by Irene Lee
Afghanistan currently stands as a flourishing marketplace of human dignity and broken families; the sex trafficking business enjoys unceasing prosperity due to the nation’s inefficient, passive and corrupt government.
Prostitution has become more prevalent after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, which had previously imposed harsh punishments for extramarital relations (Ibrahimi). Prostitution, brothel ownership and pimping still remain illegal, but it is mostly the women convicted for ‘fornication’ who fill the prison cells (Ibrahimi). The government forgoes further investigation that would prove them as trafficked victims, leaving them to be marked as simple prostitutes. This leads them to be subject to punishment , according to Chapter VIII of the Afghan Penal Code, with zena, the act of infidelity (“Trafficking in Persons in Afghanistan: Field Survey Report 2010"). This makes it harder for them to receive neither aftercare nor ensured protection from the traffickers. The first known conviction of the Afghan government against sex offenders was made in 2008 in the form of The Law Countering Abduction and Human Trafficking, which proclaimed a life sentence to the offenders (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2012"). However, the Elimination of Violence Against Women Law (2009) decreased the term to 15 years of imprisonment (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2012"). The fact that “human trafficking” and “human smuggling” is synonymous in the Dari language also brings confusion to the matter of prosecution as well (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2012").
The Afghanistan government yet again fails in combating the problem of widespread poverty, the chief devil that drags the nation down into the pit of easy money. The lure of financial ease may trigger women to overlook the dubiousness of a seemingly benign job offer at a foreign country (Todd, “Contraceptive Utilization and Pregnancy Termination Among Female Sex Workers in Afghanistan”). According to Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC)’s 2011 Summary Report, 40% of the victims preferred to stay in the trafficking business due to the fear of unemployment, poverty and danger lurking outside the brothels. In many cases, this noble sacrifice to alleviate poverty is proved futile when the victims soon find themselves trapped into abuse without receiving the promised money. 74% of the victims replied that they never received the amount of money initially promised, and were forced to continue working to pay the “debt” they supposedly owed the offender (“Summary Report on Investigation of Causes and Factors of Trafficking in Women and Children”).
Hamid Safwat, the regional manager for the Cooperation Centre for Afghanistan (CCA) in Mazar-e-Sharif, remarked that the movement against sex trafficking in Afghanistan is fighting a tough battle because the judicial system refuses to cooperate; the involvement in the sex industry is considered “more of a family issue [decision], not a court issue”. In essence, the government is trusting the victim’s family to make the best decision for the individual. However, 12% of the victims’ spouses or parents consented to their involvement in the industry under full knowledge of the danger, signing contracts without direct approval from the individual him or herself (“Summary Report on Investigation of Causes and Factors of Trafficking in Women and Children"). This brings up the question: are the victims truly safe under the ‘protection’ of their families?
The Afghanistan citizens are losing faith in their government’s ability to maintain prosperity in their country, not only due to their incompetence and apathetic attitude but also as a consequence of the willing participation of the officials themselves within the trafficking industry. Afghanistan is currently placed in the Tier 2 Watch List and is on the verge of falling to Tier 3, because the government does not put in the minimum effort to stop the rampant trafficking business within the nation (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2013"). Commanders of the Afghan National Security Forces as well as regional administrators are associated with bacha baazi, the act of rich, influential men buying young boys for sexual entertainment (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2013"). Border policemen regularly take bribes from the traffickers while allowing them to cross the border with a bundle of victims (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2013"). Nevertheless, there are neither records of prosecution nor investigation of the officials guilty of facilitating trafficking offenses during the recorded period (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2012"). Such governmental corruption, indifference and reluctance to modify ill-suited laws are few of the reasons why the Afghanistan sex syndicate is characterized to be undefeated – at least for the time being.
Afghanistan currently stands as a flourishing marketplace of human dignity and broken families; the sex trafficking business enjoys unceasing prosperity due to the nation’s inefficient, passive and corrupt government.
Prostitution has become more prevalent after the fall of the Taliban regime in 2001, which had previously imposed harsh punishments for extramarital relations (Ibrahimi). Prostitution, brothel ownership and pimping still remain illegal, but it is mostly the women convicted for ‘fornication’ who fill the prison cells (Ibrahimi). The government forgoes further investigation that would prove them as trafficked victims, leaving them to be marked as simple prostitutes. This leads them to be subject to punishment , according to Chapter VIII of the Afghan Penal Code, with zena, the act of infidelity (“Trafficking in Persons in Afghanistan: Field Survey Report 2010"). This makes it harder for them to receive neither aftercare nor ensured protection from the traffickers. The first known conviction of the Afghan government against sex offenders was made in 2008 in the form of The Law Countering Abduction and Human Trafficking, which proclaimed a life sentence to the offenders (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2012"). However, the Elimination of Violence Against Women Law (2009) decreased the term to 15 years of imprisonment (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2012"). The fact that “human trafficking” and “human smuggling” is synonymous in the Dari language also brings confusion to the matter of prosecution as well (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2012").
The Afghanistan government yet again fails in combating the problem of widespread poverty, the chief devil that drags the nation down into the pit of easy money. The lure of financial ease may trigger women to overlook the dubiousness of a seemingly benign job offer at a foreign country (Todd, “Contraceptive Utilization and Pregnancy Termination Among Female Sex Workers in Afghanistan”). According to Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC)’s 2011 Summary Report, 40% of the victims preferred to stay in the trafficking business due to the fear of unemployment, poverty and danger lurking outside the brothels. In many cases, this noble sacrifice to alleviate poverty is proved futile when the victims soon find themselves trapped into abuse without receiving the promised money. 74% of the victims replied that they never received the amount of money initially promised, and were forced to continue working to pay the “debt” they supposedly owed the offender (“Summary Report on Investigation of Causes and Factors of Trafficking in Women and Children”).
Hamid Safwat, the regional manager for the Cooperation Centre for Afghanistan (CCA) in Mazar-e-Sharif, remarked that the movement against sex trafficking in Afghanistan is fighting a tough battle because the judicial system refuses to cooperate; the involvement in the sex industry is considered “more of a family issue [decision], not a court issue”. In essence, the government is trusting the victim’s family to make the best decision for the individual. However, 12% of the victims’ spouses or parents consented to their involvement in the industry under full knowledge of the danger, signing contracts without direct approval from the individual him or herself (“Summary Report on Investigation of Causes and Factors of Trafficking in Women and Children"). This brings up the question: are the victims truly safe under the ‘protection’ of their families?
The Afghanistan citizens are losing faith in their government’s ability to maintain prosperity in their country, not only due to their incompetence and apathetic attitude but also as a consequence of the willing participation of the officials themselves within the trafficking industry. Afghanistan is currently placed in the Tier 2 Watch List and is on the verge of falling to Tier 3, because the government does not put in the minimum effort to stop the rampant trafficking business within the nation (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2013"). Commanders of the Afghan National Security Forces as well as regional administrators are associated with bacha baazi, the act of rich, influential men buying young boys for sexual entertainment (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2013"). Border policemen regularly take bribes from the traffickers while allowing them to cross the border with a bundle of victims (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2013"). Nevertheless, there are neither records of prosecution nor investigation of the officials guilty of facilitating trafficking offenses during the recorded period (“Trafficking in Persons Report, 2012"). Such governmental corruption, indifference and reluctance to modify ill-suited laws are few of the reasons why the Afghanistan sex syndicate is characterized to be undefeated – at least for the time being.