Blog #3
September 17, 2009
Before taking this class, my boyfriend and I were watching television through the internet site, www.hulu.com while we ran across a documentary that left us both feeling numb. You can watch this video free online at http://www.hulu.com/watch/69769/global-voices-the-day-my-god-died, it is 54 minutes long and is from the PBS program, Global Voices. Before watching this documentary, I didn’t know very much about the world sex trade or even that there was one. The basis for this documentary is to show what is happening in Bombay, India (as well as other countries) and what these girls have gone through after being kidnapped and forced into becoming prostitutes. In this documentary, one of the brothels was run by a woman….yes, she allowed these girls (most between the ages of 11 and 19) to be forced to have sex with whoever came into their room or they would be beaten or starved. I learned a great deal about what these girls go through on a daily basis-raped, forced to have sex with up to 20 men in one day, becoming pregnant and having crude abortions forced upon them, starved, becoming infected with sexually transmitted diseases and most of them HIV. Most of the girls had to resort to drugs and alcohol to get them through their daily ordeals. During the documentary, we meet two women from organizations that were put together to help these girls be freed from their enslavement. The saddest part of this entire ordeal is that the girls that were freed are unable to return home because their villages and families are not convinced that they were forced into this lifestyle. Some of these ostracized young women go to live on a compound where they are cared for and even attend school. The ones infected with HIV are treated and are at peace for what little time they have left.
After watching this video, I realize how fortunate I am and makes me want to help in some way. By sharing this video with all of you in this setting of this Women’s Studies course, I hope that since our eyes are opening that maybe we can try to think of ways to save other girls from this fate. Please take some time to watch this video…it is hard to see it but it means that one more person is aware of what is going on.
