Singapore sex trade

7,614 women were arrested for vice-related activities last year, 2,567 more than the total number nabbed in 2008.


However, local laws relating to prostitution do not apply to male sex workers and some lawyers are calling for such laws to also apply to them.


One lawyer, Mr Sunil Sudheesan from KhattarWong said while it's not illegal for women to engage male sex workers, these workers who have sex with other men could be charged under Section 377A of the Penal Code.

Women's Health Issues in Nepal

Nepal is one of the poorest countries and healthcare is a major challenge, but one doctor hopes to improve conditions for women there.

Almost a third of Nepal's population lives on less than a dollar a day, and political turmoil has displaced tens of thousands of people. For Nepalese women, life is particularly difficult. The country has a long record of discrimination and exploitation, and maternal mortality in Nepal has historically been among the highest in Asia.

Dr. Sangeeta Mishra is trying to change that. She is a gynecologist from Nepal. She has spent much of the past year as a Fulbright Scholar at Johns Hopkins University. On "Here and Now" she talks about how women's health issues are addressed in Nepal.

Dr. Mishra: "These women they are not coming to the clinics, they don't have access to the hospital, so sitting in the clinic and solving the problem [on a] one-on-one basis, it doesn't work for Nepal.

"First thing which I realized was a major problem in Nepal was high rate of maternal mortality, and women were dying due to pregnancy-related complications. Women ... are not aware of pregnancy [complications] ... it's just a normal thing and that they can deliver at home and they are not aware of the consequences that pregnancy can bring.

"So I plan to develop a major educational and awareness generation program for these women, where most of the deaths occur ... to [inform] them of the importance of delivering at the hospital, or having a skilled helper at home."

She says around 68 percent of the women deliver in rural areas, and only 16 percent deliver in hospitals, and that delivering at home is a part of the culture: "In the family, mother-in-laws and mothers believe that, because they didn't have any complications and they delivered at home, so they think that their daughters-in-laws and daughters, they should also deliver at home.

"What these women don't realize is that, they deliver ten kids at home, but how many were alive? Out of ten, you have only four or five kids alive. In this era you cannot deliver ten children and then you have two or three of them alive; you should have two or three kids and all of them should be alive."

Argentina's sex slaves

A short video about the violent sex industry in Argentina.



Witness give testimony and declaration of fact about her tragedy.

Woman Sells Her Body Parts

For many people making money -- and how to make more of it -– is an everyday struggle. Some people use an obvious yet controversial source of earning potential: their own body parts.


The human body is a living factory that can manufacture products that no laboratory can recreate. From kidneys to hair, to eggs, sperm and blood, many body parts can be sold through both legal and illegal avenues, and the dollar value increases with the amount of risk involved.


For those who cash in, the body can be a source of income that can be tapped again and again. And for those in need of life-saving body parts, the global trade in organs opens a whole new visceral world of ethical and legal issues.

Convicted of Public Indecency for Wearing Trousers

A woman who's been convicted of public indecency in Sudan for wearing trousers in public is vowing not to pay a $200 fine. Instead, Lubna Hussein says she'll take a month in prison, as a further protest of Sudan's morality laws.


After her arrest in July, the 43-year-old journalist set out to challenge the police and courts, and to try to embarrass Sudan's government. Because she worked for a U.N. agency, she had immunity from prosecution -- but she chose to quit her job so she could go to trial.


Her prosecution - and a possible sentence including flogging - drew an international outcry. But she was spared the flogging sentence. Her lawyer says the judge apparently opted for a fine instead of flogging to avoid international criticism.


During septemùber 7th' session, police rounded up about 40 women who were protesting outside the courthouse in support of Hussein. Some of them wore trousers in a sign of solidarity.

The Day My God Died

Director Andrew Levine's Notes:


**A Personal Documentary Journey

I was in the middle of Kamati Pura, the largest red light district in the world and I didn’t even know it. Camera in hand, girlfriend (now wife) at my side, assaulted by smells and snapping away. Later I learned that every vile desire a man could dream of was for sale and child virgins were the region’s most noted delicacies.

I was traveling the world with my girlfriend. The idea was to do what we would never have the time or the luxury to do again. I had just graduated from the University of Utah having majored in film studies.

Among the places I traveled, India and Nepal haunted me the most.
The chaos, the contradictions, the colors, the beauty, the revulsion. The hustlers, the healers, the schiesters, the teachers. What was real? What was not? I found my solace in reading books, newspapers, travel guides, and UNICEF reports, anything I could get my hands on to help connect the dots. Sorting and sifting and trying to make sense of it all, I had the good fortune of meeting Matthew Friedman. Matt took me on a journey that would change my life and haunt my dreams. Born in Newington, CT, a technical advisor for the Office of Health and Family Planning to USAID/Nepal Matthew Friedman is documenting and fighting against the child sex slave trade in Asia. With his coaching and the help of others trying to stop the "fleshtrade" I connected more dots than I once cared or dared to know about. Matt helped me see the unspeakable, and shoot the unthinkable. And that is what this film is about-- tracing the trek of the Asian child sex trade and giving physical form to the unspeakable and unthinkable.

It is our hope to allow these children the opportunity to tell their stories, and by doing so share their hopes, dreams and unanswered prayers.


For one of the most religious countries in the world I found it quite ironic that Nepal the birthplace of Lord Buddha, preaching the teachings of love and compassion participated in the child sex slave trade. It was later that I discovered India and Nepal's shame was not an isolated problem, but that every nation in the world participates in the human suffering callously labeled as child prostitution. In my mind it is nothing short of slavery--where children are chattel and rape is the instrument of profitability.

**Common Goal

Each year, over one million women and girls as are trafficked into the sex trade throughout the world. This emerging problem represents one of the most horrid human rights violations known to human kind. After finding themselves at a brothel, many girls are gang raped, tortured and forced to have sex with as many as twenty men a day. Following several years of this sexual slavery, many become infected by various sexually transmitted diseases, including an 80% HIV/AIDS rate. Because so little is known about the problem, both at home and abroad, this film attempts to bring together a number of groups/individuals who are working to fight against trafficking each with the common goal to create awareness and to help bring about action against this problem.

**A Life Changing Event

The dream of the great American novel had been usurped by cinema in my generation and I was determined to produce the screenplay that would define my career in my first draft. After a year of research in cyberspace and communications with people on the frontlines trying to stop the slave trade, it was time to see first hand what I had been researching and seeing on my computer.

It was there in Nepal on my very first day where everything changed. We were visiting our first non-profit who provided aftercare for the young girls who had been rescued from the brothels of Bombay

There in front of me was a room, a room of lost innocence, a room of stolen youth. Thirty young girls and babies all returned from India. All dying of AIDS, all knowing they are dying of AIDS. Every emotion running through me. Should I cry? Should I scream? What should I do? - -Journal Entry, April 20, 1999

It was that exact moment when I realized the first step was not to write a fictionalized screenplay, but rather the first step must be to document the real story, by combining real words, and real statistics with pictures that don't lie.

There were so many stories of strength and resiliency. So many unanswered prayers and so many betrayals left unaccounted for. My hope is that we have created a film that begins to paint a picture of what human beings are capable of. It is a story of repeated betrayals and yet, it reminds us of how resilient the human spirit is and can be.