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Afghanistan has become a key source for victims of sex-trafficking. It remains a hidden crime, flourishing despite laws meant to protect women. A vicious cycle of poverty and cultural practices keep women trapped. Pimps and customers call her Diljan. Though women of other nationalities, including Russians and Ukrainians, still dominate the flourishing sex trade in India, Diljan said Afghans like her have pushed many of them out of business.
After the war in , she and her family fled from Kandahar to Kabul. Her nightmare began when a man raped her, she said, while returning home from the market. He threatened to kill her if she told anyone about it. She would be raped again that month by another man, who made the same threat. In , a woman approached her with a waitress's job in a posh Delhi hotel. She jumped at the chance. The woman got her a passport and visa, and put her on a plane.
In Delhi, she was told that the job had fallen through. She ended up being an escort. Afghanistan has become a source, transit point and destination for victims of sex-trafficking.
Nobody knows exactly how many Afghan women have been sold into sexual slavery. Like the drug trade, trafficking takes place in a shadowy world.
