"The Natashas" - Trafficking

Author: Global sex trade "biggest human rights crisis facing women today'

By Jessica Sidman
September 21, 2004


Each year, 800,000 to 900,000 girls and women are bought and sold worldwide in the global sex market. They are ordered through Internet sites, given as birthday gifts to soldiers and stripped of their dignity and identity.

Victor Malarek, author of the new book The Natashas: The New Global Sex Trade, spoke at the Penn Bookstore yesterday about the trafficking of women -- the black market's third most profitable commodity -- and the blind eye that governments and world organizations have turned to the flesh trade.

"It's a brutal book about a brutal trade," Malarek said. "The Natashas is a call to action."

The event, which drew a crowd of around 30 people, was hosted by the Ukrainian Society at Penn in conjunction with the Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures and the Women's Studies Program.

"I've lived in the Ukraine and Eastern Europe, and I've seen prostitutes," said Wharton junior Mark Kindrachuk, who is also one of the founders of the Ukrainian Society. "And walking down the street you don't even think about it, because you see even more people who are so impoverished. ... I knew [prostitution] existed, but I didn't know to what capacity."

Most people dismiss these women as "whores" who have chosen their own lifestyle, Malarek said. In reality, they are duped into lives of sexual slavery with false promises of real jobs and are beaten into submission and often killed if they protest, he added.

"Prostitution is not the world's oldest profession," Malarek said. "It's the world's oldest oppression."

Malarek further condemned the lack of intervention by local, national and international authorities. Immigration officials, police officers and so-called peacekeepers are often the aggressors, leaving the women with the impression that there is no one to turn to for help.

"He seems very knowledgeable and very passionate about the issue," West Philadelphia resident Laurie Burras said of Malarek. "I want to know why nobody is doing anything."

Other students, professors and community members in attendance said they were also chilled by Malarek's account of "the biggest human rights crisis facing women today."

"It was a powerful speech," Kindrachuk said. "I hope he sells a lot of books."

Malarek hopes that his book will raise awareness and foster discussion that will lead to change. "I just think we've got to do something," Malarek said. "We can't allow these girls and women to be continually ***** and demoralized."