Responses to Sexual Slavery: From the Balkans to Afghanistan

Abstract

A year after the onset of ‘Operation Infinite Justice’ in Afghanistan, girls and women within and around the country are subjected to an exponential increase in trafficking, resulting itself in a resurgence of sexual and physical violence.’ In this lawless territory women are more victimized than ever, after years of drought and armed conflict, human trafficking, mainly but not exclusively of women and girls, has reached a climax whereby a girl can be sold for as little as 100 kg of wheat.² While the pretext for such transactions between a parent and a buyer might be that of marriage, girls may be sold several times before reaching a place where they are physically and/or emotionally coerced into performing sexual acts with clients. While the series of transactions involving the movement of the individual will be referred to in this chapter as trafficking, the coercion dynamic behind the acts of the prostitute will be identified as forced prostitution, itself very distinct from the profession of other sex workers who engage in prostitution of their own free will.