4.1: Girls forced into prostitution -
women 'prepare' the victims - and Asian businessmen like
girls 'without experience' for superstitions
Few experiences in the world can be quite as bad as being
a poor virgin girl in a cheap Asian brothel. It is the
stuff of nightmares. Every day thousands of girls and
women are initiated into prostitution through acute
physical and psychological violence [mostly by their
mothers who are selling the daughters, and then by brothel
bosses who are torturing, manipulating and extorting the
girls, also mostly WOMEN (mama-sans)]. And every day men
are willing to pay to enjoy the violence of this
initiation. What do these appalling facts tell us about
the real substance of Asia's dual sexual codes?
Perverse Asian men like girls without sexual experience
- perverse Asian men are afraid from women with sexual
experience
Experience
is considered to be an advantage in most occupations.
Paradoxically, the value of the average sex worker in Asia
is greater the less she has plied her trade and the
more ignorant she is of sex. This does not find a
clear parallel in the Western sex trade. In general,
female sex workers in the West have to be young and
sexually attractive but they also have to have a good idea
about techniques and what the customers enjoy. In Asia
many sex consumers find the prospect of a knowledgeable
and sexually experienced woman highly intimidating. They
do not wish to buy a woman's sexual experience as most of
their Western counterparts do. They would far (p.97)
rather buy sex with a girl they can control and dominate.
[WRONG: Asian wives don't know about good sex -
vagina inflammation - they reject good sex at home -
sending men to the brothels
It's not a question of domination, but the perverse
mentality in Asia prohibits a good sexuality at home because
they don't know about good sex and don't know about
lubricants and hot oils so there are many vagina
inflammations but the woman does not say anything. Thus
Asian women at home are rejecting good sex - and send the
men to the brothels].
Perverse Asian men pay high prices for virgins - with a
guarantee without AIDS - superstitions
A virgin is best of all. She is largely clueless, almost
always frightened and she is also likely to be supplied
with an Aids-free guarantee. Such thrilling sexual
privileges come at a price ... and it is an expensive one.
[WRONG: Superstition of crazy businessmen leads
them to the belief that virgins would bring a long life
and good luck in business
Some rich Asian men like businessmen are taking life as a
perverse "joke" and buy virgins in the belief that they will
be younger and will have a longer life and will have more
success in business at the end. Only some Asian businessmen
have the money to pay for virgins, and the brothel owners
and the family of the virgin earn a lot of money with it
laughing at the businessmen. And when there is a good
surgeon this game with virginity can be repeated two or
three times - see later in this chapter...].
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Big business in Asia is
working with sex with virgins...
 [1]  [2]  [3]
Sinking Shanghai [1] - business meal in Shanghai
[2] - Thailand, a virgin [3]
and mothers are selling their daughters and women
brothel prison bosses are preparing the virgins
and selling the virgins to the Asian businessmen.
For this superstition that virgins would bring
"luck" the businessmen are making larg trips too
poor countries, see later...
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4.2:
Seasoning: Re-education methods with torture, rapes
and extortions converting girls and women into a
'willing' prostitute
A high degree of coercion is needed in order to supply the
large numbers of girls and women required by mass-market
prostitution. This is especially true in societies such as
those in South Asia that have very rigid rules of sexual
conduct for women. It is not a form of work that women
would flock to if they had many alternatives. A thorough
process of re-education is necessary in order to turn the
average woman into a 'willing' prostitute. It is called
'seasoning'. It is rather like preparing a piece of meat
for the dinner table - or in this case the clients. At the
end of the process the reluctant prostitute will accept
sex work as her profession. In many places she will have
absolutely no alternative.
Seasoning methods: arrived girls and women are
sometimes forced to sell sex - sometimes torture -
sometimes raped by many men - breaking their resistance
and self-esteem
Seasoning is achieved in different ways according to the
sex establishment, the way the girl arrived there and her
own personal character traits. Almost all seasoning,
however, involves some form of coercion. Sometimes the
girls are physically forced to sell sex and are tortured
in order to make them compliant [obedient]. They are raped
repeatedly by numerous men until their will to resist
is broken. In highly traditional societies the rape of a
woman can lead to a destruction of self-esteem. Women may
therefore accept prostitution as their way of life because
they cannot escape from the psychological prison created
by their experience of rape and its associated shame.
Seasoning methods: debts are enslaving the girl [debt
bondage extortion] and women forcing them to sell sex
[debt bondage extortion]
Other women are forced to sell sex because of the economic
pressure created by debt. Once they have been sold to a
brothel, the brothel owner will demand that the girl
repays this outlay by servicing customers. She thereby
becomes enmeshed in a highly exploitative system of debt
bondage that, in its worst forms, is indistinguishable
from slavery.
Seasoning locations: red light districts, private
houses or hotel rooms
The initial exposure to prostitution and the seasoning
process (p.98)
takes place in a variety of locations. Sometimes it is in
traditional red light areas but, increasingly, young girls
are initiated into the sex business in other more
low-profile venues [locations], perhaps in safe houses or
hotel rooms.
Principle: trafficked girls are for the brothel sector
- the cheapest and poorest sector of sex industry
The physical environment in which the girls and women
first find themselves varies according to the country.
Victims of trafficking for prostitution are usually
recruited for the brothel sector. That is to say, they
will be used in one of the poorest parts of the sex
industry and they will cater to those sex consumers who
have the least spending power. Understandably, the poorer
the country, the poorer the environment in which
prostitutes live.
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Example of northern Thailand
in Chiang Mai: girls and boys are sold to
brothels and have to sell flowers for
'seasoning'
Mothers sell their children to brothels in the town.
Selling flowers is one of the first steps how a
brothel is "educating" girls and boys for reaching a
complete obedience. The children without connection
to their home are not accepted when they do not sell
all flowers. Thus the children learn with with
gesture they sell most handling the "customers" by
flowers first. Later being pubescent the big action
will follow: the Thai girl will be sold to rich
Asian businessmen as a "virgin" several times, and
the boy will be operated and will be sold as a
ladyboy. The brothel is their "surrogate family". So
there are the questions
-- why the Asian governments are not eliminating the
superstitions in connection with virgins?
-- why the Asian governments are not installing
industries for good jobs also in the countryside?
-- why the Asian governments are not installing good
administrations also in the counryside installing
social networks thus families with bad luck will not
be forced to sell their children?
-- why the Asian governments are tabooing sexuality
at home yet chasing men into brothel prisons where
children are sold?
-- and why the Asian governments are always blaming
Europeans or other foreigners for being tourists
when THE ASIAN SOCIETY IS SO DESORGANIZED PRODUCING
BROTHELS WITH SOLD CHILDREN WHICH ARE OFFERED TO
THEM AND PRODUCING ASIAN BUSINESSMEN BUYING VIRGINS
BY SUPERSTITIONS?
-- and why no NGO has detected all these simple
connections and why NGOs are not working with Asian
governments eliminating these slave systems by
installing social networks?
Asia has to save itself from schizophrenia. See the
report:
A girl selling flowers in Chiang Mai in a bar [4],
often girls like this are sold
to brothels for "seasoning" and can hardly see
their family any more...
Here is the report about the "seasoned" children
"selling flowers" in Chiang Mai. This is an example.
These seasoning processes are performed also in
other Asian countries like Cambodia, in Bangladesh,
in Mumbai etc. And there are much harder methods
yet. Selling flowers is in some kind a "soft" method
yet. All in all selling children and "seasening"
them for customers seems to be a "crazy Asian
tradition"...
<Sold into the sex trade
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Map of Thailand with the
railway systems with Chiang Mai in the
north as one of the final stations [5]
|
|
"We had dinner at the night market near the Red
Light District of Chiang Mai. In the middle of our
meal, a young girl approached the table selling
jasmine. She was going through a process calling
"seasoning". This meant that she was already owned
by a brothel, and through this job, they were
prepping her for interaction with strangers. They
were preparing her to be a prostitute.
She wouldn't be able to return "home" that
night until she had sold all of her flowers,
so as I was pondering how to actually help her, I
wondered if buying all of her flowers and sending
her back to the brothel early would really even be
better. I offered her food, but she declined. As I
was racking my brain for a solution for her, her
glassy eyes looked around in fear and desperation
and she slipped away. The hint of jasmine
lingered.
We walked through the market. A young boy quickly
caught my attention. He too was selling flowers. He
too was being seasoned. He too was a slave; a
soon-to-be sex slave, and no matter how he felt, his
identity would soon be stripped and he would be
transformed into a "ladyboy", sold as a woman.
The sound of the girl sobbing brought me back to my
senses and I realized that I was staring. Most of my
team was further ahead, but they had stopped at this
point as well.
Her world had just come crashing down. I wondered if
it was her first time. I knew it wouldn't be her
last. Even if it was her first experience, I knew
that she would be sold as a virgin yet again. They
would send her to the doctor, stitch her back up,
and resell her like she was new, just to make more
money off of her. This process would continue as
long as her body would allow.
She wore her hair long. It was beautiful and dark
and flowed down her back. She looked so young, so
innocent, so heartbroken, so hopeless. She stood in
the arms of a woman next to a man on a motorcycle
and she was sobbing hysterically. The woman wrapped
her arms around her, but she had a smirk on her face
and the other women simply snickered in the
background. They got their money out of her, and
they knew that it was only a matter of time before
she would become accustomed to the business. She hid
her face in the woman's arms, but he continued to
speak to her.
"Are you okay? Are you feeling any better? I hope it
doesn't hurt too bad. Well, at least you can go home
now."
I wanted to run back, grab her out of their arms,
and throw any amount of money at them just to save
her. I wanted to scream and tell her that she was
loved.
"You are precious! You are beloved! You are NOT
alone! You are still pure! You have a heavenly
Father that has NOT abandoned you, so don't give up
hope!"
I choked back the tears and kept the prayers flowing
from my lips as we continued to walk down the
street." [web02]
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4.3: Brothels
4.3.1: Brothels in Bangladesh
Poor brothels in Bangladesh with women in the street -
brothels without bath room
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Poor brothel in
Bangladesh with a file of prostitutes, nobody
is smiling [8]
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For example, it is tough to live in Bangladesh under the
best of conditions. It is difficult to be a poor
Bangladeshi and it is even more difficult to live the life
of a poor Bangladeshi woman. Imagine what it must
therefore be like to be a poor Bangladeshi prostitute.
The physical
conditions under which these women work are the worst I
have ever seen. Quite simply, they defy [to be impossible]
imagination. Brothels are overcrowded and unsanitary.
Street prostitution takes place in the gutter [at the
water channel] and the women do not even have a place to
bathe and clean themselves. Although the squalid [dirty]
surroundings of brothel prostitution in developing Asian
countries are atrocious [terrible] they are comparable
with the living conditions of many other poor people, and
for some young prostitutes they may even be an improvement
on what they had known before.
Perverse Asian men
come for sex and then laugh at the prostitutes
In the midst of so much general poverty the environment in
which brothel prostitutes live is unremarkable. What is
remarkable, however, is that so many men should visit
these miserable places to buy sex and should then heap
scorn upon [laugh at] the women who pleasure them there.
Example: brothel "Joinal Bari" in
the town of Faridpur near Dhaka in Bangladesh
Prostitution in Bangladesh is going on under
poorest circumstances.
Bangladesh,
a mama-san with "her" partly enslaved
girls is waiting for customers in the
brothel of "Joinal Bari" in Faridpur in
Bangladesh [6]
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A young woman in "Joinal Bari" brothel in
Faripur waiting in the poor staircase
without painting [7]
|
Here is the report about
"Joinal Bari" brothel in Faridpur just with
similar facts like writer Louise Brown is also
telling in her book:
<Inside Bangladesh's
Biggest Brothel - About 800 women and girls live
and work inside the bustling Joinal Bari
brothel in Faridpur, central Bangladesh,
comprised of four buildings situated on an
important trading route on the banks of the
Padma river. Many of chowkri (bonded sex
workers) are underage. Some of the girls are
runaways who leave home to escape a bad
situation or marriage, and end up on the
brothels when they have no where else to go.
Many others have been kidnapped and are sold to
a madame by a parent or relative. They must take
on 5-10 clients per day, and most receive no pay
because they must repay their debt to their
madame…> [web03]
Thus
for many girls this brothel is a brothel
prison. And it can be admitted that for one
floor there is only one toilet and shower is
even luxury. And sexy clothes seem to be
forbidden in Bangladesh...
Brothels in Asia are the home for the poor
and women with bad luck
See this case of a young Bangladeshi woman who
had fled from her cruel husband: her oncle cared
her and said she would be enrolled in a dance
school - but he sold her to the brothel "Joinal
Bari" - perhaps by command of the cruel husband:
<“I am 22 years old and I have been working
in this brothel for two years. I was married for
four years but my husband was crazy so I ran
away. When I moved back in with my parents my
uncle took me to Dhaka. He told me he was going
to enroll me in a dance school but instead he
sold me to a madame [so she is in a debt
bondage]. I am not scared of anyone. Sometimes
this place is okay, sometimes it’s not, but
anything is better than living with my husband.
I don’t talk with my parents anymore. I miss
them, but what can I do? I feel like Alyea (my
madame) is my own mother. I love her and this is
like my family. I dream of being a madame
someday.” – Pakhi (meaning “Bird” in
Bangla).> [web03]
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4.4.2: Brothels in India
Indian brothels around bus terminals and railway
stations - Indian brothels along the highways - and
brothel districts in big towns
India has a large brothel sector. There are red light
areas in virtually all towns and cities. Brothels crowd
around bus terminals and railway stations. Behind teashops
and dhabas (highway restaurants) are little rooms
where a handful of women will be available for purchase.
Boys may also be offered in the same dhabas. The
brothel (p.99)
quarters in the big cities are well established and some
have been in existence for centuries.
Mumbay (former Bombay): film industry and prostitution
industry
Mumbay ([former called] Bombay) is the commercial heart of
India and the center of its exuberant film industry. It is
therefore entirely logical that it is also the capital of
its sex industry. Kamatipura and the area around Falkland
Road are the most closely watched, researched and
written about red light areas of the city.
Mumbay:
Kamatipura brothel district with women
waiting on benches in the street or in
closed brothels
Streets in Kamatipura in Mumbai with prostitutes in front of
their sex cells [9]
The
streets of Kamatipura are lined with brothels. Most of
these are small. There is an open-fronted room looking out
onto the street and this is lined with small benches.
Perhaps six to ten girls sit or stand around in this
entrance waiting for customers.
Sex in little rooms on a mattress
Behind the reception room are tiny cubicles that are
usually constructed of wood. Most of these are around a
meter wide and two meters long. There is just enough space
for some unimaginative sex on a thin, bare mattress. A
light bulb hangs from the ceiling and, in some more
prosperous establishments, there might be the luxury of a
fan.
Pictures and flowers in the little room - loud practice
of sex in Indian brothels
The sex workers have usually made an effort to make the
surroundings more inviting. Pictures of plum Indian films
stars are pinned to the wooden partitions and there may be
a bunch of plastic flowers and some little ornaments next
to the mattress. For modesty's sake the cubicles have a
door or a curtain but sound travels fast and easily in
these places and the practice of sex is a loud one,
especially when there is a surge in demand and a number of
customers are buying simultaneously.
Closed brothels in Kamatipura with a ward and a bell -
a prison for the girls and women
Other brothels are a notch [step] more sophisticated. They
are also more of a prison for their inmates. There are
some brothels that do not have an entrance room but only a
gate with a guard and a bell. Girls in these brothels do
not come out. And they do not sit on benches waiting for
the customers. It is for the customers to come to them. In
total, two thousand women work in the brothels of
Kamatipura [1].
[1] Information from the staff of Prerana, Mumbai
Mumbay: Falkland Road and surroundings - big
rooms with curtains between the beds - also oral and
anal
Falkland Road, and its surrounding warren of lanes, lies
close to Kamatipura. The two red light areas form one
large, almost continuous commercial sex market. In the
brothel hierarchy, however (p.100),
Falkland Road and
surroundings: Curtains between the bed
Falkland Road and its environs occupy an even lower rung
than Kamatipura. Here the women may not necessarily have
the benefit of a cubicle in which to service the clients.
A shabby curtain divides the beds and some rooms resemble
a closely packed dormitory.
Falkland Road
and surroundings: Women and
girls in the streets for oral and anal sex
Desperate women and girls stand on the streets shouting
out to passing men to whom they will sell budget-price
oral and anal sex. Some will offer services for as little
as 5 rupees (7 English Pennies). It is rare to find lower
prices or a sadder product.
Falkland Road and
surroundings: special rooms for virgins - children
in the attic as slaves
In the interior lanes off Falkland Road, and in the more
inaccessible brothels, there are special rooms reserved
for newly procured women. Children are kept in attics.
It is very hard to prove this because the business
is so highly secretive. The best sources of information on
this subject are the sex workers themselves. I have heard
reports of child prostitution from completely independent
informants. Some of these reports were from the children
involved and at other times adult women, some of them
practicing sex workers, would express their anguish [pain]
at the lives that these prostituted children lead.
Example of enslaved children in Mumbai Falkland Road:
girls playing on the roof terrace - girl hidden in a
hole under the floor
A Nepali prostitute who had worked in Mumbai for several
years told me this:
<Most of the time you never see the very young girls -
the children. They are kept separate from the rest. For a
long time I never saw any really young ones but then I
began to see them sometimes at night. I could hear them.
They were allowed to go and play on the roof [a kind of
roof terrace]. I could hear their voices and they were
just little girls. Whenever we asked about them we were
told that there was no one there and that we had made a
mistake ... Then another time there was a girl with us who
was young - about eleven. She was always kept inside and
if the gharwali thought there was going to be a raid she
was squeezed into a little hole under the floor. She was
told that she would be killed if she made a noise.>
Brothel with little girls in Kamatipura and Falkland
Road: often from Nepal - in brothels with water and air
condition
Girls and young women are often kept in 'closed' brothels
in Kamatipura and Falkland road. This is particularly true
when they are very young, when they have been trafficked
and when they are physically coerced into prostitution.
Nepali girls form a significant proportion of this
category. The brothels in which they are kept are
frequently of a superior standard: they have running
water, maybe air conditioning and, most importantly, a
reliable supply of fresh teenagers.
... - in brothels with guard and grilles at the windows
- girls for years in the manipulation 'seasoning'
process
The inmates of this type of brothel are commonly described
as the 'caged prostitutes' of Mumbai. They do not
literally live in cages but the analogy is apt [precise].
There is a narrow and dark staircase leading up from the
street, there is a guard at the door and there are iron
grilles at the window. Occasionally you can see the girls
peeping out between the bars. That is as near as they will
get to the outside world until their process of seasoning
is completed. It is a process that, for many girls, will
take years.
Brothels in Calcutta: Sonagachi District
Brothels in big Indian cities are little more than
variations on the same unpleasant theme. Conditions are
marginally better in Calcutta although the money a sex
worker can earn here is generally less than her
counterpart in Mumbai.
Brothel Sonagachi District: three classes: A for young
and pretty - B for established girls
Sonagachi is the largest brothel area in Calcutta. Sex
workers in Sonagachi are divided into three classes. 'A'
class is the highest and 'C' class is the lowest. The 'A'
class girls are young and pretty and have rooms with
decent furniture and sometimes even adequate sanitation.
Girls, however, do not stay in the 'A' class for long as
there is always competition from new and younger girls
coming on to the market. When this happens the established
girls are downgraded to 'B' class and then to 'C'.
B and C class: curtains between the beds - or the room
is used in turns
Women in the lower classes usually share a small room
measuring six feet by ten feet. Two or three women will
share this space with a far greater number of rats. It is
both their home and their workplace. Their beds can be
separated by little curtains and, when this is not
possible, the women and their clients take it in turns to
use the rooms. As the sex for cash transaction is often a
very hasty function, they do not have to wait very long
(p.102).
Alleys and lanes with dark and humid conditions
Sonagachi is a maze of alleys and lanes flanked by two-
and three-storye building. Dark passages with uneven
floors and more uneven steps lead into lots of tiny rooms.
Each decrepit building is constructed around a dark, dank
[cold and humid] courtyard in which there is a central tap
or water pump that all the inhabitants use for washing.
There is usually one toilet for around twenty women, and
they cook their food in their own rooms. Just as in the
other red light areas of the city, women stand in lines in
the streets and passageways in bright saris and Western
dresses, their faces heavily made up even in the early
morning. They call to clients, encouraging them to go
inside.
Pimps organizing clients for young girls kept
separately
Pimps lounge around watching and looking for customers.
They explain that upstairs, in one of the back rooms, is a
very young girl who can be had for a knock-down price.
Some people will tell you that the horrors of child
prostitution are a thing of the past in Sonagachi. This is
wishful thinking.
Listen to the words of one of these children:
<I was sold to the brothel when I was twelve and I
started work right away. There were other young girls like
me but the malkin (brothel manager) used to hide
us. She made us say that we were eighteen. There were some
that were a lot younger than me. They were like small
children but they were kept separately and we only
saw them sometimes.>
Brothels in Delhi in GB Road
Delhi presents a slightly different picture but it
illustrates the direction in which the sex market is
moving in South Asian cities. GB Road is the traditional
red light area and its three- and four-storey buildings
contain around four thousand girls in eighty-five brothels
[2].
[2] Information from the staff of the Joint Women's
Program, Delhi
Architecture: narrow staircase - big room with
'platform' - toilet - kitchen - tiny rooms - 25
to 35 girls and women
Typically each brothel is reached from the road by a
narrow, badly lit and dangerous staircase. Upstairs there
is a room about twenty-five meters square and this has a
sleeping platform above it. There is a toilet and a
kitchen and, around the outside of the main room, there
are six to eight tiny, and usually windowless (p.103),
rooms that are just big enough to take a small bed. Around
twenty-five to thirty-five girls and young women are
crammed into this space, which functions as a living area
and also a viewing arena for the customers. Girls it on
the floor while clients come in to look them over and to
make their selection. It put me in mind ofdealers coming
to select and buy some colorful animals in a cattle
market. The women and the clients then disappear for a few
minutes into one of the small rooms. For this service the
customer pays about 70 rupees (1 English Pound).
No seasoning in Delhi in GB Road brothels -
diversification of prostitution in Delhi - development
to middle-class suburbs
New recruits to Delhi's sex industry are not often
seasoned in GB Road. Trafficked girls may end up there but
they are increasingly broken in elsewhere, in places that
are safer and where there is less likely to be
interference from NGOs or the police. This is consistent
with a new trend in the industry. Prostitution is becoming
more diversified and sophisticated and it is expanding out
from its customary locations. In many ways this makes it
more difficult to assess. It also makes the perpetration
of abuse considerably easier because fewer people are on
hand to witness it and the victims are almost totally
isolated.
No one is even aware of their existence. Commercial sex,
even at the lower end of the market, is no longer confined
to traditional red light areas but is moving out and
dispersing throughout the cities. It is found in
'respectable' areas. Brothel no longer necessarily look
like traditional brothels. But for the sex slaves that
fill them, the experience of being seasoned must be much
the same whether the establishment is in GB Road or in
some more salubrious middle-class suburb. This
diversification of prostitution, even within the lowest
tier [level] of the industry, is repeated all over Asia.
4.3.3: Cambodia with brothels in wooden huts and
sheds
Arquitecture: large room with waiting girls -
little rooms around
A good example of the growing complexity within the
industry can be seen in Cambodia. Many Cambodian brothels
are little more than hastily constructed shacks [sheds,
wooden cabins]. They have the same utilitarian design.
There is large room in which the waiting girls can
be observed and then selected. And behind this are a
number of (p.104)
cubicles. Often these cubicles are the girls' home as well
as their workplace. Some areas of Phnom Penh are well
known for providing fresh new girls - or whatever else
should take the consumer's fancy.
Phnom Penh: Svay Pak District with Vietnamese girls
Svay Pak (a Vietnamese village in Russey Keo District in
Phnom Penh, at kilometer 11 [web01]), just outside the
city [center], is unbeatable for Vietnamese teenagers - a
fact attested to by the cars streaming out of the city. On
my visits to Svay Pak it was noticeable how many groups of
Chinese and Japanese men arrived in expensive cars and
minibuses because there was frequently a problem with
parking.
(Wikipedia gives more information about Svay Pak District:
Vietnamese young women are considered with more energy and
fantasy in sex than Cambodian women. Rural poverty in
Vietnam is the reason Vietnamese women come to Svay Pak.
Girls and young women are lured, or girls are pushed by
their families, or girls are going by themselves
concealing their aim of sex work. Trafficked women begin
with the depths because they have to pay back the costs
for the transportation from Vietnam to Svay Pak District
and the lodging. Some stay after having paid back the
debts [leaving the debt bondage] and become successful.
Child prostitution in Svay Pak is a scandal because the
youngest girls are only 5 years old. Additionally there is
surgery reinstalling hymen pretending girls to be
virgins... [web01]
Wikipedia says about Svay Pak District that children are
systematically sold there:
<Children
make up most of the population of sex workers that came to
Svay Pak involuntarily. Sold by families or neighbors in
severe poverty, kidnapped off the streets, tricked into
working in the sex trade, children are the shame as well
as financial pride of Svay Pak. Brothels are able to get
away with abusing the children and keeping all of their
earnings in order to pay for the cost of taking care of
them. Children are serviced out to customers for many days
at a time for a fee and are usually not given a choice in
regards to safe sex. Some child sex workers have reported
being gang-raped and mentally abused at the hands of their
clients. Those that are lucky enough to escape are in a
limbo about what to do next. Many are too ashamed to
return home or cannot return home because they have no
evidence of nationality (Vietnamese victims). Others see
their salvation in marrying the foreigners they had sex
with. They write love letters to their clients in hopes
that one day they will return and give them social,
economic, and physical security.> [web01]
In the last 10 years Cambodian government and militaries
have raided Svay Pak District very often shutting down
brothels with child prostitution and taking prisoner
brothel owners and girls. In some cases Cambodian police
and military forces also raped the Vietnamese girls.
Military actions in collaboration with NGOs provoke more
and more chaos because girls and women are afraid from
arrests. Brothel owners also had to pay bribes to get
released their sex workers, and the bribe was another dept
for the woman. In other cases foreign customers were
detained and were presented with big media headlines
internationally as "bad men", but the local customers of
child prostitution in Svay Pak District were hardly ever
detained or presented. Presence of police and military
provokes that customers don't come any more. Thus
Vietnamese girls and women are trafficked to other
locations now (2013) evading the coward and brute raids of
Cambodian raping police and military forces not solving
any problem of poverty in Vietnam [web01]).
[With raids there is no change of anything but the
structures in the country side have to change so poverty
is eliminated].
Phnom Penh: Seventh of January market with Khmer
virgins
The Seventh of January market in the center of Phnom Penh
specializes in Khmer virgins.
Phnom Penh: Toul Kork for anything
Toul Kork, a muddy, potholed track [street with many
holes] bordered by dozens of small shed-like brothels,
offers just about anything. Guards and pimps monitor the
girls and there is little opportunity for escape.
Cambodia: virgins in separate locations - businessmen
purchasing a virgin for one week in the hotel
The Cambodian sex industry has perfected a lucrative means
of initiating its young recruits without having the
painful process undertaken within the brothel itself. The
youngest girls - those under thirteen - plus older virgins
who possess considerable sexual charms, are kept in
separate locations. These act as a form of holding pen.
The brothel management then negotiates deals with clients
and will deliver the girls to them for defloratino.
Typically a businessman will purchase not just a girl's
virginity but also her services for a few days and perhaps
a week. During this time he has frequent sex with her
secure in the knowledge that she is not infected with HIV
or other sexually transmitted diseases. A senior employee
in one of the biggest luxury hotels in Phnom Penh said it
was common for businessmen, and particularly ethnic
Chinese businessmen, to purchase a girl and have her
brought to the hotel. She remains in his room, often under
guard, until the week is up. Most of these girls are
village girls between twelve and fifteen years of age and
their customers are usually wealthy middle-aged men. The
hotel staff know of these arrangements because they are
obliged to clean the rooms and to take food to the girls.
This is not a one-off occurrence: it is absolutely typical
of Cambodia today. It is also a phenomenon (p.105)
observable throughout the rest of the region. The girls
these men enjoy are destined for the mass market. They are
not elite prostitutes but, for a while, they are of
interest to the more discerning consumer. While they
remain virgins they are of value and their sale can
command a high price. Once they have been initiated into
the pleasures of sex their value plummets.
Cambodia: the price for a virgin
A virgin in Cambodia costs approximately 500 "US" dollars.
Sex with a girl in her first two months of prostitution
may cost around 10 "US" dollars. After that she will
command a price equivalent to that of a bottle of beer.
Wealthy and respectable men would not dream of visiting
the kind of low-class brothel these girls will eventually
work in. They would consider it beneath their dignity.
However, it is quite within their dignity to purchase here
virginity and enjoy the triumph of its possession in a
well-appointed room in a luxury hotel. [And eventually
there is also a surgeon working with a second or third
hymen behind it...]
4.3.4: Northern Thailand with virgin trade in
hotels in Mae Sai
Sexy town of Mae Sai with Burmese virgins
It is useful to describe the sex trade in Mae Sai in
northern Thailand in order to amplify this point [of
virgins sold to businessmen]. Mae Sai is a charmless
frontier town on the border between Thailand and Burma.
The only reason people could possibly have for going there
is to shop in the markets on either side of the border,
which sell cheap merchandise and rather crude handicrafts.
The other kind of shopping is sex shopping and the goods
are Burmese virgins.
Sexy town of Mae Sai with Burmese women escaping
poverty in Burma
The town is an important entry point into Thailand for
Burmese girls and women fleeing from poverty and a vicious
military regime. Some of these women are illegal migrants,
some are refugees and some are the victims of trafficking.
No one is quite sure where the boundaries between these
categories are to be drawn and, very often, women fall
into more than one category. Some, confusingly, fall into
all. Lots of these young women end up in the sex trade.
Even those who intended to sell their bodies, however,
rarely realized the dreadful conditions under which they
would have to work.
From Burna to Mae Sai to Thai brothels in Chiang Mai,
Bangkok or Phuket
Mae Sai is a breaking-in station. Some girls go directly
to brothels further south but many spend around six months
in the town before being moved to sex establishments in
Chiang Mai or (p.106)
Bangkok and Phuket. There are no sex workers older than
twenty-two in Mae Sai because there is absolutely no
demand for them [3].
[3] Interviews with the staff of the World Vision HIV /
Aids intervention program, Mae Sai, Thailand
Sexy Mae Sai: hotels with sexual services
Mae Sai is a magnet
for men wanting to buy virgins, and at the time of
writing a girl could be purchased for around 25,000 to
30,000 Baht (420 to 500 English Pounds). Commercial
sex does not happen in the brothels or bars. Instead it
happens in hotels. The town has six main hotels and
guesthouses and the more organized of these have separate
floors. Some are for the tourists seeking nice views and a
bit of local culture and the other floors are for Thai men
and those tourists seeking a bit of bought sex with girls
from the local brothels.
Sexy Mae Sai: Burmese virgins for Thai men, white
foreigners, and Japanese foreigners
Who buys Burmese virgins? The question elicited laughs
from women involved in the management of Mae Sai's sex
trade. 'Everyone', one of them said. 'Thai men ... And of
course foreigners including Westerners. But especially
Japanese. Japanese are number one.'
4.3.5: Thailand's brothels with Burmese women
and women of hill tribes
Principle of
'closed brothels'
Closed brothels exist all over Asia. There is not one
Asian country that does not have a substantial brothel
sector and many establishments within this sector will
be 'closed'. That is, they are open for customers but
closed should the inmates wish to escape.
Burmese women and women of hill tribes in sexual
slavery in Thailand
Thailand's brothel sector is dominated by Burmese
women and those from Thai hill tribes. These women are the
main victims of sexual slavery in Thailand. Ethnic Thai
women work in the better class clubs and bars - although
this does not necessarily mean that they escape from
physical abuse and exploitation.
[Parents send them to prostitution for being exploited, or
traffickers lure them with faked job offers for being
exploited].
Brothels vary in size from those employing a handful of
girls to those employing a hundred or more. Although the
physical environment in which the girls find themselves is
often a lot better than that of South Asian sex workers
the methods of control and the economic and sexual
exploitation are remarkably similar.
The 'room for opening virgins'
Just as in South Asian brothels there is a 'room for
opening virgins'. The new recruits sit on a bench in a
back room. Their health is guaranteed and their price is
very high.
4.3.6: The brothels in the Philippines
'Casas' for local Filipino men
Casas are the closed brothels of the Philippines.
They differ from the 'a-go-go' bars and karaoke clubs in
that they cater specifically to (p.107)
local men. Foreigners can be admitted only if they are
introduced by a regular local client.
4.3.7: The brothels in Japan with slavery in the
'snack' system
Japanese men like intimidated Thai or Filipina women
Japan's closed brothels are slightly different but they
too are closed to foreigners. Japanese brothels like to
pretend to be something better: a club for successful
executives, for example, or a karaoke bar or a cabaret.
Something to make the client think - momentarily - that he
is heir to those powerful men of the past who were graced
by the company of geishas. Yet, rather than a
highly trained geisha, the modern-day samurai
is much more likely to be paying for an intimidated Thai
or Filipina woman who was duped [tricked] into the job.
Japan: sex slave in the "snacks" in small towns and
around hot spring resorts
Women who are trafficked to Japan and those who are held
in sexual slavery are not concentrated in the main red
light areas. Kabukicho, Tokyo's principal and very loud
commercial sex market, is reported to house a few sex
slaves but most are scattered liberally throughout the
Japanese islands in what are known as 'snacks'. there are
'snacks' everywhere: in small towns and especially around
onsen (hot spring resorts). Some of these are
small, and offer the services of only six or seven girls
but some can provide as many as fifty.
Japan: brothels with high standard - but seasoning,
control, manipulation and debt bondage are the same like
everywhere
The physical surroundings in these establishments are
totally unlike those in South Asia: the Japanese are
fastidious people and it would not be good for business to
offer sex for sale in a hovel [shed]. However, if we strip
away the veneer [facade] provided by greater affluence
[wealth], the processes of seasoning and control, and the
manipulation of the debt bondage system are remarkably
similar whether we are in India, Cambodia or Japan.
