Blog 4: Women raped by Sinai traffickers

This article was written and detailed by Frederik Pleitgen and Mohammed Fadel correspondents for CNN. It is about the intense and grotesque levels of human trafficking in the Sinai desert and the women involved's desperate cries for help. The women are usually refugees from sub-saharan Africa, according to the article they are  smuggled and blackmailed into the trafficking process. Some of the refugees are not trafficked straight into Israel but instead are held ransom and held at bail at the expense of their relatives. The women who are trafficked often get raped and wind up being pregnant. Tegisti Tekla is a woman from Eritrea who experienced this gross injustice first hand and told her story to reporters in the shelter of the African Refugee Development Center. Tekla explained that she wanted to talk about her sufferings to prevent others from going through the same thing. Tekla explained that the first time she was raped by the Bedouin gangs her and another female refugee were taken away and told they were going to make coffee for the smugglers. Many more incidents such as this happened on her journey and when she reached Israel she found the she was pregnant. Tekla decided to have an abortion, she explained that if she were to have the baby she would suffer all her life. A number of other women who find themselves in the African Refugee Development Center find themselves pregnant as well and ask for abortions. The article explains that the victims are often stigmatized by their communities for their choice instead of supported and helped. The women who are found to be pregnant while they are still in the torture camp are told their families must now pay double ransom since they are two people now. In one case a mother was unable to pay the ransom demanded by the camp and as a result the rapist and father of the child burned the babies head down to the skull. It has not been determined how many women have been victimized by these trafficking and torture camps; although many people are attempting to tackle the problem the business remains lucrative.

The fact that countless women have undergone this grave injustice is horrid and astonishing. These refugees are merely attempting to escape the presumably grotesque conditions of their nations of origin yet they find themselves in even worse conditions than before. They are being taken advantage of by Bedouin gangsters and are held captives and used as sex slaves against their own will. The female refugees are said to be much more vulnerable to experience these injustices versus their male counterparts. this is an example of gender inequality as the females do not have the same chance to escape and make a better life for themselves. There is also inequality rooted in the fact that certain areas of the world are victimized and taken advantage of so inhumanely based on the conditions of their home countries. It is more than unfair that in certain areas around the world people have to live in fear and cannot experience the same opportunities and freedoms that we take for granted in the United States.

http://thecnnfreedomproject.blogs.cnn.com/2012/09/21/women-raped-by-sinai-traffickers-find-help/?hpt=wo_c1