Elizabeth Wideawake

English 2 Honors / W.H. 2 Honors

Mrs. Poremski / Mr. Remsen
Gender Issues Final Project
Analytical Paragraph:
The most significant gender rights issue in Cambodia is sex trafficking because it is an
occurrence that is far too common among a majority of the population, especially the poor, and is
taking away the rights and dignity of women. Cambodia is located on the Indochinese peninsula
and is bordered by Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. The country has a population of 15.14 million
people and the literacy rate for women in Cambodia is 71%. This percent for women is 13% less
than that of men, which shows that educating women is not a priority for Cambodia as a country
(Economies). Partly due to a lack of education, sex trafficking is a very common occurrence in
Cambodia every day. Sex trafficking is an easy way for families to ensure steady income into
their households. Many communities in Cambodia are poor and the people living there are in lots
of debt. These families blame poverty as the reason why sex trafficking happens so often in their
country. In the article, The Women who Sold their daughters into Sex Slavery by Tim Hume,
Lisa Cohen and Mira Sorvino, Don Brewster, an American resident of the Phnom Penh
neighborhood in Cambodia, was interviewed by members of the CNN team and stated that "It's
not that she was stolen from her mother -- her mother gave the keys to the people to rape her."
Often, people think of a trafficked victim as someone who is abducted and has no choice in what
they about to be immersed into. However, in Cambodia mothers are willing to sell their
daughters to make money. For example, the quote says that her mother gave the keys to the
people to rape her, meaning that her mother was not even phased as she sent her daughter into a
dangerous environment. This amount of unawareness about the real dangers of sex trafficking
shows that these older women are not educated about these high risk problems in their daily

lives. The young girls being sold by their mothers really have no choice in being a sex trafficked
victim or not, but they could help to make their families aware about the risks before they are
sold. However, in order for the girls to stand up for their rights and share what they know with
others, they need to be educated and go to school. This is also a large problem in Cambodia
because of the poverty so many citizens are experiencing. The lack of money leads to a lack of
education and with that comes less rights for women. In Cambodia, women are not able to fight
for their rights because they dont know how to. The sex trafficking lifestyle has taught women
that they are worthless and that they have no rights. This diminishing lifestyle has also taken
away the dignity and respect that women have for themselves due to the environment around
them. Sex trafficking is a large problem all throughout the world that needs to be fixed. It is
significant due to the large ramifications that it can have on the victims mental and physical
health. Everyone in the world should be considered equal and have the ability to exercise their
rights and stand up for themselves no matter what situation they are in.

Creative Writing Piece:

Name: Amara / Female / Sex Trafficking Victim

Age: 12
Location: a brothel in Phnom Penh in Cambodia
I remember being sold by my parents when I was ten years old. They told me I was going over to
a friends house and the next thing I knew I was in the back of a large moving van.

The van smelled like rotting trash on a hot summer's day, It felt like I was in a giant box,
sweltering because of the heat, with no escape until I heard the brakes of the van squeaking.
Some strange man with a long beard opened the back of the van door and told me to get out. As
soon as I was out of the truck I saw what looked like an abandoned building standing in front of
me. However, I knew what it was. It was a brothel full of child prostitutes, and I was about to
become one of them.

I have only been here for 2 weeks and so much has happened already. My life has been a
complete blur, with many scary and traumatic experiences.

I spend every day in a small room in my brothel with a musty smell surrounding me. The room
has drafty windows with boards nailed across them. They think I am going to try to escape, but I
am too afraid to. I have a thin mattress to sleep on and nothing but a tattered blanket to cover
myself up with. Every day it seems like I have more clients than I did the day before and I cannot
bear it any longer.

I am done with my first client of the day and I am in my room putting my clothes back on.
Suddenly, I hear footsteps coming towards me and the brothel owner says, Amara we have
another gentleman who would like to see you. His condescending tone shows that he is trying to

be polite but in reality, that is a trait that he does not possess. I dont want to take any more
clients today because I am feeling sick. However, I have no choice and I do not want to risk
getting beaten like other girls in my brothel.

After the client leaves, I feel even worse than I did before. I am done with clients for the day and
all I want to do is sleep and dream the terrible thoughts away. However, I am hungry and am
awaiting my meal that I will hopefully get served tonight. My meal does come, but I can tell that
the bread has mold on it and the other components are old and spoiled. I dont eat much, instead I
just try to sleep. I dream of a happy place where everyone is safe and not living in constant fear.

I want to go home, but I know that there is nothing there for me because my parents are the ones
who sold me to these awful men in the first place. I have no freedom and I pray every day to be
saved from this brothel and the men that surround me. I hope to escape this torture and restore
my health so that I am able to help other girls like me in the future.

I slip back into a dream and I and see myself running fast, always looking behind me. I must
have worked up enough courage to escape and now I am headed somewhere safe. However, I am
woken up by the loud crash of thunder and lightening and I realize that I am still lying on my
thin mattress, in my small room with boarded up windows surrounding me.

Reflective Writing Piece:

Over the course of English 2, learning about sex trafficking truly made an impact on my
global perspective because it was a very pressing issue in certain countries that took away the

rights of women of all ages. I first learned about sex trafficking in English 2 when we watched a
video about sex trafficking in Cambodia and what the Somaly Mam foundation was doing to
help these victims. The video explained all of the horrible things that young girls are forced into.
These girls are either sold by their parents or just taken and put into brothels and really have no
choice in what happens to them. The girls shown in the video were very young, some where even
my age. I felt a sort of connection with them because I couldnt imagine myself in the situation
that they were in. I felt bad for them and knew that sex trafficking was a horrible act. During the
video there were rescued victims who told their story as a sex trafficking victim. One of the girls
was telling her story about her eye that she lost because she was beaten when she did not want to
take clients. I found her story very emotional and knew that what was being allowed to happen to
these helpless girls needed to stop. Before I started my sophomore year of high school, I thought
that not turning in my homework on time was a life or death matter for me. However I realized
that whether I did my homework or not was a miniscule problem compared to what was going on
in the world around me. I know that many girls my age do not have access to a good education at
all and from there, I realized that there were many problems outside of Rutland, VT and even the
USA that were much more pressing. However, the only aspect of this that I did not realize was
the severity of these problems. By watching the sex trafficking in Cambodia video in English 2, I
have a better understanding about issues in other countries that are bigger and more prominent.
Knowing about sex trafficking has made me more aware of people who do not value women in
their societies. My new perspective about these issues makes me want to stop sex trafficking
from happening. I know that this is a very large issue to tackle, but the first step to stopping a
problem so large is making people aware.