine's 100 most influential people, with the accompanying article written by actress Angelina Jolie, 2009
• The Guardian Top 100 Women: Activists and Campaigners, 2011
• The Daily Beast Women in the World, 2011
• “Mimosa D’Oro”
• Festival du Scoop Prize, France
• Excmo Ayuntaniento de Galdar Concejalia de Servicio Sociale, Spain.

    Us as a unit, as the youth can change things like this. Especially us females, we have the right to put an end to this, make things happen and stop sex trafficking for good. We can do things like start petitions organize some type of moment, we have to start small but something small can mean the world to that one 5 year old that could still someday have a childhood. Another thing would be not only talking to females and seeing how we can come together and change something, but also talking to the men and young men. Go into their mind and see what’s going on and why they do the things they do and try to change their thinking a little bit. The smallest things can change something so big, if we just start talking to people.

Israeli and Palestinian Conflict

Noah Katzman

10D

Israeli and Palestinian conflict

    The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is an ongoing struggle between Israelis and Palestinians that began in the early 20th century. The collision between those two forces in southern Levant and the emergence of the Palestinian nationalism in the 1920s, eventually escalated into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in 1947, and expanded into a wider Arab and Israeli conflict later on. The first Palestinian uprising began in 1987, as a response to regional stagnation. By the early 1990s, international efforts to settle the conflict had begun, in light of the success of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty of 1982.

    In the book, Hour of Sunlight by Sami al Jundi, the Israeli- Palestinian conflict affected him because one of his friends died while he tried to overthrow the Israeli Occupation. He was trying to build a bomb to use against the Israeli police, but it exploded earlier and killed his friend. Since Sami al Jundi is Palestinian, this portrays the hatred the two sides have for each other. It shows how far Sami al Jundi will go, to fight for what he believes in, even if it’s dangerous. After leaving prison, he still wanted to fight for his peoples rights, but he used a less violent approach, and cofounded the Middle East program of Seeds of Peace Center for Coexistence, which brings together Palestinian and Israeli youth.

The Evils of Forced Sexual Slavery

By: Marsel Shaqja

“She said she was beaten ferociously to force her to smile and act seductive.” (Kristof, Nicholas) This quote was from an op-ed called “The Evil Behind the Smiles” by Nicholas D. Kristof. This op-ed was written by Nicholas to show people the evils of sex trafficking. She wrote about how they tortured her because she wouldn't smile to a man, and be seductive. She also talked about how people think that slavery was over a long time ago, but sex trafficking is the modernized version of slavery. “Women Are Silver, Women Are Diamonds: Conflicting Images of Women in the Cambodian Print Media” is an article written on JSTOR that talks about a lot of facts about sex trafficking in Cambodia. In the article, it said that virgins were most valuable. So the people who owned the brothels, often sewed their vaginas so that they would get more money out of them.

According to the U.S. State Department’s estimates 600,000 to 800,000 people are being sold into sex slavery yearly. (Kristof, Nicholas) This shows that sex trafficking is growing in alarming rates. Most of these people are female, and vary from the ages of 8 to 16. Women in Cambodia can’t even fight back because they have no power to fight back with. This is due to the fact that the Cambodian government has not taken much action towards women’s rights. And that is why it is an amazing thing to see people like Somaly Mam, a former sex slave that escaped from the brothels, take action against sex trafficking in such a successful way. But she is not the only one to escape from the brothels. “ At age 9, Srey Pov was able to dart away from the brothel and outrun the guard. She found her way to a shelter run by Somaly Mam, an anti-trafficking activist who herself was prostituted as a child.” (Kristof, Nicholas) As seen in this article, Somaly Mam is helping more and more innocent women get away from the brothels. As Somaly said in her book “The Road of Lost Innocence” she will not stop until this terrbile form of slavery stops.

(Sourcer: time.com)
This is Somaly Mam talking about sex
 trafficking at a press conference

People have to be inspired by somebody like Somaly Mam, who is doing everything in her power to stop sex trafficking. Even though one or two people can’t make much of a difference, hundreds and thousands and millions of people can. That is why people like Somaly Mam are amazing and inspiring. Even though they don’t have huge numbers of people supporting them, they do everything in their power to help.

Nicholas Kristof is a man who is trying to reach out to an army of people to help Somaly Mam in this fight to stop sex trafficking. He has made calculations that there are more girls and women getting sex trafficked then there were slaves during the slave trades. But people are treating it as if it is nothing, even though it is a huge thing.

Marsel Shaqja is a sixteen year old boy that attends Frank McCourt Highschool in Manhattan, New York. And he wants there to be a world where there is no pain and violence, and everybody is treated as an equal.

The Fight to freedom in Afghanistan

by Dana Johnson, 10C

Source: Unifem.Org

Individuals could use their powers to enact a change in the community by showing they have a goal, and faith then you could achieve something. Women in Afghanistan showed that it was a long long struggle that they had to overcome .  In the book; The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Lemmon shows how the character Kamilia could change one community. She showed that by trust, despite the Taliban war and rules that the afghanistan's women had go through; Kamilia made that decision to start a dressmaking business with her sister. “Malika, I think that if I knew how to sew I could start making dresses at home and perhaps I could sell them to the shops a Lycee Myriam” (56-57). This shows that Kamilia has a goal to have each woman feel good about themselves and to re-live the business in the neighborhood of Khair Khana because it was not fair to the woman because the men were forced to fight in the war, leaving their families behind and leaving the women the household head. Also, Kamilia showed faith. Even though she was afraid because the changes happening in Afghanistan (Khair Khana). She had faith because her father was still fighting in the war and even though she was scared she still believed that Taliban war could downfall.  It was sad to read that in the book because their town was falling apart but Kamilia and her family knew it was 

what right for her family.

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

We as readers and authors read and write nonfiction stories so history can be relieved. So if you relive it in a book with interesting characters and memories you’ll have The women of Khair Khana connects back on the women of Afghanistan because it makes you think about young girls growing to see the fighting and women taking the lead role it was a pretty tough time. “In truth,  the situation of women in Afghanistan remains appalling,  Armed local warlords have their own rules and governments which brutalize

people- especially women”. (Betrayal, Mariam Rawi). This quote mentioned about Mariam Rawi showed that it is important to read nonfiction because you read about sad true stories and inspires someone. 

Writing could be a tool for changing the society because so many authors likes to picture the paper as if they’re talking to it, in other words, it’s your diary and you’re expressing your thoughts and feelings on your paper. It makes us readers excited and eager. Authors writes stories about the women of Afghanistan to make you feel the emotions from the topic and author. That is exactly what Gayle Lemmon showed while writing The Dressmaker of Khair Khana.  

A Voice for Those Who Have None

by Melissa Lilly, 10D

Almost every girl with brothers understands early, girls don’t get to do everything their brothers do. Their brother gets to stay out until twelve and can do whatever he wants, but his sister cannot.  She cannot be out until midnight because her curfew is six; she has to follow the rules that were made specifically for her, because she is a female. Her brother has different rules, her brother is allowed to do as he wishes when she cannot, she is being marginalized because she is a female. Women are marginalized in societies all over the world and in some cases die because people don’t believe they matter. This has been true for centuries. In ancient civilazations, women were considered property, and were pressed to the margin because the cultures refused to recognize their needs. They were looked at as the inferior sex. This is still true. In the present day cultures, women have less rights than men and in some cases are being trafficked for sexual purposes, so women are still property. This inequality must be eliminated in life.  We must make it so men treat women with the respect that women have been giving men for centuries. The goal is to create equality in this world.  However, so many things are standing in the way.  Sex trafficking must be abolished, women should be able to get an education like men, culture should not decide how to treat the female sex, and women should have just as many rights as men do.

Human trafficking is defined in the dictionary as: “organized criminal activity in which human beings are treated as possessions to be controlled and exploited (as by being forced into prostitution or involuntary labor)” (Merriam-Webster).  One specific type of human trafficking, sex-trafficking is modern day slavery, and millions of women and girls are actually enslaved right now, all other the globe.  According to CRS Report for Congress, “More than 700,000 people are believed to be trafficked each year worldwide; some 50,000 to the United States. Trafficking is now considered the third largest source of profits for organized crime, behind only drugs and weapons, generating billions of dollars annually.” This is horrendous.  In most cases women and girls are taken from their families, homes, countries and shipped to serve in what is called a brothel. A brothel is a house where men can visit prostitutes; however as mentioned most do not come willingly.  And the problem is getting worse.  The prostitution rates continue to increase all over the world, according to Prostitution Policy in Europe: A Time of Change? “In Sweden there are approximately 2,500 prostitutes in a population of 8.5 million (0.3 per 1,000)” So in Sweden alone there are 2, 500 prostitutes, imagine the total number for the world. It’s impossible to know how many of these women are slaves, but whatever the number is, it’s too many if they are there against their will.

At brothels girls are raped, beaten and can come into contact with disease such as HIV, other STD’s which brand a female for life.  Brothels are meant to break these girls and women and take advantage of them by rape, threats, forcefulness and embarrassment. Women die in these brothels, on the streets, because of diseases they get from of being forced into such a trade.  However, as the book Half the Sky points out, “Women are not dying because of untreatable disease. They are dying because societies have yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving” (Kristof and WuDunn 116).  These women could be treated from disease, and from death, but they are not treated because women are seen as the less superior sex.  And this is just one example of this.  Trafficking has such an enormous effect on girls and women that it is indescribable. It has such a traumatic effect on the mental, emotional and physical wellbeing of the women and girls that it involves itself with. These trafficked women undergo dangerous emotional anxiety, such as humiliation, unhappiness, distress, wariness and suicidal thoughts. Victims every so often receive post-traumatic stress disorder for such a disturbing experience that has mentally scarred them for life.  In all conscience, this is absolutely inexcusable.

Sex trafficking is just one way men still make women an inferior sex.  One’s culture also has an enormous impact on how women are perceived. In multiple countries women are treated differently from men. As it says in the Half the Sky, females in China, for instance, almost never went to school and were sold to become sex slaves before giving them a chance at life, “Girls were rarely educated, often sold, and vast numbers ended up in the brothels of Shanghai” (Kristof and WuDunn 207).  Knowledge is one of the most amazing things that people must work towards; an education teaches us to explore, to think and investigate what is and what could be. With an education a person can see the truth in things for themselves so they will never have to be dependent on another. Furthermore it strengthens a person’s gifts, skills and gives them a chance to reach their full potential. But to never be given that opportuntiy is incredibly unfair; and frequently the brightest children are born into families who cannot support nor want to give them the education that they rightfully deserve because their culture says that women should stay at home rather than go to school with the boys.

Sex slaves and culture are just a few examples of the double standards of life, but women’s rights is most definitely another. Globally, women have far less rights than men do which is completely imbalanced.  Laws help people to live in peace, so having unbalanced laws is harmful to the female sex. Yet, people have refused to equalize it.  According to Virginia Law Review, “Equality of rights implies equality of law.  As well as equality in the administration of the law. Without equal application of the law there cannot be equal rights.”  The law must change so there can be balance but it is clear as day that men want to keep the law favoring them. For example the story of Goretti in Half the Sky, In Burundi, Africa she was a prisoner in her hut, for she and other women in her region had to ask her husband’s permission to leave their home. The men were in charge of their wives even when they weren’t home, and in Goretti’s case her husband Bernard was a horrible and nasty man and did not like to let her leave. Goretti, mother of six, wife, and the age 35 was not allowed to leave her home even to the market. They were barely making enough to survive and didn’t buy mosquito nets to help prevent malaria that is very dangerous for the reason being that Bernard was spending the little money they did make on trips to the bar, and beer which happened to be 30 percent of the family’s nonrefundable earnings. However Goretti was a woman, which means she had not gotten an education and was not permitted to buy anything or deal with money at all. She was a mother of six and still had no say in their protection from malaria or how to spend the money they had to benefit her children. Actually the only communication with her husband was when he beat her and when he forced her into having sex with him. She was home all day every day and didn’t know anyone, she was alone, for in Burundi it is said that it is a wife’s responsibility to cook, stay in the house or work in the fields, which is exactly what Goretti did. But she hated it, she wanted her freedom, but alas she couldn’t have it if she stayed in the same routine that she was in. She soon heard about a program called CARE, it was a program that focused on the needs of women and girls. She thought she had to go, so she asked her husband, and his response was no. So, she didn’t go, but the more Goretti heard about this wondrous program the more her heart longed to go, so she went, without consent and that was the first step she took towards helping herself. Goretti soon became president of a new CARE association that she created and soon her life changed for the better. She was able to handle money and spend it how she wanted it, on fertilizer for her garden, her loan etc... Goretti says, “This was a culture where women couldn’t speak” (Kristof and WuDunn 201). Now she has the courage to use the voice she was pressured to not use, she is able to be part of the community, she has her freedom.

People can use their power to enact change in the global community by using their voice, by getting the courage to speak their minds even though they are pressured into silence. Goretti is just one example of how just one woman can make a change; how women have been seen as inferior but are far from it.  Small organizations, small voices, can bring attention to a subject that can be dear to one’s heart, whether it is to raise money to help improve something or a blog post to get the idea across, people can make a change, it is all up to if they actually do it. Nonfiction is read to gain knowledge, which is one of the best things to obtain. Nonfiction is read and is important because it helps one learn about a topic(s), to understand the difference between what is real and what is imaginary. Writing can be a tool for changing a society, the power it has is so vast that even if you do not enjoy it, everyone does it. Writing something powerful has the capability to encourage, to motivate, to change lives, minds, and even change history. It has the power to make a change, but people just don’t see it that way yet, they haven’t realized that just one person can make a huge change, and writing is one way in which it can occur.

The inquality that is happening towards women must come to an end. Women and men should be treated as equals. Sex trafficing must be eliminated, women should get an education just like men, culture should not influence how you treat women and women should have the same rights as men.

The path of women

   The path of women

(source)
Child sold into prostitution in India

While human rights are often understood as the rights that everyone has because of their humanity, the assumption that all people share these rights are false for many women. Women who live in developing countries are more prone to injustices mainly because of economic problems the family faces; as “peasants” they do not have a voice in the country, in many cases when lower class people try to report a crime it’s brushed off by the police, because of their social status.Rape then becomes a product of this situation because the attacker isn't scared that women will report him to the authorities, so he continues his assaults; about . From Asia to Africa there have been recurring events of assaults on women that have had no justice, just in India Of the more than 600 rape cases reported in Delhi in 2012, only one led to a conviction (Feminist Media). These aren't just numbers these are women who have to suffer knowing their attacker is still free and at any moment can attack another innocent woman. Human rights are rights every human being deserves to have and apply to everyone without distinction of any kind. Yet women don’t seem to receive many of these “rights” , in many regions of the world  women are oppressed and ignored, their voice is taken away from them not because they've done something wrong but simply because of their gender.

From India to Bangladesh sex trafficking of young women in common because their family is pushed to sell them because of economic issues. These girls are put into brothels and are forced to become prostitutes until they’re no longer useful to the owners. In many cases girls that refuse to comply to  their owners are brutally beaten and then raped until they stop struggling and accept their fate to become a prostitute for the rest of their lives. Naina a young girl born and raised in a brothel when she began to go through puberty the owner decided she would begin working as a prostitute she refused and slapped her first customer she was beat then raped(Kristoff). Many young women and girls suffer the same fate as Naina having no choice but to oblige they live a tragic life. No women should have to worry about going outside their home no woman should be afraid at night because they might be kidnapped. To detain a controversial issue like this we must first establish a sense of equality between women and men.  

To achieve equality between genders we must give priority to  violence against women and girls. From sexual assaults in Egypt to Cambodia and elsewhere this violence leaves physiological and physical scars  on victims many are unable to recover and resort to suicide. If all that’s being added is more violence there will never be a solution to stop this injustice we must give equal opportunities to both women and men including education, job opportunities, equal pay,etc. If this happens women will obtain a voice  and have the same privileges men have. Empowerment of women is essential to aid this problem and to prevent sex trafficking and sexual assaults on women. To help make a difference in your community and raise awareness please visit http://womenthrive.org. 

When will it stop?

Martin Curaj

10B

The genocide in Darfur has been affecting many people that are in the refugee camps because they can not live like their lives once were anymore. Survivors are scared for life from the things they’ve seen and the things that happened to them. Unfortunately this issue is still going on today and amazingly no international forces are trying to stop it. Peace talks have continuously failed to stop the attacks and madness. Will international forces intervene and help the situation? This is the second time genocide has happened in Africa and surrounding countries aren't doing anything. The UN says what happened in Rwanda can never happen again but how can they hold their word when we see something like this. It’s an act of violence, starvation and rebellion in Darfur. These acts started when two rebel groups from Darfur that set an attack against the government’s military installation to fight against political and economic marginalization of Darfur. Most of the world knows that many people in Darfur are dying each month because of these attacks. “Early  in 2005, a United Nations humanitarian coordinator reported that 180,000 died over 18 months (6)-on the basis of extrapolation from the who estimate.” (Hagan and Palloni, “Death in Darfur”). It does not take a genius to see the issue thats occurring currently in Darfur. More action should be taken by the international forces.

The different stories in Darfur Diaries Stories of Survival are real stories and they’re all very depressing, most of the people that were interviewed did not feel so comfortable telling their personal stories of what’s happening in Darfur. Ibrahim was one of the kids that told his story about what is happening in Darfur. He was about ten years old when he was interviewed. Ibrahim was sitting out on a wooden platform when he was being asked question by Jen and Adam and showed them his sketches from a book that he had. They had asked him many questions, “‘Where is your house in the picture?’ Ibrahim pointed to the hut with flames lapping from it’s roof” (Jen, Darfur Diaries Stories of Survival). This young ten-year-old child has to watch his house burn down in flames. Ibrahim said that he had no choice to just run away because everyone in his family had died. Ibrahim escaped from the Janjaweed but how can you call him fortunate when he has to go on living without his family.

What exactly have people been doing to try to stop the this genocide? There has been help from the United Nations to make peace in Darfur. The UNAMID to this day are not having the type of resources to help the millions of Darfurians. What can we do to help the Darfurians? One way is spread the word about the genocide in Darfur because believe it or not some people still don't know that this is happening. Another way is to donate money to these families that have had their houses burn down and their families killed. Even though you cannot compensate their families lives you can still help make their life a little easier. Help these people get back to the life that they onced lived because right now they are living a life that they shouldn't. There are many ways to help the people in Darfur and they need it now more than ever.

The genocide is a big issue around the world and still will be if their is no stopping it. The longer it goes on for the worst it will get. If everyone stands down from helping the Darfurians how are they suppose to get help? It’s hard to go through your own life and be thinking about or hearing about this genocide that is happening, more people need to step up and help more instead of just waiting for other people to help. The more there are of us the easier helping will be. It’s time for us to unite together and stop this genocide.

Taliban takes full control of Women rights

    Over more than a million women and young girls in Afghanistan have been excluded from working, education and human rights. Due to the regime of the Taliban that took control of Herat in 1994 leading to the control of Kabul in 1996 where then at that time the Taliban decided to strip women from their human rights.

    The Taliban an extremist militia seized control of Kabul on September 27,1996

and violently put  Afghanistan into a gender apartheid in which women and girls were stripped from their basic human rights. The Taliban wanted to eliminate women from Kabul because they thought women weren’t worthy or good enough, they hated women and wanted them to be demolished. So many women were abandoned from their everyday routines and forced to leave school and stop getting an education. So many women and girls were kicked out of universities, schools and work. They Were forced to stay home and weren't allowed out if not accompanied by a close male relative. There were no female nurses or doctors so women weren't allowed to go to hospitals because they weren't allowed to be seen by a male doctor.

   The Taliban took many things from the Afghan women but I know for many they haven't taken their pride and what they stand for. The Taliban being in Afghanistan is horrible! No women should be told what to do or in prison for standing up for what they believe in. Every women in the world should be entitled to their rights. The Taliban has taken their tactics way above horrifying when they decided to start beating the women and burning them or stoning them to death. No woman deserves to go to such brutal pain because of what she's wearing or what she believes in. Everyone should stand  up to the Taliban for their education  and being in one harmony instead of being controlled by this one group who has been putting fear Into everyone's hearts.

(Source: Image by Fox News)

    In the book "The Dressmaker of Khair Khana" by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. The author goes in depth about five sisters and a women named Kamila who risked everything to keep them safe in Kabul while the Taliban were first taking over. Kamila a newly grad student who earned her teaching degree durning the civil war was subsequently banned from school and confined to her home to tend to her five siblings. She had drive and determination and created her own business to keep her family good with the food that they needed to live off of. The Taliban has no remorse as to what you are and if you have a family they just don't care.

   The young girl you see above in this picture was shot in the head by the Taliban for being a activist and supporting education for young girls around Afghanistan. She spread word about education being key and gold to success and being able to show peace with an education. Luckily this young girl survived to continue telling her story and spreading good word to all the young girls in afghanistan.

     We need to stop the Taliban once and for all! They have become dangerous and many innocent women have been dying and been beaten just because they felt like beating them. Violence is never the answer, every women should be entitled to their education and having a job. We need to spread peace, by giving the young girls their education back and showing the Taliban that we are not willing to back down until we get what we deserve which is women's rights back! Having an education would spread peace world wide, being educated is a gift and everyone should be able to have it. No matter what gender, race or color you are. We should all be equal and not under anyone's control.

Racism in Darfur

         For centuries now, our existence has pushed us in the wrong direction. Due to our evil nature numerous fights have erupted around the globe. Most of these conflicts are originated from the ignorance of most people. Sadly they keep existing, they generate so much chaos as it involuntarily spreads slowly until our whole community is affected by it. We don’t really want to believe it’s happening. It really is an impossible mission, for us to pursue our dreams in a good manner but to forget about what is revolving around us. The minimum efforts some say, are ‘futile’ but little they know that collectively these contributions have a great impact on people’s desperate conditions, the way people are judged because of their appearance in continents like Africa. In Africa peacefully coexisted regions where humans worked together, where they helped each other out and made a living. Religion played a huge role in these regions. A variety of religions was then mixed in after the Europeans took control of the continent. Religion was the cause for this little region in Africa called Darfur to form minor conflicts that over time developed into huge ordeals. These ordeals have turned into violence, into a mass killing, a genocide. Meaning thousands of innocent people are suffering and dying because of racial discrimination or other un explainable motives.

         The racial war in Darfur has been proceeding to the point where right now nobody is really trying to prevent it from ending. It has gotten to the point where it is now truly unstoppable. It started in February 2003, when the Sudan liberation movement and justice and equality movement groups in Darfur took up arms as they accused the Sudanese government of the oppressing of non-arab Sudanese in favor of Sudanese Arabs. The Arab government has sought only to destroy the blacks in this biracial nation. “Jihad inspired by racism, in-turn inspired by political ambition. The government of Sudan is supporting the genocide and slavery and arming the Janjaweed. It is the very same method used against the non-Muslims, and the world stood back and barely lifted a finger to aid Sudan then, and hasn't made a move yet on the current atrocities. But international pressure is mounting”. (Fein. 1990) At last, this explains why the atrocities are still occurring. As we look deep into this situation, people who are in Darfur cannot escape from the country. The government constantly lies about everything, it traps the people inside and suffocates them.

         In the book Darfur Diaries by Jen Marlowe, a young girl named Sami recounts her story in Darfur as she describes how the people felt once she entered the country. 
“One Darfurian, Salih Bob said ‘I’m quite sure if this happened in Los Angeles from your own government or in newcastle from the British government . . . all the world will hear you and help would come.  But our case is different.  Nobody is listening.”
Sami is going through the same problem, though she is rather confused because she expected Darfur to be a good place to visit while everyone she meets seems rather terrified. They are the victims of the Janjaweed, they are the governments enemy. There is solely no reason why they should exist and it’s only because of what race you belong to. The children attend for no one’s rescue because they know that nobody will save them which is rather depressing.

So many women inside this country have been abused, so many men and children killed, colossal amounts of houses destroyed.  People have lost hope because the people in america simply ‘don’t want to listen’ or simply don’t care at all. The Janjaweed was what was causing so much havoc, and through racial framing, the Sudanese government mobilized it towards much death and destruction. The separation between muslims and blacks was so intense that it the U.N has no reason to interfere. It is such a complex matter almost impossible for anyone to understand. 
“The aggregation and concentration of racial epithets during attacks created a collective effect that intensified the severity of genocidal violence. Collective dehumanization processes place groups outside the normative universe of moral protection, leaving them vulnerable to targeted genocidal victimization.”(Katz 1998) This can be categorized more as a moral belief. 

Collocated to these effects is also the fact that this issue transformed from a religious matter to an ethnic matter. There is an approximate 600 Sudanese tribes fully equipped in Darfur and an Arab Apartheid. If we want to analyze in depth why this racial war is still taking place you would have to look for answers in Darfur. There is very little that we could really do to stop this from occurring since the ethnic battle is way too intense for anyone to handle or to comprehend. We can collectively liberate the innocent that in this very moment are suffering by making small contributions and then hopefully await the day that this ethnic battle disappears. 

A Woman's Nightmare

By Keiko Canada

https://www.ijmuk.org/
Inside a brothel.

“To live is to suffer, to survive is to find some meaning in the suffering.” Woman all over have been suffering from prostitution and sex slavery. Being kidnapped and sold into prostitution is a very devastating thought. Well, It is happening to many young girls in Cambodia. The number of prostitutes and sex slaves in Cambodia is between 40,000 and 50,000 (Mam). Will this problem ever be dealt with? Both Cambodian women and little girls as young as the age of 5 have suffered a huge amount of humiliation. Women and young girls are either sold or kidnapped into sex slavery. Then they are trapped forever in the brothel they are sold to. Some people have escaped in the past, although it is quite difficult due to the guards. If you’re now wondering what a brothel is, it is a place or house where men can visit prostitutes. The poor innocent females that are put in brothels are tortured to a point where they can’t even move; age doesn’t matter. The brothel owners would do anything to whoever wasn’t following the “rules”.  

This situation is very important because even now, the females of Cambodia are being tortured almost every hour of the day. Nicholas D. Kristof interviewed a teenage sex slave survivor named Long Pross. Her right eye is missing because her brothel owner gouged it out.

http://www.hopeforthesold.com/
Long Pross

Another reason why everyone should care and be concerned about the actions that are taken place in the brothels of Cambodia. Young Pross also quoted, “I was beaten every day, sometimes two or three times a day”. She was also electrocuted plenty of times. This is definitely not the type of treatment a human should be getting. Beating and even electrocuting a human being is out of the question. The things that women go through can cause Posttraumatic stress disorder, which can last forever in your mind. 

Post-traumatic stress disorder is a type of anxiety disorder. It can occur after you have gone through an extreme emotional trauma that involved the threat of injury or death. Many young girls have suffered badly just remembering the things that were done to them. Also, In the book The Road of Lost Innocence the author of the book, Somaly Mam, was another sex slavery survivor. Shes been through a lot since the age of 14. She was being bought and sold to different people. She was then sold to a brothel; the most terrifying part of her life story. Somaly had no one by her side, no one to hold on to, and no one to talk to. Her family was far away living their own lives in a village where everyone thought she was dark and ugly. Somaly has had maggots thrown on her, she’s been brutally raped a numerous amount of times, drugged, beat, etc. Although, those outside the brothel seemed as if they didn’t want to take action or even be involved in the situation. When Somaly got older, she came across a Frenchman who changed her reputation. Almost everyone knew that Somaly was a prostitute, but when she met this french man whose name was Pierre, she was then known as a “Khmers de France”. When Somaly was married to Pierre, she visited her home town and saw all these young prostitutes who were being sold for sex.

www.somaly.org

She saw herself; thats who she was when she was younger. She automatically wanted to do something to help these poor girls.

We can all do something to help the females of Cambodia live happily and peacefully. Writing a letter to Obama or other congressmen about the devastating situation that’s going on in Cambodia and how we need it to stop. There are many other solutions to help the problem; spread the word online, Pass along articles, stories, posts, or Somaly's memoir, The Road of Lost Innocence, to friends and family, etc.

http://www.somaly.org/

We need people to know that slavery is still happening in this world. We need to help save these girls by letting them know that they aren’t forgotten and that we trying to find an end to the problem. Sex trafficking and prostitution is something that we can’t and never will forget.