Religion, Gender Based Violence, and Human Trafficking: A Dangerous Intersection

 

This guest post is from Jade Q. Heider, Juris Doctorate Candidate 2027, and current Bioethics student:

This summer I interned at a religious freedom nonprofit in Fairfax, Virginia, and attended multiple congressional briefings that exemplified an intersection of religion, gender based violence, and human trafficking. Through the briefings, I learned that in the most extreme cases religion can be forced upon women, or withheld from women, to violate their rights. And this can destroy families.

The first congressional briefing was titled, “Gendered Persecution: Targets of Forced Conversion.” According to the accounts of panelists, girls in Egypt and Pakistan are similarly abused through cycles of child marriage and forced faith conversions. Panelists for this event explained the process of young girls being abducted, raped, and then forced to convert and marry their abusers. This is a clear pattern, and oftentimes, officials and judges do nothing about this because they approve of the spread of their religion through forced conversion. This is a tragic fate for young girls, and even if rescued, survivors face stigma from their communities who value sexual purity. One speaker emphasized that in Egypt the authorities deny justice for the families of the stolen girls and keep a front internationally to cover the sexual crimes. A Coptic woman testified how she was assaulted by her coach and forced to convert to Islam. Even after escaping from her abuser, she was persistently harassed and her abuser claimed she was “his wife.” Another panelist spoke on the condition of women in Pakistan. Like in Egypt, Christian girls, have been forcefully abducted, converted, and married off to men far older than themselves. The panelist emphasized how religious principles were used to create laws allowing underage girls to be married off after their first menstrual cycle. This briefing made the argument that gender based persecution should be recognized as a form of genocide, and that religion used to legally do wrong should be given specific attention. In addition to the trauma inflicted through abduction and forced conversion, child marriage has correlated deleterious effects on girls. Girls who are forced into child marriage miss educational, economic, and social growth opportunities and are often subject to physical and sexual abuse. Additionally, if they fall pregnant, they face higher health complications and risk of death associated with adolescent pregnancy.

Another congressional briefing I attended was called, “North Korea’s Future Hope.” The speakers from this event were all North Korean defectors, and a surprising issue discussed was how women defectors are trafficked in China. This form of gender based violence, occurs when women escape from North Korea through China. Though the women flee in hopes of freedom, many are forced into marriages or tricked into sex work when they flee to China. Since the One Child Policy left the Chinese population unbalanced, there is a large market of desperate men searching for wives. Trafficked women have no rights as undocumented immigrants, and cannot report any abuse to the police. A survivor testified that after defecting she was sex trafficked in China and became pregnant. She explained that her story was not unique, and thousands of children are in China with no birth certificates because their mothers are undocumented themselves. Without birth certificates, these children are unable to receive an education and are legally unprotected. Defectors shared how the North Korean government exerts extreme control and deals harsh punishment over religious expression. However, speakers emphasized how sneaking in the Bible to encourage religious thought, or even other materials such as K-dramas and music from the west, inspired them to defect, and could influence others. In North Korea, religion is restricted as a means of controlling the way citizens think, and severe government control is what drives citizens to defect. Religion being taken away as a means of control, is radically different from Egypt and Pakistan where religion is used as a form of control. Gender-based violence and human trafficking are often interconnected and intersect with religion as a tool that may be utilized or taken away from women to further perpetuate harmful cycles.

Religious freedom, both the freedom to profess a religion as well as the freedom from a religion are fundamental human rights – and they work together to help restore families.