* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Whore. Its use is not limited to women who are sex workers, voluntary or enslaved, but often is used to refer to any woman who is suspected of sexual misconduct and the deadly consequences remain the same. If a woman is labeled a whore or a prostitute or another similar term, the implication is often that any assault, even murder, is justified. This includes stoning in some parts of the world, but those organized homicides are not even the half of it.
Women’s eNews is celebrating leading opponents of sex trafficking at its gala on May 3 as one way to call attention to violence women experience, whether they are prostitutes, sex trafficking victims or wives accused of adultery. And we will continue to do so.
Three quick examples: In the U.S.: At least four, and most likely more, bodies of sex workers who had used Craigslist to find clients, recently have been found off the Long Island, N.Y. shore, apparently victims of a serial killer. In Los Angeles police detectives announced last week they are investigating the possibility that eight additional women were victims of the man accused of being the Grim Sleeper serial killer.
Lonnie Franklin Jr. already has been indicted in 10 slayings of women, many of them sex workers, in South Los Angeles.
Jordan is a long way from Long Island and even further from Los Angeles, but the potential of being murdered if you are labeled a whore—that is someone who has sex with someone other than her husband--remains the same.
One of Women’s eNews early 21 Leaders, Rana Husseini, is a journalist based in Jordan. She has dedicated her career to ending honor killings which inevitably involve the accusation that a woman ruined her entire family’s reputation through sexual misconduct, that is, being labeled a whore in the local vernacular.
Thursday, April 7, was International Stop Honour Killings Day. On that very day, a Jordanian man who killed his sister "to cleanse the family's honor" was charged with committing a "pre-meditated crime.”
"The man confessed, saying he had acted to save the honor of the family after being informed that his sister, a married woman and the mother of two, hosted men in her home in the absence of her husband," the source told AFP.
Murder is punishable by death in Jordan, but so-called "honor killings" courts can commute or reduce sentences, particularly if the victim's family asks for leniency.
Between 15 and 20 women are murdered in such killings each year in the Arab kingdom, despite government efforts to curb such crimes, again according to AFP.
Globally, a loose-knit group of New York sex-workers estimates 70 sex workers were murdered in 2010. Many are believed to have been trafficked. It remains unclear how the group counted, but a quick search of the Internet using the term “sex trafficking murder” gathers 517,000 results. Many are duplicates or present other problems, but enough links were listed to amply demonstrate that women who are trafficked and forced into the sex trade live with a very real threat of death by at the hands of a client or by their enslaver.
Among the many who deserve recognition for their work resisting sex trafficking, Women’s eNews has selected six to receive the Women’s eNews 21 Leader award and have the joy of highlighting the work of Swanee Hunt at this year’s gala.
Receiving the Ida B. Wells Award for Bravery in Journalism are Kim Balin, Sianne Garlick and Laura Minnear, the journalism trio behind "Pornland, Oregon," an hour-long program that became the most-downloaded episode of "Dan Rather Reports."
Handing the three journalists the award Swanee Hunt, A Women’s eNews 21 Leader 2003, is an activist philanthropist leveraging her powerful voice—she served as ambassador to Austria during the Clinton administration and an author—to persuade other donors and activists to work with her to stop sex trafficking.
Women’s eNews 21 Leader 2011, Kayrita Anderson, based in Atlanta, has been a vocal critic of Craiglist’s role in the sex trade and trafficking. Anderson has been a leading force in calling attention to the reality that the Internet has given those who would enslave women the means to reach a vast market of potential clients, all of whom are anonymous. She has also documented that even when potential clients are warned they are purchasing the services of someone who is underage, they pursue the transaction.
From Dallas, Women’s eNews 21 Leader 2011 Lauren Embrey, a leading feminist philanthropist, works closely with activists and other donors to push the envelope nationally on the issue of sex trafficking. Embrey is a rare donor who sees the importance of funding media and has supported a Women’s eNews series on sex trafficking in the United States.
The Women’s eNews 21 Leader 2011, Beth Klein is a sought after Denver attorney who successfully works internationally and within her own state to draft, promote and enact model anti-trafficking legislation.
That’s one of the things the gala does: Connect the dots among various strategists to enhance women’s lives.
I hope you will join me in honoring these women by either attending the gala or making a contribution in their honor. It is one step to take to help make all women safer.
