Academic Argument Essay
The Need for Rehabilitation Momm, like many brothel girls, had become addicted to methamphetamines. Often the brothel owners give girls meth to keep them compliant and dependent. In her village, the craving had overwhelmed her, and she was consumed by the need to go back to the brothel and get some meth. Women everyday, all over the world are being held against their will. Many of these women are bought, sold, and used for sex or labor. In the book Half the Sky by Nicholas D.
Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn they focus on the prevention of sex trafficking by giving shocking statistics and first hand accounts of gruesome situations women have been through (Kristof). Sex trafficking is often seen as a non-issue because women often give consent to the sex after being involved for a long period of time. Because brothel owners are harsh and unsympathetic, women are left powerless and defenseless. Even after being rescued from brothels, women need rehabilitation in order to live a productive, successful life because they are brainwashed and drugged, have nowhere to go, and acquire no skills to maintain a normal job.
On the United Nations website, it states that people participate in trafficking women “for the purpose of exploitation” (United). By exploiting women in the case of sex slavery the women are raped and brainwashed. Women often times refuse to have sex with clients at first, but after continuously being threatened, beaten, and drugged, the women have no other option but to give in to having sex. After years of this kind of mistreatment, women eventually get used to the horrible circumstance that they are in and often don’t even see it as much of a problem. At this point, the brothel owners have succeeded in brainwashing the women.
Women being trafficked are rarely fortunate enough to be saved. However for the lucky ones, once rescued the women view the rescuer as a bad person for taking them away from the life that gave them food and drugs. Anywhere between 700,000 and four million women and children are trafficked around the world (Sexual). Without rehabilitation, women would just go straight back to the brothels because they no longer see a problem with what they are doing. People in support of sex trafficking view women as participating voluntarily despite the fact that they are held against their will. By keeping women in rehabilitation after being rescued, they have a much better chance of breaking their drug addiction, reversing the brainwash, and becoming educated citizens. Not only do trafficking victims have to recover from the brainwashing and drug addiction, they also have to find a place to live. Women are often held for years at a time in brothels. After being free of a life of prostitution, they have nothing and nobody to go to for help. This is where rehabilitation comes into play. It lets women get accustomed to everyday life out of the brothels and it can help them find a place to go and people to help them.
In one case, volunteers helped Neth and Momm to find their families that they had not seen in over five years (Kristof). Without these volunteers and this type of rehabilitation, these two women would have had a very slim chance of making it out of the red light district. Brothel owners may think that they are doing these women a service by providing a place to live for them, but ultimately the women could do that for themselves if they had the ability to make and income. In addition to finding women a place to go after the rape, it is vital that these victims are given the chance to be educated.
With education comes opportunity. Debatably the hardest part of fighting drug trafficking is to recover the women and give them a life after the struggles of being prostituted. With education comes skills for jobs, knowledge of what happened to them, and the ability to help out with others going through the same situation. Education in third world countries is often a challenge for families because they don’t have the money or resources to send their children to school. However, if a woman is educated, it decreases her chance of living in poverty and being trafficked (Kristof 167-170).
Although some may think the cost of education outweighs its benefits, it gives opportunities to advance in society. As volunteers assist women in escaping the brutalities of sex slavery, it is important to recall that the solution is not simply taking them from the source of the problem. Rehabilitation is also vital for the women’s success because it treats them for being brainwashed and addicted to drugs, gives them a place to live, and provides much needed education. Traffickers themselves may think that rehabilitation is not necessary, but that is for their own financial gain.
So let’s give our support in every way possible to help stop the cold realty of sex trafficking and the negative side affects if brings to the women involved. The solution to ending trafficking lies within us all.
References
- Kristof, Nicholas D. , and Sheryl WuDunn. Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2009.
- “The Facts. Initiative Against Sexual Trafficking. Web. 01 June 2012.
- “What Is Human Trafficking? United Nations. Web. 31 May 2012.
