I recently watched an amazing documentary film (Nefarious-Merchant of Souls) about modern day slavery through the global sex trade industry. It is
absolutely chilling to me how closely some of these women’s experiences of
abuse and manipulation and sense of fear and entrapment and hopelessness
mirrors the extreme psychological abuse I experienced in my marriage. It has been noted that 90% of women in
prostitution, even those who enter “by choice” come from a history of abuse in
their past. The average starting age of prostitutes in the US is 13-14 years
old. Pimps groom their targets using tactics of control, manipulation,
brainwashing, and promises of a better life. They also systematically break down
these girls into submission worse than dogs loyal to their masters believing
there is no other way. I know that feeling. It is one that many abused women
feel. But I was lucky in the sense that only one man abused me. I also had a
fairly healthy upbringing and value of myself before him to look back on and
draw from. I had a God who I knew loved me and gave me worth and with his help
and those he sent me, was able to get out and stay out. Not an easy task for
many women trapped in abusive relationships. How much more difficult is it for those
young girls and women who don’t know anything else. Sometimes it just seems easier
to stay in a terrible situation you know rather than step out into the unknown.
And for those who have NO choice, where are they to get their help?
Human trafficking doesn't exist in a vacuum. It’s not just in
third world countries or only happening to the impoverished. Education and
money don’t diminish wickedness. This is a Societal issue, and both a moral and
spiritual battle! This world can never have peace, and even free peoples cannot
claim equal rights and freedoms when all over the world, our little girls
continue to be subjected to evils such as sex slavery and forced prostitution. We
all need to be held accountable when our culture glamorizes Pimps and Strip clubs, and where our worth lies in our sexuality and where there are
governments, law enforcement and children’s own families complicit in creating
this culture.
I am calling on myself and all those who dare to keep
reading to no longer be ignorant. We need to do the brave thing here. To be strong and stand up for what is right. We
as a nation are blessed and able to claim freedom and equal rights for women. How
can we claim and live out our own unalienable rights and freedoms and look the
other way when we know that others who are no less deserving then ourselves don’t
have access to these same rights and freedoms? Awareness is the first step. It is
the very least thing that we can do to honor the bravery, strength, and the
courage of millions of young girls all around the world who are suffering. We cannot
look the other way, because ignorance is not bliss. We have no excuse not
to be aware in this day and age of the horrors that are happening. And then once you know, how can you not do something?!
"You can choose to look the other way, but you can never again say that you did not know." ~William Wilberforce (19th century Abolitionist).
There’s no way that we as a human race can go on and enjoy
whatever freedoms we have when crimes against humanity are happening right in our
backyards. We cannot turn our heads and ignore what’s happening. To do that
only allows for more of it. How then can we honor the courage and strength of
those fighting for their very lives as they endure their abuse and oppression? It
is unconscionable to claim ignorance anymore. It’s time for humanity to unite together as
people, as a human race to say it’s not okay to treat our children, our women or
anyone as property, and things to be used and abused; that the hopes, the
dreams, the choices, the value of all people are worth fighting for. At the very
least we need to say we will not tolerate this. It is unequivocally wrong.
In whatever small way we are able to take a stand, with our
voices, our pocketbooks, with our actions, with how we teach our young, our
boys and our men about respect and about valuing women; not for their bodies
but for their minds and hearts, how we teach our girls to value themselves and
know their worth, how we create laws, how we uphold human dignity…These are the
things we need to be doing. These are the things we need to be thinking about
so that we can actually live out these claimed freedoms we have and honor those
freedoms and how we ourselves have come to them.
Be Free.
Be Strong.
Be Courageous.
Be Aware and Take a Stand.
Hannah Bee
