She was wearing a polka dot skirt and her favorite pink flip-flops the day she left her village in Albania. Her mom called out her name before she got into her boyfriend’s red Mitsubishi. She didn’t turn to wave goodbye. She was 12 and angry.
Her stepdad has been raping her for as long as she can remember. She couldn’t tell her mom. She knows she’d be sent away. She’d be the one blamed. Girls tempt grown men and bring it on themselves, they’d say. And there was also his drinking that made him do it, they’d add.
Once they were in Italy, her boyfriend changed – he told her she’ll work for him as a prostitute. She thought he was playing some silly joke. She left home to be with him; to one day marry him. He is older. She’s in love.
He slapped her back to reality. Told her how much money she cost him for the speedboat ride, her fake documents, the clothes and make-up he bought to make her look pretty and pass for 18.
She cried. And he cut her knee deep with a knife to make her stop. For the next seven years, the scar is a reminder she has no one but him to fear and return to.
Years later, I recorded her story at a secret shelter for women and saw court documents backing up what she told me. She pressed charges against her pimp but she says his uncle was a judge and released him on bail. The pimp left Albania until things cooled off. He is still free and has even bought a three-story house in her village in northern Albania.
Meanwhile, her family found out she was a “hooker who didn’t even bring back any money, only an abortion and STDs.” They disowned her. Her mom still doesn’t know her husband was the first to abuse her.
* * *
This story is part of a CNN article about the work of Bulgarian photojournalist Mimi Chakarova that led to the creation of much awarded The Price of Sex documentary.
This is how Mimi ends her article:
The first question we must answer is “Why is human trafficking only second to drugs in profitability?”
Then think of Henry Ford’s words: “Show me who profits from war and I will show you how to stop the war.”
Apply this to trafficking. If we, as an international community, agreed that the trafficking and selling of human beings is unacceptable and we’ve had nine years to reduce the numbers, then what else is standing in the way? Do the lives of poor women matter?
I am posing these questions because unless we honestly answer them, all of my work and the persistent effort and dedication of others in the field won’t be enough in this lifetime.
And I don’t think it is fair for the next generation should inherit one of the worst human rights abuses known to mankind. The time is now.
* * *
The solution is clear: criminalise the demand. But that will probably never happen in this world made by men for men.
Persona 
trist!
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