Home -> Law Blog Directory -> Criminal Law Blogs -> Crime & Federalism

Criminal Law

: Crime & Federalism

How Religion and Culture (Literally) Enslave

People often speak of culture as enslaving their spirit.  Yet religion and culture are today responsible for the literal enslavement of women: Specific cultural factors also ensnare victims into extended sex slavery. Parents sent young Thai women to work in the entertainment industry to earn prove to provide for them into old age. A strict sense of obligation to parents constituent to Thai culture, bhun kun, inculcates the youngest daughter with a duty to provide material support to aging parents. One of the most heartbreaking encounters I experienced with a sex slave was in a brother in Chian Mai, where a brave young Thai girl named Panadda told me that even though she hated the men who came to the brother and harmed her, she was proud to fulfill her duty to her parents in the form of tiny payments that the brother owner sent to her father after her trafficking debts were repaid...continue to full post

Full post as published by Crime & Federalism on May 03, 2009 (boomark / email).