I Am Not Natasha

I read somewhere a long time ago that every sexual encounter changes a person. A book science book I read years ago claimed that every time human beings have sex produce the hormone oxytocin, also called bonding hormones, which bonds us emotionally to our sex partner. In women this hormone lasts for two weeks in system and in men it only lasts a couple of hours. Nobody knows how this affects women but we can only imagine that is it part of why being a prostitutes results in many mental health issues.

A while ago I went to see a photographic exhibition called ‘Not Natasha’ which portrayed the lives of girls and young women from Moldova the poorest country in Europe, who had been victims of trafficking into United Kingdom and some of whom had managed to go back home. The exhibition is part of the ‘Turn off the Red Lights’ campaign by Immigrants Council of Ireland in collaboration with FOMACS as well as The British Council and Dublin City Council. The images were very moving and the captions below each image mind blowing. Most of the time we see images of prostitutes so much that we don't see their vulnerability or their similarities to us. The way ‘Not Natasha’ images were taken is very moving and makes one think. They were taken in everyday places and are of people doing everyday things that we don’t usually want to associate with prostitutes. They reminded us that behind it all they are sisters, brothers, daughters and even mothers to someone. We get to see the humanity in the young women and girls, the things that we can also relate to that they do in their lives like sunbathing or spending time with a friend.

Natasha is the name given to all prostitutes from Eastern Europe and these women hate being called by it but have no choice. Moving images of young women like Dalia who was sold by her husband for $2200 and Clarisa who was sold by her best friend for $800
are some of images to be seen. The images also tell a story of young women and girls also kidnapped into the trade. While others are forced by circumstances mostly poverty, some are lured by promises of jobs in developed countries which makes it hard to say no when there is no employment around. In Moldova it is the woman’s responsibility to feed the family. They have to work to feed and clothes their families while men stay home and expect to be looked after. So some of them end up taking chances with people coming to offer them jobs hoping against all hope that they would be the lucky ones to get the real job and not be trafficked.

Despite not choosing to become prostitutes they don’t get paid for their labour and they certainly do not have a choice whom they end up sleeping with or what’s done to them. Their hours of work are not determined and their welfare not important either to their captures. They are dispensable and at times they are murdered by the men abusing them. One young woman’s pimp tried to induce an abortion and it failed and she spent two months with a dead foetus in her. During the two weeks she had to sleep with three or four ‘clients’ brought to her a day. Prostitution in this century is being driven either by poverty or wealth but either way it ties in strongly with the economy. We live in economic states and while prostitutes in developed countries are driven by access to wealth those in poor countries it’s because of lack of wealth. Fear is used to keep trafficked women from running. Most women from Moldova are told their families would be killed. This makes it difficult for them to speak out for fear of what would happen to their families especially since the pimps almost always know where they come from. In poor countries some women get forced into prostitution by mostly men looking to make money exploiting and abusing them, women like Sorroca forced into prostitution by her in-laws and ending up being separated from her children.

What’s worse when they do manage to escape no one believes their stories and they are penalised heavily for being in countries illegally and for prostitution. At home they are pariahs of society, unwanted by anyone even their families because they believe they chose the life. Dana Popa the photographer who took these images did so to show that there are people behind these tags that we mostly choose to ignore or frown at. The most devastating outcome in all this is that there are children being born in these situations, children who will never know their fathers because they were only ever ‘clients’. Some of the mothers are under age too with no support in raising a child while they are still children themselves. Most of these women say they love their children but what sort of a life will the children have born to that life. Their mothers are the most down trodden of society who are exploited in the worst possible way and don’t earn anything. Their children have no chance in life and may end up in exactly the same situations as their mothers.

Trafficking of women in Eastern Europe started in 1989 at the fall of the Soviet Union. With lack of jobs and all the wealth having been amassed to Russia countries like Moldova have a long way to go before they can build their country back to its former glory. What needs to happen is for the world to accept and appreciate the challenges faced by countries like Moldova and the various social issues there and get involved to help eradicate this form of slavery. The whole world agrees that slavery is illegal but has not gone all out to criminalise the sex trade together. There is a need to make buying of sex illegal in order to eradicate this behaviour and give women a chance at descent living. Because when all you have left is hope, you become very vulnerable. It becomes to say no even if you can see danger coming because if you let go of hope what else would be left?