Steinem and
panel discuss sex trafficking Renowned feminist attends Blowing Rock
premiere of ‘Trade’
By Tiffany Allison
“You’ll pay for this,” Veronika (Alicia
Bachleda) uttered, as she looked her enslaver in the eye for the
last time. She had enough. Before he could answer her threat the
young mother threw herself off the ridge. She would rather die
then become a sex slave.
Feminist icon Gloria Steinem
spoke in a panel discussion about the movie, “Trade,”
in Blowing Rock Nov. 5. Photo
by Tiffany Allison
This scene is from the film, “Trade,” which was shown
at the Blowing Rock Hayes Performing Arts Center on Nov. 5 to
benefit the Appalachian Women’s Fund, High Country Women’s
Fund and Equality Now.
The movie is based on an article written Peter Landesman of The
New York Times about the life of sex trafficking victims and the
trials they have overcome. It focuses on a 13-year-old girl named
Adriana (Paulina Gaitan) from Mexico City and her friend Veronika,
a young Polish woman who she met while she was in captivity. It
is a gruesome yet truthful depiction of what happens to “underground”
sex slaves.
A question and answer panel led by world-renowned feminist Gloria
Steinem was held after the movie to discuss the issues of sex
trafficking within different nations of the world. The panel included
Rachel Loyd with Girls Education and Mentoring Services (GEMS),
U.S.; Ruchia Gupta with Apne Aap Women Worldwide, India; Gudrun
Jansdothv from Stigamot, Iceland and Taina Bien-Aime with Equality
Now.
Rachel Lloyd with GEMS mentioned during the session that more
than 250 girls have been trafficked in New York City alone. Even
after New York recently passing the Safe Harbor Act, which states
those who are under 15 years of age if arrested for prostitution
can no longer be charged as criminals, the numbers have not weakened.
“We were disturbed to see that young people in this situation
were being criminalized,” Lloyd said. “And that traditionally
in this country we look the other way at who’s doing the
buying.”
Each year more than 1,000,000 people are trafficked across international
borders against their will. Almost 80 percent of people who are
trafficked around the world are women and children. And the amount
of money that has been poured into the commercial sex industry
is a stifling $32 billion a year. The panel explained that supporting
the pornography industry or any other demoralizing act only feeds
the demand for sexual domination.
“The Question that we (Equality Now) asked ourselves was
how do we address the demand side?” Bien-Aime asked. “Sex
tourism, which now has exponentially increased, thanks to Craigslist
and the Internet, has really increased our demand, as well as
our supply side to the trafficking industry.”
To help combat abuse and rape of the innocent, the panel encouraged
people to just start talking about it.
Our responsibility, and our ability as individuals who are very,
very busy to provide the court in any way we can, we can start
a letter writing campaign,” Bien-Aime said.
“If you write to or speak to your representative you may
find that they are already active in this way or you can activate
them in this way,” Steinem said. “We want to use this
energy to do something about it, not just sit and be immobilized.”
For more information or to donate to this cause, visit www.equalitynow.org.
Get Firefox