by Neelam Hussain

Trafficking in women is as old as history itself. In primitive pre-state societies, gift giving or gift exchange conferred upon its participants a special relationship of mutual aid and trust. Significantly, the most important form of gift-exchange, through which the tribe or kin-groups increased in size and strength, was institutionalised through marriage.

But where other forms of gift exchange entailed the passage of objects - shells, cattle, etc. - from one group to another, in this case women constituted the gift which passed between male members of different kin groups. While this form of exchange strengthened the kin groups involved, it did not confer any special power on the women themselves. Social linkages were formed between the men of different tribes. The women were the channels of a relationship, not partners to it. Passive objects of exchange, not active partners in a deal.

The custom of designating the woman as the object in a gift exchange relationship survived these early societies to form the cornerstone of later social groupings within the overall schema of patriarchy. While customs with regard to the gift-exchange of women may have differed from culture to culture or between one ethnic group and another, the basic pattern was to be retained through time.

Thus history is strewn with examples of trafficking in women. The only distinction is between the licit and the illicit forms of exchange. As such, women's oppression is built into the structures of the very language that defines them. Social and commercial relations are organized on the basis of this exchange, women's status in society and men's attitudes towards them are reflective of this system. "Women are 'given' in marriage, 'taken' in battle, 'exchanged' for favors, sent as 'tribute', traded, bought and sold." (My italics). As can be seen from the terms and conditions of this discourse, not only are women defined as objects, they are defined as objects with a specific purpose: viz as producers of children and as objects of sexual pleasure for men.

As Gayle Rubin has argued in The Traffic in Women: Notes on the Political Economy of Sex, the 'exchange of women' is a shorthand for expressing that social relations of a kinship system specify that men have certain rights (over) their female kin, and that women do not have the same rights either to themselves or to their male kin. In this sense the exchange of women is a profound perception of a system in which women do not have full rights to themselves".

Broadly speaking the imperatives of economic change in combination with historico-cultural factors, in which the demands by women for their rights played no small part, led to important changes within the socio-symbolic orders of the western world. Operating within the specificity of their own historical constraints, the developing countries of South Asia retained the fundamental patterns of traditional patriarchy.

The difference between the latter and primitive societies lies perhaps in the fact that the
perception of women as objects of exchange has been sacralised through the institution of marriage and glossed over by the valorisation of the silent, self-sacrificing woman obedient to the least behest or desire of her male kin: viz: the father, the husband, the brother and the son; and the denial of her identity as a productive member of society. The 'trafficking in women' thus be- ^ came implicit in the system instead of being crudely explicit as in primitive societies.

The fact that women are designated as the property of men and have been culturally conditioned over the centuries to see themselves as such, has had a number of very important repercussions. Not only has this facilitated their collussion in their own oppression, their status as adjuncts to or property of their male kin has transformed them into symbols of male honor. As a result, who they are, what they do, what talents they possess or lack has little direct bearing on them as individuals. Instead they reflect directly on the men to whom they belong.

The implications of this relationship are both complex and deeply enmeshed in the collective cultural psyche of these peoples. The quasi-mystical status granted to virginity in women on the one hand and the sale or trafficking in women, on the other, represent two sides of the same coin. An 'honorable' man values chastity in his women because he cannot accept a woman who has been 'used' by another. At the same time, he can dispose of his women as he wills, because they are his property. By that same logic of property and ownership, he can rape a woman belonging to another man as a show of power or strength. As power is the defining term, there is no contradiction between the two acts which can be seen as the logical outcome of sex-gender relations within this schema.

This knowledge is crucial to our understanding of the issue of trafficking in women today. It is the exclusion of women from power and decision-making and the fact that they are perceived as being the property of men that is basic to the invisibility of the flesh trade today. Regardless of its horrific implications and regardless too of the human suffering that is the outcome of this trade governments and concerned officials continue to turn a blind eye to the trafficking mafia, or when cornered, give it only a reluctant credence.

The victims of the flesh trade today belong to diverse groups and nationalities. The one common factor which singles them out for this form of exploitation is that the majority of them are poor and all of them, once caught in the toils of the traffickers, are powerless to change their situation.

According to the latest figures, there are over 200,000 Bangladeshi women in Pakistan alone who have been smuggled across international borders as part of the slave trade that exists between the two countries.

 These figures do not include women from other countries viz, Sri Lanka, Burma, the Philippines and Afghanistan or from Pakistan itself.
Significantly, the figures cited in this paper have been provided by human rights and women's organizations. Official figures are not available, as officialdom has yet to take serious cognisance of this problem.

Trade across international borders

Hameeda, a twenty four year old Bangladeshi woman, was kidnapped at a fair in Dhaka and sold to a tout who brought her to Pakistan. She was sold into marriage for Rs40,000. She remained with her husband for three years until she managed to escape and make her way to the Billquis Edhi Home for Women in Karachi. During her time in her husband's home, she was ill treated and subjected to all forms of violence both by her husband and his family. As 'bought goods' she had no standing in the family. As she was alone and helpless in an alien land, there was no one she could turn to for help. Although work has been found for her which keeps her at subsistence level, Hameeda feels that her life has been ruined. Unable to return to her own country, no longer a virgin in a culture, which, ironically, lays a high premium on chastity in women, she feels that there is nothing she can look forward to.

Sharifan's story is a little different in so far as the details are concerned. She came to Pakistan with her husband and infant son in the hope of a better life. The reality turned out to be very different from what she had envisaged. She and her son were sold by the husband to a tout who then sold her to another client. Like Hameeda, she is among the relatively fortunate ones who managed to escape and was guided to the Edhi Home by a passerby. For her too the future is bleak.

Fatima, now ten, came to Pakistan with her family. She was stolen from her home at the age of four. Since then she has changed many hands, moving from pimp to pimp. Having memories of no other life, her tragedy is implicit in her manner as she calmly relates her story. She seems to be more interested in the toy she holds than in her plight.

For the women who are bought and sold across international borders, the tragedy begins in the home country. Geo-political factors in conjunction with the economic exploitation of the working class by vested interests coupled with the population boom and a corrupt and indifferent social sector have led to a scarcity of resources. These factors have eroded human values and deepened poverty levels. As a result, the poorest sections of society have been left with few defences against the traffickers. As women are of less value and considered to be more dispensable in male-dominated cultures, they become the foremost victims of the trade.

These women can be kidnap victims who are then sold to touts, or they can be the dupes of fake marriages - traffickers often 'marry' a number of women from different areas. It is an easy way of acquiring women as parents are only too willing to fulfill the social obligation of marrying their daughters and ridding themselves of an economic burden. Once in Pakistan, they are either sold to owners of prostitution dens or yet into another fake 'marriage'.

Once again these women can be lured by the hope of jobs and better wages, either in the big cities or in Pakistan. The last category either pay the 'agent', or as is most often the case, promise to pay, to smuggle them and their children across international boarders into Pakistan. The going rate for such transactions is said to be Rs5,000 per family. The journey across international borders presents few problems. The network of traffickers is spread out across the three countries and they work in collusion with the border and local police of the countries involved.

Whatever the method of their capture or 'acquisition', the outcome of this transaction for these women is the same. The majority, regardless of age, are raped along the way through three countries. Most are subjected to beatings and torture, depending on the whim of the trafficker. If there are any who escape this violence, it is because virgins fetch a better price.

Once in Pakistan, they are housed in the shanty towns in the big cities. Their sale or hire to interested parties takes place from these dens. This may either be for labor in factories or for prostitution in brothels in different parts of the country or through Pakistan to the Gulf area. Some touts of course run their own prostitution dens. Some women, like Hameeda, are sold into marriage. In such cases they may either face domestic violence as bought slaves, or be sold to other men, depending on the whim or financial need of the 'husband'.

The women who find employment in factories fare little better than the ones sold directly into prostitution. Since the majority have been unable to pay the trafficker's fee in advance, this money has to be paid out of their wages, once they are employed. As they seldom, if ever, reach this level of affluence, they never escape the clutches of the trafficker. As a result, traffickers often sell them to factory owners or brothel keepers in order to retrieve their own investment. In the case of factory owners who take on the debt owed by these women to the trafficker, the women's situation does not improve. They are paid one third of the minimum wage in lieu of the money they now owe their 'employer'.

The outcome of this is that they now end up as bonded labor with no hope of ever extricating themselves from the hold of the factory owner. For these women the quality of life remains the same. They have merely exchanged one master for another. According to Najma Sadeque, a woman activist and journalist, the problem of women who end up as bonded labor, is now reaching huge proportions and their numbers are now almost as high as those of the bonded labor among the brick kiln workers in the Punjab.

The carpet industry is one of the major employers of women who are either sold or hired as labor by the agents. As there are stringent ILO laws regarding the employment of children in the carpet industry, the majority of these 'factories' are unregistered. They operate out of shacks where there is over-crowding and poor lighting and ventilation. No labor laws apply here and women and children work long hours in cramped and unhealthy work areas. Although the wages keep these women at subsistence level, the work takes its toll in terms of health and life expectancy.

For these women and children, like those sold into prostitution, there is no court of appeal. They have entered the country as illegal immigrants. Any complaint, any cry for redress can plummet them into the arms of the authorities and subsequently into prison. As there are no laws to deal with the problem of the international slave trade, they are treated as illegal immigrants. As such they can languish in prison for the rest of their lives. Neither the government of Pakistan nor that of Bangladesh are interested in resolving their problem, in Pakistan, official apathy is shored up by a reluctance to allocate funds for the rehabilitation or repatriation of these women.

In Bangladesh the waters have closed over their memories. Neither the government nor the families want them back. Further, the conditions in prison are tough. Lacking outside contacts, these women are more than likely to be subjected to custodial rape and violence both at the hands of the police and fellow prisoners. The situation is worse for those who have been sold to brothels.

Under the new Islamic laws, specifically the Hudood Ordinances of 1979, illicit sex is punishable by flogging and death by stoning. Although under Shariat law trafficking in women for prostitution and or illicit sex is punishable by flogging and life imprisonment, the traffickers are seldom convicted. Police collusion coupled with the fact that the law does not admit the testimony of the female victim, ensures their safety. The women on the other hand are betrayed by their own bodies. Pregnancy and/or medical checkups can prove that these women have had sexual intercourse. As a result victims of rape or prostitution end up being accused of adultery.

Under these circumstances the establishment is the last recourse these women are likely to take. Most of them in fact, square the police out of their meagre earnings, so that their presence in the country remains a secret from the authorities.

Given the present state of affairs, where retrogressive laws in conjunction with State apathy towards the flesh trade bolsters corrupt law-enforcing agents and give indirect or direct protection to the traffickers, there is little hope for change. The flesh trade is a lucrative and thriving business and it seems that it will remain so unless definite and meaningful action is taken by the concerned governments.

According to Zia Awan, a Human Rights lawyer in Karachi, there has been a significant increase in the influx of women from Bangladesh over the past eight or nine months. This information has been corroborated by Maulana Edhi, a social worker, who runs homes for the women victims of violence. According to him, a few years ago, four or five women would either escape or be brought to him every month, by concerned citizens. Now, he says, the numbers have risen to 20 in a month. By the time they get to him, he says, these women are psychologically marked, often pregnant and with marks of violence on their bodies. In the Edhi Home, they find a brief respite. They are given medical treatment, looked after, and where possible, sent back to . Bangladesh.

For the most part, however, there is nowhere for them to go. There is no place for them in their own country. Poverty and the valorisation of chastity both militate against their return. Attempts are made to find jobs in Pakistan for those who cannot return to their homes.

Nor is there any attempt to apprehend the traffickers, although the police is aware, not only of the location of the dens from where they operate but also of the names of the main traffickers.

Against the few who make it to the Edhi Home or to womens' and/or human rights organizations, there are thousands of women, and their numbers are on the increase, who live out their lives facing degradation and violence in prostitution dens or as bonded labor. Bought and sold like animals, they have no hope of redress.

No mention has been made of the women of the other nationalities listed above, who are also victims of the slave trade. The reason for this omission is due to the fact that no documented information about them is available. However, their presence in the country, as domestic helps in the homes of both middle class and affluent families is a fact. It is unlikely that traffickers will have failed to exploit an alternative source of monetary gain. Against those who enter Pakistan as legal immigrants, and these too have to pay off the agent out of their earnings before they can start sending money home, there must be others who are the dupes of ruthless men who bring them in illegally. It is more than likely that these women share a fate similar to that of their Bangladeshi sisters.

Trafficking within Pakistan

Afghan women

The issue of Afghan women is radically different from that of Bangladeshi women. The influx of Afghan refugees, dating from the time of the Afghan/ Russian encounter in Afghanistan has given impetus and visibility to a reprehensible Pathan tradition: viz: the sale of women for financial gain.

Unlike the Bangladeshi women who are either kidnap victims or willing dupes of traffickers, these women do not owe their bondage to villainous middle men. They are sold into servitude by members of their own family or clan. Although no official figures are available regarding these transactions, eye witness accounts of women activists and concerned journalists bear witness to their increase.

Where traditionally, the sale of women by their male kin had taken place privately, now these sales take place openly, in the market place. Women are sold whether for labor or prostitution depending on the demand of the buyer and their own looks and physical condition. The buyers examine them like cattle, rejecting or selecting according to individual taste and need. The going price for good merchandise is Rs600 per kilogramme.These markets are seldom held in one place. But the fact that they are held is no secret. The influx of the Afghans into Pakistan meant big money for the government of the country in terms of foreign, especially US aid. Further the presence of the Afghans meant, for General Zia's illegitimate military regime, the presence of a large, supportive, militant population.

At a time when Zia was trying to draw attention away from his own illegal presence as Head of State, by setting himself up as the defender of the true faith and friend of the oppressed masses of Afghanistan, it was hardly likely that the government would either draw attention to any illegal activity on part of the Afghans or take any steps to stop them from indulging in it. Official news blackouts coupled with the fact that these markets have been restricted to the North West Frontier Province are largely responsible for the lack of information about them. Within the province itself, this practice has been accepted by a large enough section of the mainstream so as not to excite too much adverse comment.

The terms and conditions of the flesh trade within Pakistan are, by and large, similar to those of women brought into the country for purposes of sale either for labor or prostitution. The only major difference, and even this is not always applicable, is that Pakistani women do have families and/or other contacts to whom they can sometimes apply for help. However, the emphasis here is on the word sometimes.

Given the fetishisation of virginity in women in Pakistani culture, a woman victim of rape or even a woman caught in a situation that implies illicit sex or loss of virginity, becomes a social outcast. Families, no matter how loving or concerned, are only rarely interested in saddling themselves with a woman who bears the stigmata of illicit sexual activity. This is also a major reason why rape is seldom reported. Private shame is preferable to public denunciation.

As with women in the other Third World countries of Asia, the main victims of the flesh trade come from low income groups. The combination of excruciating poverty on the one hand, and exposure to the consumerism of high income groups on the other, create pressures which make families vulnerable to the thriving flesh trade.

The cry of women victims of the flesh trade goes unheard, or if heard, merits at best an embarrassed glance. The insinuation seems to be that either these stories are untrue, or if true, then surely the women themselves must, in some way, have been to blame. Perhaps the fact that Members of Parliament, Ministers of the State and religious divines are known to frequent these brothels has something to do with the silence that greets the issue of the flesh trade in Pakistan.

Paper presented at the Asian Women's Human Rights Council Conference on Traffic in Women, 9-12 December 1991, Seoul, Korea.