Chen Chen

At 11, Chen Chen's father sold her for $12,000. She was taken to an unfamiliar building where she was told to eat and sleep well and taught to wear make-up. She did not know why. After 10 days she was dressed up and placed in the window of the building. Soon, her boss told her to carry a basin of water to a room upstairs. Inside the room, a man awaited her. Chen asked him what was happening. He raped her.

Chen learned to become passive and emotionless. Only when clients beat her did she fight back. Even the police were cruel to Chen when they finally removed her from the brothel - the same police who frequented the brothel. She was initially arrested, but later transferred to a half-way house for girls from the sex industry. Though her life is easier here, she fears for her family. Her father spent the $12,000 by buying a new television and painting the house.

-Enslaved Peoples in the 1990's, Anti-Slavery International

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