Thailand Sex Trafficking

Here is Kevin Bales, author of "Disposable People" discussing his first encounter with Siri, the subject of the post below.

A (young) woman's journey to freedom

I hate to be the person to steer us away from the triumphs of women throughout the last century. Women, especially in America, have come so far in obtaining rights and fighting for equality in all areas of life that it is sometimes easy for us to forget that there are women in different areas of the world that struggle everyday just to be treated as human beings.

While enrolled in a sociology class, (SOC 119 with Professor Sam Richards) I was required to read the book "Disposable People" by Kevin Bales which discussed the prevalence of modern day slavery across the world. The second chapter, entitled "Thailand: Because She Looks Like a Child," captured me in an awful way as Bales discussed the country's sex industry through stories from its victims.

As you read Siri's story, consider how fortunate you are to have control over your own whereabouts and body. This story breaks my heart every time.

"When Siri wakes it is about noon. In the instant of waking she knows exactly who and what she has become. As she explained to me, the soreness in her genitals reminds her of the fifteen men she had sex with the night before. Siri is fifteen years old. Sold by her parents a year ago her resistance and her desire to escape the brothel are breaking down and acceptance and resignation are taking their place.

…

At about five, Siri and the other girls are told to dress, put on their makeup, and prepare for the night’s work. By seven the men are coming in, purchasing drinks and choosing girls, and Siri will have been chosen by one or two of the ten to eighteen men who will buy her that night. Many men choose Siri because she looks much younger than her fifteen years. Slight and round faced, dressed to accentuate her youth, she might be eleven or twelve. Because she looks like a child she can be sold as a “new” girl at a higher price, about $15, which is more than twice that charged for the other girls.

Siri is very frightened that she will get AIDS. Long before she understood prostitution she knew about HIV, as many girls from her village returned home to die from AIDS after being sold into the brothels. Every day she prays to Buddha, trying to earn the merit that will preserve her from the disease. She also tries to insist that her clients use condoms, and in most cases she is successful as the pimp backs her up. But when policemen use her, or the pimp himself, they will do as they please; if she tries to insist, she will be beaten and raped. She also fears pregnancy, and like the other girls she receives injections of the contraceptive drug Depo-Provera. Once a month she has an HIV test, and so far it has been negative. She knows that if she tests positive she will be thrown out of the brothel to starve."