Book Review: The Road of Lost Innocence

It’s a crime, unmentioned and unnoticed.

Worldwide, it is estimated that somewhere between 700,000 and four million women, children and men are victims each year, and no region is unaffected.

It’s the second largest organized crime in the world, after drugs.

It robs its victims, who are very young, of their innocence, of their lives, of their souls.

The rates of homicide for these individuals is 17 times higher than that of the age-matched general population.

Florida is one of the top 3 states in the US for this crime. And I bet you don’t know what it is.

Its human trafficking. The majority of its victims become sex slaves. You can blame the purity myth for a lot of this problem, as well as greed and the idea that men should be sexual and violent accounts for most of the rest. Why? Many of these children are stolen or sold into trafficking at a young age to insure their virginity. They get a higher price. Families that are in debt and live in societies where women and girls are not valued sell their daughters to help pay off debts. Men who don’t get what they want at home see this as an easy solution to their “sexual problems.”

This problem is discussed in detail in Somaly Mam’s autobiography, “The Road of Lost Innocence.” In it we read her story about being sold into slavery, how she escaped, and how she is changing the world now by rescuing others.

At around the age of 6, Somaly was sold into slavery by a man who told her he was her grandfather. She was his slave. At around the age of 12, he sold her virginity to pay off some of his personal debts. At around 14 or 15 he sold her to a man to be his “wife.” When one day he did not return, Somaly’s “grandfather” sold her again to a brothel.

Somaly’s time in the brothels is best described in one word: Hell. She was beaten, tortured, and raped. Early on in her experience, she escaped for a short while. A man said he wanted to her marry, and she believed him. He told her to take a bus to another town. The drivers raped her and another girl in the truck. The man sold her to them. She got off the truck in a town she thought she had some cousins in. When she found them, they took her in. When the wife of the pair left, the man raped her. When she left them, she was jailed. The police raped her some more. She ended up back at the brothel. She told the other girls, “It’s worse outside. (Mam, 54)”

Another night one of the brothel guards came up, tied up a friend of Somaly’s, and shot her in the head in front of everyone. Another time she let two girls who had just been sold go. She was severely punished, of course. At one point, Somaly said, “My body was nothing, of no value…I wasn’t worth anything. I was srey kouc, broken and unmendable. I was dirty and could never hope to be clean again. (Mam, 75)”

One client did come to care about Somaly. He gave her money that she could use on whatever she wanted. Through him, she met a man that would love her and marry her, Pierre. Together, they worked to end sexual slavery, and Somaly ended up with her own non-profit organization to help these women and children. The entire second half of her book is on this, and it too is wonderful, but I want instead to focus on her girlhood, the time she spent in Hell.

Today’s reality is very harsh, and according to Somaly, much worse. She says they have rescued girls with nails hammered in their skulls. Men believe that having sex with virgins can cure AIDs, give a man strength, lengthen his life, and lighten his skin (something that is seen as attractive in many cultures). To insure virginity, girls are sold very young, as young as 5 or 6. Then they sow the girls back up and sell them as virgins again. And again. Because of how badly the tearing is, these girls are more susceptible to diseases such as AIDS (Mam).

Often times, we sit at home at watch the television, letting the world pass us by. We often forget just how fortunate we are. We wallow in our self pity, never trying to change it or change others. Somaly lived through the depths of Hell, and not only survived, she thrived. Her story is, unfortunately, not uncommon. She puts a face to it when others dare not mention it. This I think is one of the best things this book does for its readers, it puts a face to a global issue. It brings Hell home.

For those of us in Girl’s Studies, it reminds us that many issues that face girls today are not always the ones we talk about most often. They are not always the ones that affect Western women. Well, perhaps as the core they are (such as rape) but they are on a scale and in ways we rarely address. Feminism has received a lot of criticism about neglecting to address the issues of women in underdeveloped countries, of women of color, of women who are poor. Perhaps they are right.

But then again, this issues affects all of us. American girls and women are kidnapped and sold into slavery as well. We just don’t want to talk about it. To say it would mean it exists, and no one wants to do that. No one wants to admit that slavery today is worse than it has been at any other time in history. Florida plays a huge part in that. I will never forget being in high school and reading about how a neighboring town was one of the biggest slave hot-spots in the US. All of the lovely orange groves that I loved to see and smell, all of those oranges are picked by slaves. Chained to their beds at night, paid nothing. All in the name of juice. I don’t drink orange juice anymore.

So I challenge you this. What have you been through in your life? Have you stood up against it? Why is it that we wait until an issue affects us before we fight to change it? Why wait until after, why not start now? How can you do some good in this world, whether it be for women or men? Do you fight for those who have no voice? Ask yourself:

Have you left your mark on the world today?

“A seed is like a little girl: it can look small and worthless, but if you treat it well then it will grow beautiful.” – Somaly Mam

Mam, Somaly. The Road of Lost Innocence: As a girl she was sold into sexual slavery, but now she rescues others. The true story of a Cambodian heroine.. London: Spiegel & Grau, 2008.

"The Facts." IAST - Home Page. 30 Oct. 2009 .