Numbers Do Matter

(Source: http://www.texasgopvote.com/tags/ron-wyden)

          “I was eight or nine years old when I was kidnapped and trafficked,” Meena said. There is not one single thing that is positive about that. For many years now, women and girls, like Meena, are being sex trafficked and sold into prostitution. Is this a fine thing to do? Of course not. Why not? Girls from the age of 3 have been kidnapped into brothels and sexually abused by their owners. They are being separated from their own family and might not ever have a chance to see them again. Sometimes girls are being kidnapped but there are many situations where their family sells their daughter to brothels because of financial issues. When a family has no more money for food, clothing, or shelter their “only” option is to sell their daughter. As a female student reading Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristoff, I learned many horrific facts about the prostitution of girls and that it is a huge factor to HIV rates. Sex trafficking is still a big issue globally that people should be aware about because it can happen to someone you know.  

           There are times where women sell sex willingly and are paid but, there are also times where women enter the sex industry unwillingly and not get paid. About 63% of women in prostitution are raped and about 73% of women prostitutes were physically abused according to a study in Journal of Trauma Practice in 2003 . Women are tired of being violated and have no one there to help them. More than 700, 000 people (mostly girls) are being trafficked around the world each year. According to Kristoff, “One 2008 study of Indian brothels found that of Indian and Nepali prostitutes who started as teenagers, about half said they had been coerced into brothels; women who began working in their twenties were more likely to have made the choice themselves, often to feed their children.” Women should have other choices to make money rather than forcing themselves to be in prostitution. This is an unfair punishment for women because these girls are in risk of being infected by HIV. A recent study in Thailand shows that HIV infection in female prostitutes are 12-20 times higher than levels in pregnant women.(Pamela A. Gillies and Richard G.Parker)  Facts like these are quite disturbing. Prostitutes would be able to infect other people and that can keep spreading. We wouldn’t want more people to catch it.       

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One girl in Cambodia named Srey Pov was sold into a brothel when she was just six years old. She didn’t understand at that point about what was happening to her. Soon, she learned that a pedophile had purchased her virginity and this overwhelmed her. As she was recalling this story to Kristoff she kept breaking down and seemed very uncomfortable. She was in high demand for rape because she was young. When the brothel was done with her they had stitched her back twice to make it look like she is still a virgin and sold her. This painful act was common in Asian brothels because customers would pay hundreds of dollars for a virgin. Srey Pov never gave up to fight for her freedom even though many girls have given up. Every time she tried to break out of the brothel she was caught and punished by being locked up in a barrel of sewage and scorpions that stung her. This punishment lasted for one to two hours. One way that she would try to avoid punishment was flirting with the owner. Finally at age 9, she was able to run away from the brothel successfully. She ran into an anti-trafficking activist, Somaly Mam, who brought her into a shelter. She grew up in this shelter and even learned English. This one of her agonizing memories that Srey Pov would never forget.  

Sex trafficking is a major human rights violation that people need to be aware about. There are many things that students, like me, and other people can do to help reduce the number of girls that are forced to be part of this global issue. We can donate money to organizations that can help fund education for young children and women around the world. Education is important because educated girls will be able to find a stable job and make money a safer way. They will also be able learn about HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and their effects. Organizations that help educate women are Campaign for Female Education that helps girls in Africa or Developments of Literacy that promotes education in Pakistan for girls. Students can also learn ways to help out women around the world by visiting www.womenthrive.org, which is an international advocacy group focused on the needs of women in poor countries. Many of the organizations that help women are posted in the appendix of Half the Sky.There are hundreds and hundreds of organizations out there that are willing to help women and girls stay out of sex trafficking and prostitution.

Two million of women in India are prostitutes but there are 10 million of them in China. (Kristoff) Think about all the other places around the world with prostitutes. It is impossible to know the exact number of women being sex trafficked and brought into prostitution. There can’t be a solution that can directly stop all of the sex trafficking that has been happening around the world. There are ways where we can reduce the number of girls that are forced to be prostitutes for whatever reason. We need to  help these women and make sure us, women, aren’t violated anymore.   

  Megan Moy is a high-school student attending Frank McCourt High School. She wrote “Numbers Do Matter”, an Op-Ed published onto“Writing to Act”.