The city of Juárez is desperately trying to contain its dirty secret. The police blame the women, citing their immoral ways as the cause, while the town gossips about a serial killer on the loose.

But the fact remains that women are dying, in the most brutal and horrific ways you can imagine. The numbers aren’t specific—mostly because no one is keeping track–but they are still terrifying. It is estimated that up to 500 murders have been committed in the town since 1993, while another report notes that thousands of women remain missing. It is not uncommon for three or four bodies to turn up at a time.

Quite frankly, this femicide is occurring because the town is tolerant of its violence against women. As gender relations shift in Mexico, women face brutal resentment, and this is manifested in the number of bodies piling up in ditches, with signs of rape, torture, and/or dismemberment.

Juárez is a shanty border town, home to many U.S. factories in search of cheap labor, which opened after NAFTA was passed. Primarily, the factories employ women, because they have less knowledge about wages and organizing and are therefore more easily exploited. But this leaves many of the men frustrated and unemployed, in a society which relies on machismo customs. While some of these murders are also situational—as a result of domestic violence and abuse—it is clearly not just a serial killer on the loose. Women simply have little value here, and nothing makes this more clear than the police response to the violence in the city.

Oftentimes the number of missing women is not reported in the news and the continued killings receive little attention. Crime scenes are not preserved and the victims of the murders go unidentified for years. Some authorities have turned their blame toward the victims themselves. “Unfortunately, there are women who are in danger because of their lifestyles,” said Arturo González Rascón, the attorney general of the state of Chihuahua, where Juárez is located. “After all, it’s very hard to go out on the street when it’s raining and not get wet.”

A book by Diana Washington Valdez, an investigative reporter for the El Paso Times who followed the crimes for three years, implicates citizens of influence, like drug cartel members, and high-level police. But what is most significant is that Juárez has created a culture where it’s acceptable to torture and kill women. The police’s inattention to the matter can only contribute to the rise of this violence, and women are continuing to suffer.

The most recent development in the situation is a lawsuit being presented to the Inter-American Court on Human Rights. Several legal and human rights groups have come together to sue the Mexican government for their improper handling of the cases and lack of investigation surrounding the torture. This case, expected to be resolved around the end of the year, will hopefully bring at least a little solace to the women of Juárez.

photo by steev hise

arturo gonzalez rascon, crim, diana washington valdez, femicide, human rights, juarez, mexico, nafta, police, rape, serial killer Hide

IATG contributors Susanna DeSimone and Amanda Montei are playing a major role in organizing the Valentine’s Day Benefit Concert in Redondo Beach, CA to raise money for Nightlight.

Valentine’s Day Nightlight Benefit Concert

“Help Women Escape the Sex Trade!”

What: This Valentine’s Day you can enjoy great music and make a difference by attending a benefit concert where Los Angeles artists: Kevin Blaine, Sara Dee, Allison Sattinger, and Nate Weiner Trio are slated to perform. All proceeds will go toward Nightlight: a non-profit organization, which helps women escape the sex trade in Thailand through providing work and shelter.

Where: Mickie Finnz– Riviera Village, Redondo Beach, CA

$8.00 cover

When: Saturday, February 14 at 8:00pm – 11pm

For more info:  http://www.facebook.com/n/?event.php&eid=46739164764

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You’ve heard us mention Nightlight before. And if you don’t recall, here’s the opening paragraph to an article written by Susanna DeSimone:

Thailand’s breathtaking beaches make it a popular tourist destination, but behind the gleaming white sand is a dirty secret – the real tourist draw is the cheap sex. The blinking city lights of Bangkok beckon tourists inside the hazy go-go bars where women dance on stage, perform sex acts, and mutilate themselves for entertainment. After the show, the women chat up customers and offer sexual services for moderate fees. Thai women migrate to Bangkok in droves to work in the go-go bars. Nightlight, a non-profit NGO, is working to build relationships with the sex workers and to provide them with a viable employment alternative. But do sex workers want to be in the industry? Nightlight believes that the women, even those who seem to enter the field willingly, have little to no choice in their illustrious careers. KEEP READING

aid, benefit, human rights, human trafficking, nightlight, sex trafficking Hide

When I was ten, my biggest fear was falling off my bike in front of my crush.  For Cat, a ten-year-old Thai girl, her biggest fear is being sold into prostitution.  Child sex trafficking is a hidden evil exploiting 2 million children worldwide, and Rachel Sparks and Rachel Goble of The SOLD Project are dedicated to eradicating it.

The SOLD Project is a grassroots movement that seeks to expose the truth behind child sex trafficking by telling the victim’s stories and inspiring individuals to make a change.  Originally conceived as a documentary, The SOLD Project has expanded into a nonprofit organization that educates and provides avenues for people to get involved.  I recently sat down with the two Rachels to learn more about Thailand’s red light districts.

IATG: When did you learn about child sex trafficking?  What made you get involved?

RG: When I was pursuing my Masters, one of my first classes was a “Children at Risk” course, and human trafficking was one of the topics.  I spent a lot of time researching the issue, and I found that it was not only something that broke my heart, but there was a part of me that said, “I can’t not act on this; I can’t not do something.”

RS: My pastor in New York did a sermon on the different injustices in the world, and child sex trafficking was the one that stopped me in my tracks.  The more I started researching, the more I felt that this was it – this is my calling, this is my purpose, to do something with children who are stuck in sex trafficking.

IATG: How did The SOLD Project begin?

RS: As an educated woman, I had every reason to know about this issue, but I didn’t.  So, if I didn’t know about this issue, I’m sure there are a lot of people my age who don’t.  My dad is in the film industry, so I grew up with the mentality that to create awareness, you make a documentary.  I called him up in September 2006, got some advice and contacts, and started filming.

RG: I came on board after filming already began to man the nonprofit.  In the film, we look at three main reasons that children are sexually exploited in Thailand.  The first is poverty – what do the impoverished villages look like and why are girls trafficked into cities to work?  The second is street kids – kids who are vulnerable because they don’t have a home structure.  And, the third is undocumented children, most of whom are Burmese.  In regards to these, we want to create a structure where audiences can respond in a tangible way.  We just launched our scholarship program, which is our response to the poor villages.  It’s a dollar a day to sponsor a kid, and it puts them through school for a year.  For street kids and undocumented children, we have partner organizations in Thailand that we help.

IATG: For the documentary, you traveled to Thailand to capture the victims’ stories.  Why Thailand?

RS: There are three types of countries – source countries, transit countries, and destination countries.  Source countries are where these kids are coming from, transit countries are where the kids travel through, and destination countries are where they end up.  Thailand is all three.  Sex tourism is also the third greatest form of income there.  Alongside, Thailand is one of the most beautiful countries in the world, and you would never expect this evil to lie underneath.  I wanted to see the faces behind the statistics and tell these kids’ stories.

IATG: In order to get your stories directly from the victims, you had to enter the brothels.  Do you have any stories that especially touched you?

RG: Oftentimes, there is a strange man who comes to the Burmese villages and offers a factory job in Bangkok to the girls, and these girls are ecstatic because they have no money and they want to support their family.  But what happens is they end up in brothels across the border without any rights because they don’t have citizenship.  This is a classic trafficking story.  One of the days we were filming, we went into the brothels to interview the girls and it was just story after story of these girls being deceived.  They feel that they have no option but to stay since they can’t go to Thailand to work without citizenship and they can’t go back to Burma because they won’t have any money for their families.  Halfway through the interviews, these girls would burst into tears, and Rachel and I would hold their hands and tell them, “We’re sisters, we love you, and we’re going to do everything we can to get you out.”

RS: In the red light districts, we would buy girls out for the evening and just talk to them about life.  They were all sending money back home to their villages and all kinds of cultural stuff play into why they felt like they had to keep working, so I wanted to go to the villages and see what that life was like.  There, I met Cat, a young girl who had all signs pointing to the fact that she was at risk for being trafficked – her father is dead, her mom is scraping by, and all the money she makes goes to Cat’s education.  Her mom is a former sex worker who knows that Cat would be safe if she just gets through middle school.  And so for me, Cat became “that one” – if you’re helping one person, then it’s all worth it.

IATG: After seeing what you’ve seen, how do you emerge with the hope to fight?

RG: I had to allow myself to simplify. I knew that if I could prevent one kid from being forced into this, that’s enough. So the question is, “How do you help the one?” The fact is that there is this evil, and I work in a world where we’re not going to get rid of it.  But we can be humanitarians, and we can help.

RS: I knew that going to Thailand would be a struggle, physically and emotionally.  I was in a foreign country where everything familiar was stripped from me – I had barely any communication with friends and family, I was getting sick over the food and water, and I had to get used to the culture.  But when you’re serving and loving people in a place when you’re the most vulnerable, things start coming out of you that you never knew existed.  You’re being pushed to the limit but you’re loving people and seeing how you’re changing their lives forever.  I just have to do my small part and hopefully that will inspire other people to do theirs.

IATG: How does IATG’s message of redefining female beauty and that “smart is the new sexy” tie into this?

RS: The women who are victims have no ounce of hope left.  Prostitution strips you of your humanity and treats you as a commodity.  Even the girls who have a chance to get out go back because they have to learn that they are worth more than what they earn with their bodies.

RG: Sex is supposed to be beautiful and sexy is supposed to be beautiful.  It’s such a fine line between what makes it beautiful and what perverts it.  The message is about respecting sex and cherishing it.  Particularly with this issue, the good men in the world need to stand up and fight for the purity and innocence of women because women can fight for women, but it’s so much more powerful when men fight for women.

IATG: How can IATG readers get involved?

RG:  Educate yourself and talk about the issue.  I don’t feel like it’s an issue that one type of individual can do.  It’s not all lawyers and it’s not all psychologists.  It’s average people who are giving of their time and resources and who are using what they are passionate about to do something.  We need to realize how powerful our voice is in this world as young women.

RS: Our generation is at a place where we’re either in college or just out of college, trying to figure out what we want to do with our life.  We have the time and skill set to go out and serve.  Because of globalization and technology, our generation is one of the first to really grasp how our daily lives affect everything around us.  I’ve met tons of organizations started by people in their 20s and 30s all focusing on wanting to leave the world a better place.  There are some amazing things that are happening right now and to be a blurb in the midst of this movement is amazing.  Everyone just needs to hold on tight.

Learn more about The Sold Project at www.thesoldproject.com

abuse, brothels, children at risk, human rights, human trafficking, prostitution, rachel goble, rachel sparks, red light, sex trafficking, smart is the new sexy, sold project, thailand Hide