(photo by Mohammed Massoud)
It can be hard to identify what exactly prostitution means in this culture and society. In the West, we think of prostitutes as hanging out on the corner in the ghetto, walking up to loitering cars. Well, there are certainly one-stop shop hookers here as well. But I think the difference is that the layers of the sex trade are very dynamic and frequently very hard to identify.According to UNICEF, 35% of Cambodian sex workers are under the age of 16. Sadly, young girls are often either kidnapped or sold by their parents to pimps who auction off their virginity to the highest bidder. Allegedly Chinese men are the leading customers for virginity. I have heard from a couple male friends that mothers have tried to sell their daughters to them for $5.
Aside from destitute parents selling their children into sex slavery, girls are often kidnapped from small villages and towns in the countryside to be brought to a brothel in Phnom Penh. From the stories I've heard the scenario sometimes goes like this:
1.Everyone in town knows little girl and her family.
2.Little girl hits puberty; people in town start to notice her figure.
3.Little girl is offered a legitimate job as a waitress or is given a surprise piece of candy
4. Waitress job turns into a kidnapping job and the candy is laced with debilitating drugs.
5. Little girl is held in a brothel until her virginity is auctioned off and she is thereafter a regular sex worker.
Very, very sad and scary.
So how does Cambodia compare to other Asian countries that are also quite infamous for their tolerance of gross sex trade practices? Here's a map:
GREEN: Prostitution legal and regulated
BLUE: Exchange of money for sex legal, but brothels illegal
RED: Prostitution illegal
Clearly, you'll see that what the law states is nowhere near societal reality or cultural perception of acceptability. Quite ironic in an area of the world where good girls are supposed to refrain from sexual desire altogether. We don't talk about sex in Asia, now do we?
Creepy Western pedophiles are usually the ones we hear about buying their services. But it's estimated that 99% of the clientele of the sex industry are Cambodian men. It's much cheaper for Cambodian men at as low as 5,000 riels for a go ($1.25). It's estimated that a great portion of HIV contraction is actually from married men bringing the disease home from brothels. This has lead Cambodia to have the second highest rate of HIV/AIDS in Asia. Some say that one of the reasons why the sex trade has become so normalized in this country is that traditional morality was challenges by the cultural wipe out of the Khmer Rouge. I find this argument highly subjective and ignorant of the fact that many other areas of common morality are upheld here just as they are in the rest of the world. But undoubtedly, there is a major lack of education about sexually transmitted diseases and a general approach of impunity towards men who participate in the sex trade. While in the West there has been an upsurge of undercover missions to expose the plots of these brothels, the Dateline and 60 Minute Specials do little to change the systemic problem.
And as for the Western creeps who are caught through secret investigations and child protection agencies, well let's just say that money does buy freedom in some cases. Several pedophilia cases have been resolved by the accused deviant paying the victim's family a sum of money. Thereafter their testimony miraculously changes - no hard feelings right? And if that doesn't work, hey you can always pay your way through the justice system.
It's hard not to judge these white men you see out at bars flirting with their Cambodian hookers or temp girlfriends that look like they could be 16. Although the foreign demand for sex workers doesn't make up the majority, it promotes a power dynamic here that is anything but progressive for women. Not to mention the fact that it's quite embarrassing for the rest of us foreigners to have to watch them exploit such a terribly sad situation. Interestingly, foreign demand might have actually kick started the industry after the war subsided; although forced marriage took place during the Khmer Rouge Era, prostitution was not big. Apparently, the number of sex workers jumped from 6,000 to 20,000 between 1991 and 1992. Coincidentally, this was the year that the UN installed it's aid overhaul of Cambodia, bringing in throngs of Western aid workers...or customers. In their defense, because the cultural standards of sexual behavior are markedly different here than they are in the West, many foreign men think they have met a girl that they are just having a fun time with. But the fact is that 'proper' Cambodian women would not be found out at a bar at midnight alone and would surely not have a one night stand with a foreigner. But if the girl doesn't ask you for a fee flat out it doesn't necessarily mean that she is not a sex worker of some kind. This is where 'taxi girls' come in.
Taxi girls got their name from the practice of the men that they've had a one night stand with paying for their taxi ride home the next day. The bigger picture is just that these are women who sleep with a man to effectively make him their sugar daddy. Something many of the men are more than fine with. A scenario related to the taxi girl (or boy) phenomenon is that in which a foreigner pays for a night at a hotel at the girl's recommendation and then when he's off without having paid for the sex she receives a small kickback from the hotel.
I know what you're thinking. They're just a gold diggers and hookers; they exist everywhere! True. It occurs to me that some facets of gender relationships are universal. Women seek financial support before love everywhere. Sex sells everywhere. Women are afraid to ask their boyfriends to use protection everywhere. HIV and other STDs are taboo everywhere. And geez, we all blush and joke about the red light district in Amsterdam. Hell, the red light district is a common tourist destination. So how is this different?
To be honest, I'm not sure. As an outsider, I don't actually see much. But what I do see is a sex industry that is so far underground that the rights of the workers are absolutely nonexistent. These girls are so far outside the realm of 'decent' society, it seems pretty implausible that they would ever be able to find their way back into the fold. A very sad situation that needs a lot more than legislation to make it right.
