No turning back for virgin trade victims

A 16-year-old Cambodian girl hiding behind shutters, cautiously peers out into the streets of Phnom Penh from her hiding place after being rescued from a brothel were she was forced to work. The girl who wants to keep her identity unknown, was forced to have sex with male clients before she was plucked from the trafficking racket. Photograph: AFP/Rob Elliott

Thursday, 13 September 2012
Claire Knox
The Phnom Penh Post

Victims of Cambodia’s virgin trade often face extended exploitation as they turn to prostitution and isolate themselves from their home communities, anti-exploitation groups said, calling for increased education and a shift in mentality toward the trade.

Nget Thy, executive director for the Cambodian Center for the Protection of Children’s Rights, told the Post sexually exploited virgins were “incredibly challenging” for NGOs to rehabilitate.

“Brokers have an ideal market – they know many men want to do this, and that the families are so poor they can often be talked into it … we’ve had girls as young as 13 in these situations.”

Girls who had originally been sold as virgins by their families would be later taken in by local authorities or NGOs after they had turned to a life of prostitution, Thy said.

If you can read this article without shedding a single tear, you are no longer human being! What a shame for Cambodian men!!!

A cruel world

Editorial by Richard Cannavo
The Nouvel Obs (France)
Translated from French by Luc Sâr

"In Cambodia, it is well known that virginity is a business." - A police officer

Sold as children, as mere commodities, abused, raped, many small Cambodian end up in brothels before dying from AIDS.

“I sold my virginity for $500 to an old man to help my family: that was the only thing of value that we have.” In Cambodia, women have no say in this matter and even less when they are young adolescents. Mostly innocent and ignorant, the poorest of them are snatched from their peaceful countryside by either a relative, a friend or a neighbor under the false promise of a better life, some are kidnapped and drugged before being sold. "The person who betrayed me was a friend. I was to suppose to work in a restaurant for $145 a month. But, I was raped…" She is still dazed: “I called for help but nobody came. I was sold. The client could do anything he wanted with me.” Sometimes the evil deed comes from no other than their own mother: “I was in debt and I was trying to survive. I had to sell my daughter for $300 dollars. Now I'm sorry for her...” Very young girls are commodities like everything else, in this country where people seek to buy virginity because it is endowed with magic powers. “Men think that if they have sex with a virgin, it will whiten their skin and that they will be rejuvenated and will live longer.” “The police and the general public have no idea of what pedophilia is. There is no word in Khmer to describe this scourge!" the head of a NGO lamented. "In Cambodia, there is no equality of the sexes,” an old woman explained. “It is said that if a man misbehaves, he can wash himself off and become clean again. In contrast, women are like a white cloth: if they do something wrong, the fabric will be dirty for the rest of their lives... " Therefore, a girl who lost her virginity attracts dishonor to her family and becomes a pariah.

Sacrava's Political Cartoon: Cambodia - The Virginity Trade

Cartoon by Sacrava (on the web at http://sacrava.blogspot.com)