This is a not-so-easy-to-read post.
But you should read it.
Of course, the longer I stay here in Bangladesh, the more my heart grows for its people, even for the crazy, overcrowded city in which I have been living. Despite its hardships, I am consistently but unexpectedly reminded of hope and beauty amidst poverty and injustice - and for that I am thankful.
Still, it often remains difficult to look beyond the issues that need addressing...
The sexual exploitation of young women and girls in Bangladesh is one of the issues that needs immediate attention.
I recently visited an organization called Children's Uplift Programme (CUP), an NGO that reaches out to pregnant women and young mothers on the streets of Dhaka and gives them a safe place to rest with their children away from the dangers of the streets and the threat of sexual exploitation. Often begging for money and sex are the only options of survival for these uneducated and illiterate girls. Having come from their villages in hopes of a better life, they find a new, and even more tragic nightmare when they arrive in Dhaka. Or even more common, women lassoed into the sex trade have been legally sold into bondage by their own families, many of whom are also in desperate situations. (Prostitution is legal in this conservative country.) I know it is a hard topic to swallow, but I encourage you to give the article below a read, as it is a compelling eye opener to some of the issues specific to the sex trade in Bangladesh. And the video makes it tragically real.
You know how they give cows hormones to plump them up before slaughter?
These girls take those pills..
Still, it often remains difficult to look beyond the issues that need addressing...
The sexual exploitation of young women and girls in Bangladesh is one of the issues that needs immediate attention.
I recently visited an organization called Children's Uplift Programme (CUP), an NGO that reaches out to pregnant women and young mothers on the streets of Dhaka and gives them a safe place to rest with their children away from the dangers of the streets and the threat of sexual exploitation. Often begging for money and sex are the only options of survival for these uneducated and illiterate girls. Having come from their villages in hopes of a better life, they find a new, and even more tragic nightmare when they arrive in Dhaka. Or even more common, women lassoed into the sex trade have been legally sold into bondage by their own families, many of whom are also in desperate situations. (Prostitution is legal in this conservative country.) I know it is a hard topic to swallow, but I encourage you to give the article below a read, as it is a compelling eye opener to some of the issues specific to the sex trade in Bangladesh. And the video makes it tragically real.
You know how they give cows hormones to plump them up before slaughter?
These girls take those pills..
READ this article.
WATCH this video clip.
Holding onto impossible dreams of a husband that will stay and children that are legitimate, I have wondered what these young women would sing if they had the chance to have a voice... (In this boiling city) there is a song called "Icicles" that keeps popping into my head when trying to put some lyrics to the repeating story of these women and the love they desperately hope to discover in this lifetime.
Icicles
By Patty Griffin
Tonight
I sing soft and low
Just like the moon
Over the snow
I hear icicles falling in the dark
We're just like anyone else
We just want a little bit
Of sun for ourselves
And a little bit of rain
To make it all grow
Maybe a minute or two
To get lost in the glow of love
There's always someone throwing matches around
Waving the shiny new knife
The first to run when the house burns down
I've seen it everyday of my life
I must confess there appears to be
Way more darkness than light
I want to fall like a pearl
To the bottom of the sea
There no one will find us tonight
Tonight
It might look pretty bad
We might lose everything
We thought that we had
But shadows will pass
Smoke, it will clear
If something survives of us around here
I'll be glad 'cause I know
I was lost in the glow
Of love
By Patty Griffin
Tonight
I sing soft and low
Just like the moon
Over the snow
I hear icicles falling in the dark
We're just like anyone else
We just want a little bit
Of sun for ourselves
And a little bit of rain
To make it all grow
Maybe a minute or two
To get lost in the glow of love
There's always someone throwing matches around
Waving the shiny new knife
The first to run when the house burns down
I've seen it everyday of my life
I must confess there appears to be
Way more darkness than light
I want to fall like a pearl
To the bottom of the sea
There no one will find us tonight
Tonight
It might look pretty bad
We might lose everything
We thought that we had
But shadows will pass
Smoke, it will clear
If something survives of us around here
I'll be glad 'cause I know
I was lost in the glow
Of love
I pray that one day each woman, child, and man ensnared in the twisted economy of sex might be able to sing that last verse as one dedicated to that of an Eternal Hope. Because when redemption seems too far, Christ is near. The fog of sin that hovers over this earth is at times so disorienting it is hard to know how to find a way out. But, thankfully, there is a God that promises a 'glow of love,' and it will indeed allow each of us to navigate through this thick cloud.
I pray these girls know this.
I will pray until the fog clears.
I pray these girls know this.
I will pray until the fog clears.
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