Zahra Shafei, cultural researcher
Nin was one of those women walking back and forth in front of tourist cars on the streets of downtown Bangkok, trying to seduce her next customer. She was just 16 years old when her friend lured her into prostitution with the promise of a decent job that would pay for her living. Like any other teenager, she longed for financial independence and a decent income, but she says that dream came at a very high price: “I was surrounded in an environment where evil is the norm. The first time I worked, they forced me to drink, to take drugs, to do erotic dances, to serve drinks, and to sell sex … This took a toll on me. I felt terrible.”
In Thailand, estimates indicate that the sex industry makes a significant contribution to the country’s GDP and employs hundreds of thousands of people in its various forms. The National Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology at Mahidol University in Thailand estimates that about 36,000 of the 150,000 to 200,000 individuals engaged in prostitution in the country are children[1]. The overall value of the sex industry in Thailand is estimated to be approximately $6.4 billion, equivalent to about three percent of the country’s total national budget.
Organized sexual deprivation and prostitution in Southeast Asia
The prevalence of organized prostitution and sexual exploitation of women and children in Southeast Asia, particularly in countries like Thailand and the Philippines, has turned these countries into hubs for sex tourism and human trafficking.
Child sex trafficking is one of the most heartbreaking aspects of this widespread exploitation. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) estimates that over 150,000 people in this region fall victim to human traffickers each year, with 44% of them being women and 21% girls. Additionally, data from 2003 to 2021 indicates that 47% of sex trafficking victims in South Asia were children under the age of 17.
While some attribute this crisis solely to economic issues, cultural and historical analyses reveal the darker forces orchestrating these atrocities. Facts and evidence align with Imam Khamenei’s assertion that the motivations of politicians and capitalists in matters related to women are driven by political and colonial motivations.
Prostitution industry and role of colonialists
Historical studies reveal that imperialism and colonialism played a fundamental role in shaping the modern sex industry in Thailand and the Philippines. In the Philippines, during the period of American colonial rule (1898–1946), exploitative economic systems were institutionalized, and “recreational districts” were established specifically for US military personnel. These areas, particularly during and after World War II, served as a precursor to today’s sex tourism hubs. This situation persisted into the 1990s, especially around major US air and naval bases such as Clark Air Base and Subic Bay. During the Vietnam War, too, Thailand’s geographical location turned it into a hub for “rest & recreation” for American soldiers, who also committed heinous sexual crimes against Vietnamese women in Vietnam itself.
McNamara, who was the US Secretary of Defense during Lyndon B. Johnson’s presidency, was responsible for the widespread presence of military forces and the bloody assaults of the Vietnam War. In 1967, the Thai government and McNamara signed an agreement under which Thailand agreed to provide “rest and recreation” (R&R) for American soldiers in exchange for economic development opportunities. The US government, involved in the Vietnam War, signed this treaty with Thailand, thereby officially endorsing the sexual exploitation industry by allowing American soldiers to enter the country for R&R.[2]
The large presence of foreign military forces increased the demand for sexual services and gradually integrated such exploitations into the activities of local exploiters, while this exploitation was normalized by foreign contractors under the guise of “hospitality.” The sexual exploitation of women under occupation was considered a form of asserting dominance by the military. Ultimately, the schemes of imperialism not only strengthened the infrastructures of exploitation but also created a cycle of economic dependency and cultural distortion that continues to this day, enabling the expansion of the sex industry in this region.
Following periods of poverty and economic challenges after the end of World War II and the subsequent Cold War, tourism became a key economic pillar for these two countries. This time, it was foreign tourists who filled the void left by the occupying soldiers. The presence of Western tourists traveling to these destinations for sexual recreation, combined with poverty and the cultural issues stemming from years of Western dominance, pushed women, girls, and even men in these countries toward prostitution and entrapment in the new form of slavery known as “sex tourism.”
Under the guise of freedom and empowerment, to the benefit of procurers and sex traffickers
Gradually, the normalization of sexual exploitation under labels like freedom and the establishment of “mutual consent” continued. Furthermore, the export of liberal and secular values, which prioritize individual freedom over collective morals, helped create a culture where even prostitution, as it grants women financial independence, is encouraged. In such an economic and cultural context, the activities of international feminist movements and support for homosexual rights played a role in the formation of the sex exploitation industry.
These movements, by raising issues related to women’s rights, supported the decriminalization and normalization of prostitution as a legitimate occupation, contributing to the commercialization of illegitimate relations and the spread of this immorality within the cultural and social fabric of Southeast Asian countries. Many women’s rights activists tried to defend the rights of women who resorted to such relations due to poverty and desperation by legitimizing prostitution as a purely economic act and de-stigmatizing it. However, as a result of the activities of these groups, the commercialization of sex and the prostitution industry remained intact, while the harmful aspects and destructive effects of this system on individuals and communities were ignored.
Following the creation of conditions for the normalization of moral deviation and the weakening of traditional values in these societies as described, it was the export of Western values that hammered the final nail into the coffin of the moral security of people in these societies.
As the evidence and signs indicate, not only Western teachings on sexual freedom have not preserved the dignity and humanity of women and children, but they have also fueled the aforementioned tragedies. In line with these realities, Ayatollah Khamenei, in a meeting with various groups of women in 2023, attributed the current situation to the Western outlook and culture, conveying that sex trade and slavery, the breaking of all moral and customary boundaries, and the legalization of things like homosexuality, which is haram (forbidden) in all divine religions, and other abominations, are the results of the Western perspective and culture regarding women.
Under the banner of Western cultural promotion and the liberal economic system, women and children were turned into commodities, offered in this modern system of slavery due to the demand from foreign tourists, to the extent that, despite its illegality, the profits from these inhumane transactions are too significant for the operators of brothels and governments to overlook, and brothels in notorious districts continue their criminal activities overtly.
Children trapped in a nightmare
However, the most horrifying consequence of this systemic and widespread depravity concerns the enslavement and subjugation of children who fall victim to human trafficking rings and sex traffickers.
Common trafficking routes in Southeast Asia include trafficking children from Cambodia to Thailand for begging, domestic work, and street vending; trafficking girls from Vietnam and Myanmar to Thailand for sexual exploitation; and trafficking girls from Laos to Thailand for domestic and factory work. Children in this region are trafficked for various purposes, including forced or exploitative labor such as domestic work, factory labor, agriculture, fishing, construction, begging, forced marriage, and adoption. However, trafficking for sexual exploitation has been one of the most prevalent forms of trafficking in this region for decades.[3] Most of these children come from poor families in underprivileged areas and are sold to human trafficking rings by their parents for the sake of money and welfare. Some adolescents, deceived by false promises from traffickers about better living conditions and suitable jobs, voluntarily enter this horrific trap.
Amid the economic growth resulting from the flood of foreign tourists, governments pay the least attention to protecting children. In a 2016 report, the international organization ECPAT examined how the economic growth driven by tourism in Thailand directly led to an increase in sexual exploitation of children.[4] However, it seems that this overwhelming wave of moral deprivation and the victimization of children has not only not been a push for politicians and capitalists in this region to reform their ways, but has also driven their greedy nature toward even further exploitation.
[1] Archavanitkul K. What is the number of child prostitutes in Thailand? Warasan Prachakon Lae Sangkhom. 1999 Jan;7(2):1-9. PMID: 12321935.
[2] WAR, MIGRATION AND THE ORIGINS OF THE THAI SEX INDUSTRY by Abel Brodeur, Warn N. Lekfuangfu and Yanos Zylberberg, Journal of the European Economic Association
[3] ECPAT international, Regional Overview: Sexual Exploitaton of Children in Southeast Asia, Writer: Deanna Davy, 2017
[4] ECPAT international, Regional Overview: Sexual Exploitaton of Children in Southeast Asia, Writer: Deanna Davy, 2017
(The views expressed in this interview are interviewee’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of Khamenei.ir.)