Modern Slavery News Round-Up

Fate of child brides goes prime time on Turkish TV
A two-minute trailer for a highly anticipated Turkish soap opera focuses on the fate of a 15-year-old girl from a poor family in the region of Anatolia who is married to a 70-year-old man. The soap opera, which is scheduled to debut Friday on Turkish television, coincides with the release next week of a documentary film, “Child Brides,” following a women’s rights group’s 18-month information and awareness campaign in a country where every second woman was married off as a teenager.

India faces scourge of bridal slavery
Women’s and children’s rights activists are sounding the alarm over the abuse of young girls as part of a growing trend for bridal slavery. Young girls are sold into marriage for as little as $120, then forced to work as day laborers and sex slaves to the men who purchase them.

Afghan child bride is denied a divorce despite abuse, beatings
In an interview, a rural Afghan woman who was given, as a 6-year-old girl, to a man and his extended family — along with eight of her sisters and female cousins — talks about the beatings and abuse she sustained after she was married to a considerably older man at the age of 12. She ran away while still a teenager after several suicide attempts.

Raids are rescuing girls trafficked to brothels in Cambodia
A raid on a brothel in northern Cambodia has unmasked the underlying rape and child abuse against young girls as young are trafficked and forced into prostitution. The raid was carried out with the participation of Cambodian author and anti-trafficking advocate, Somaly Mam, whose memoir, “The Road of Lost Innocence,” recounts being sold into prostitution in Cambodia, then escaping.

Groups struggle to combat Somali gender violence
Women’s rights advocates are raising the alarm over a sharp increase in gender-based attacks on internally displaced Somali females in the Mudug region as a result of a deteriorating security situation and a lack of accountability. Women’s groups are reaching to religious leaders and community elders as part of campaigns to raise awareness on the issues.