Prostitution and sex crimes in Rohingya women
With the current crisis of violence with Rohingya people, tragedies are becoming a daily occurrences. Murder, exploitation, and sexual violence are some of the many crimes and issues. Vulnerable people are being exploited in inhumane ways- the United Nations have documented accounts of horrific crimes such as the burning of children, and gang rape against Rohungya girls and women.
Many Rohingya women are forced into prostitution just to survive. The BBC writes about the story of a Rohingya refugee, Halima, who unfortunately had been groomed leading her into being coerced into a sex slave ring and then had to turn to prostitution after escaping as she had nowhere to go and no money to her name.
Not only are women being forced into a life of prostitution, another article describes how the Burmese military entered northern Rakhine state, and over a four month period detained and slaughtered men, women, and children. The United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner sent a four person team into Bangladesh to investigate theses crimes and the violations of human rights. It was discovered that more than half of a group of 101 Rohingya women had been sexually assaulted by the military. This article notes the story of an eleven year old girl who had been gang raped by a group of soldiers. Furthermore, it's commented that a fifteen year old girl was only raped by one soldier because "she's not as beautiful as the girls who were gang raped"
The current disaster happening with the Rohingya people highlight key problems in society; for instance the fact that women and girls are being raped and sexually violated, girls being told they're too ugly to be gang raped, the murdering of men, women and even children. The fact that this is happening in parts of the world and yet so little is being published about this horrendous situation in our society's media outlets, presents an even bigger issue.
References
Bradford, Alexandra. (2017). Mass Sexual Violence Leaves Rohingya Women Traumatized and Stateless. Available: https://www.newsdeeply.com/womenandgirls/articles/2017/06/08/mass-sexual-violence-leaves-rohingya-women-traumatized-and-stateless. Last accessed 14th Nov.
Iqbal, Nomia. (2017). Rohingya women in Bangladesh face 'forced prostitution'. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-41928555. Last accessed 14th Nov.
Comments
Post a Comment