An Asian perspective by Dr V Esther Kathiroli, Director, Tamilnad ...

Global Interfaith Dialogue: “What the Religious Community Can Do To Combat
Human Trafficking” – Asian Perspective.
3-5 October 2007 at Cape Town, South Africa.
I. Introduction
1. What is Human Trafficking?
• (a) ‘Trafficking in persons’ shall mean the recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of
force or other forms of coercion, or abduction, of fraud, of deception, of
the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or
receiving of payments of benefits to achieve the consent of a person
having control over another person, for the purpose of sexual exploitation.
• Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution
of others or other forms of sexual exploitation….
• (b) The consent of the victim of trafficking in persons to the intended
exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article shall be irrelevant
where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used.
• Sex trafficking means the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision,
or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act” (not
criminalized)
• Severe form of trafficking in persons: sex trafficking in which a commercial
sex act is induced by force, fraud, or coercion, or in which the person
induced to perform such act has not attained 18 years of age
(Taken from Internet.)
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(Taken from internet)
2. Trafficking is there all over the world and it is an international net work.
3. How cruel is the trafficking?
- Victims have very limited useful life
- have poor physical health, suffer from transmitted disease and some times
multiple diseases and infection, suffer from injuries some times fatal, suffer
emotional collapse.
- Addiction to alcohols and drugs
- Sometimes victims are murdered, deported; suffer from loss of body organs,
loss of
appearance.
- Finally, when victims found infected with HIV/AIDS- either sent back to their
homes or left to death.
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4. Why Trafficking?
- For sex trade and in sex tourism
- For labour
- For Transplantation of body organs
- For Slavery.
5. The rate of trafficking. There is no clear data. But you can see the
approximate numbers in the picture.
II. How important is the topic? How important is religious cooperation to control
and eliminate human trafficking?
This topic has lot of importance because it deals with the root of the problem as
well as the remedy of the problem. It is unfortunate that every social evil or
oppressive system or exploitative condition take its sanction from religions and
their scriptures. From time memorial the tenets of religions were misinterpreted,
misrepresented, misconstrued by ill-contextual references in order to exploit the
weak and the vulnerable by the strong and the powerful.
The patriarchal culture which is dominant in all religions always demotivated
communities to become spectators and remain silent, throughout the history of
the oppressed and the poor and in particular with the issues connected with
women and the girl children.
Our focus in this paper is to bring out some of the strong and positive strengths of
the religious teachings in religious faiths that have innate potency to bring about
hope, redemption, liberation and fullness of life for the victims, the suffering, the
hopeless and traumatized and for the community as a whole.
The objective of this paper is to discuss on how the positive strength of the
religious communities could be drawn through dialogue to effect conscious
rethinking and positive affirmation to work for justice, peace and liberation of the
entire human community.
It is also the aim of the paper to work for the solidarity of the people from all faith
background to join hands in the name of ‘Humanity and Holistic Life’ and to fight
the network of the oppressive forces to rescue the innocent from fear, inhuman
treatment, disease and death and bring healing and happiness. Our hope is to
build communities of hope and harmony to see another world which is free from
oppression and exploitation, misery and pain and death.
As responsible people all created by God, the One God, we are called to see
the best, the liberative, the uniting, the harmonizing, the loving, sharing and
caring aspects which is inherent in all faiths. Such an exercise is the need of the
hour. Such an endeavor will certainly bring about transforming results in our
world, such as elimination of human trafficking.
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All of us truly believe that only by a concerted effort and endeavour of all
people from all faiths will halt/stop many of the terrorizing evils that cause horrors
in the hearts of the innocent and vulnerable people. We may call for a dialogue
for co-existence of human communities for a comprehensive understanding of
our faith in God to minimize religious conflicts, but more important than this is our
coming together from multiple faith contexts is to work for pro-existence of
human communities free from horrendous and dehumanizing practices like
human trafficking.
The following are some of the liberative points of faith for dialogue in Islam
The Quran severely condemns the sinister crime and heinous practice of killing or
doing injustice to female children in scathing terms:
"When news is brought to one of them of the birth of a female child, his face
darkens and he is filled with inward grief. With shame does he hide himself from
his people because of the bad news he has had! Shall he retain her on contempt
or bury her in the dust? Ah! what an evil they decide on?" (Sura- 16:59).
It is said that killing girl children at birth was a common practice in Arabia and
would have never stopped if it were not for the power of the Quran, used to
condemn this practice (16:59, 43:17, 81:8-9). The Quran, moreover, makes no
distinction between boys and girls. The Quran considers the birth of a female as
a gift and a blessing from God, the same as the birth of a male.
The Quran intentionally mentions the gift of the female birth first and the male
child second:
“To Allah belongs the dominion of the heavens and the earth. He creates what
He wills. He bestows female children to whomever He wills and bestows male
children to whomever He wills" (42:49).
In order to wipe out all the traces of injustice and dehumanizing practices
against female children in the society, Prophet Muhammad proclaimed that
those who were blessed with daughters will be greatly rewarded if they would
bring them up in kindness and care.
"He who is involved in bringing up daughters, and accords benevolent treatment
towards them, they will be protection for him against Hell-Fire" (Bukhari and
Muslim).
"Whoever maintains two girls till they attain maturity, he and I will come on the
Resurrection Day like this; and he joined his fingers" (Muslim).
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The following passage speaks about the freedom sanctioned to women in
Quran in the words of Mohammad.
"Allah has heard and accepted the statement of the woman who pleads with
you (the Prophet) concerning her husband and carries her complaint to Allah,
and Allah hears the arguments between both of you for Allah hears and sees all
things...." (58:1).
A woman in the Quranic conception has the right to argue even with the
Prophet of Islam himself. No one has the right to instruct her to be silent. She is
under no obligation to consider her husband the one and only reference in
matters of law and religion.
Islam does not consider a menstruating woman to possess any kind of
"contagious uncleanness". She is neither "untouchable" nor "cursed." She
practices her normal life. Every other physical contact between a husband and
wife is permissible other than sexual relationship. A menstruating woman is
exempted from some rituals such as daily prayers and fasting during her period
not for reasons of impurity but for rest and body care.
Adultery is considered a sin in all religions. Islam also equally punishes both the
adulterer and the adulteress (24:2). Adultery, according to the Quran, is the
involvement of a married man or a married woman in an extra-marital affair.
The Quran, on the other hand, never considers any woman to be the possession
or property of any man. " And among His signs is that He created for you mates
from among yourselves, that you may dwell in tranquility with them and He has
put love and mercy between your hearts: verily in that are signs for those who
reflect" (30:21).
This is the Quranic conception of marriage: love, mercy, and tranquility, not
possession and double standards.
The discussion with the Quranic texts provides us platform to dialogue on doing
justice to women primarily in treatment at the domestic level. These texts also
help us to develop a healthy and right attitude towards women in our family and
in our community. The texts also challenge people within and outside the
community to re-examine their ways and change their attitude towards the
weak and the vulnerable and encourage transforming their exploitative
behavour. The rewards and punishments announced in the faith system needs
lot of reiteration so that people may be awakened in their consciousness and
fear for the sins of commission and omission.
Buddhism and Zen Buddhism
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“Desire for pleasure is the root cause of death and destruction” said Buddha. If
one destroys desire he is free from misery and suffering. As long as man is found
caught in the cycle of birth he cannot free himself from desire. Therefore man
should work through Eightfold path to liberate himself form birth cycle (karma
samsara). Man should follow Right thinking, Right attitude, Right speech, Right
action, Right livelihood, Right effort, Right meditation, and Right knowledge to
attain nirvana-salvation. What is the underlying force behind all these? It is
Ahimsa- non-violence. We should not harm any living creature.
The position of the female reaches its highest peak in the teachings of Buddha.
The doctrinal basis for this culmination lies in the Mahayana doctrines of Sunyata
or sunyavada (emptiness) the non-duality. Instead of attempting to identify
maleness with Bodhisattva hood and Buddha hood, the sutras in this category
claim that notions of duality--either male or female, subject or object, etc.--are
merely mental attachments contradicting the teaching of emptiness. The
characteristics of "maleness" and "femaleness" are simply illusory and irrelevant.
This is to reinforce the truth that every one and every thing transcends gender
distinctions when one views the world as empty. This positive attitude toward
women is definitely related to the doctrines of attaining nirvana.
Bodhidharma taught that although there are many enter the Way, they can be
summarized in two categories, namely, the Entrance by Principle and entrance
by Practice.
The Entrance by Principle means to realize the Principle through the teaching,
that is, to have a firm belief that all sentient beings possess the same true-nature,
which however, is not manifested, because it is obscured by afflictions. If one is
able to forsake the false, return to the true, abide in "wall-contemplation", reach
a state of equality between oneself and others, one is in accord with the
Principle.
The innately pure nature of enlightenment possessed by all sentient beings is the
core of Ch'an teaching. It transcends all dualities and distinguishing
characteristics, including maleness and femaleness.
"Can you say that she is a woman, and women have no share [in
enlightenment]? You must believe that this matter has nothing to do with
[whether one is] male or female, old or young. Ours is an egalitarian Dharmagate
that has only one flavor."
Ch'an masters not only recognized women's spiritual capabilities, but also in
some cases were so open-minded that they were willing to request instruction
from women disciples. This liberal attitude toward women actually is consistent
with Ch'an's anti-authoritarian spirit. The Ch'an literature mentions enlightened
women who challenged, confounded and inspired monks to become
enlightened. These records not only indicate the women’s self-confidence and
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spiritual achievement, but also show the liberal and open-minded attitude of the
Ch'an School toward women.
Jesus' proactive measures to empower women:
Jesus follows the pattern of the order of creation which calls every human person
to consider every other human person as created by God in His image. Therefore
every violation however tiny may be is viewed not merely as sin against God but
onslaught on God’s person hood. Any unjust suffering or pain inflicted on any
human person and the weak and vulnerable in particular invites pain and agony
on God Himself. God takes injustice very serious. God takes on Himself any
assault on the lowly, humble and meek. God loves all equally and God loves
more and cares most, the suffering.
Jesus Christ overthrew many of the Jewish and other laws and customs that are
many centuries old. He consistently treated women and men as equals. He
violated blatantly numerous Old Testament regulations, which specified gender
inequality and injustice. He refused to follow the behavioral rules established by
the three main Jewish religious groups of His time: the Essenes, Pharisees and
Sadducees. For Jesus laws are of less important than people. Jesus condemned
any practice that oppressed people.
Jesus ignored the laws that discriminated women on the basis of ritual impurity
laws: Mark 5:25-34 Jesus' cure of a woman who suffered from menstrual
bleeding for 12 years was intentionally to teach the insensitive male crowd that
god loves all irrespective of any deformity and disease.
Jesus discussed with a women who were considered not worthy of seeing or
relating: John 4:7
Jesus' conversation with a woman of Samaria was undoubtedly to tell the society
how God respects and loves all men and women irrespective of their social
conditions. Jesus helped a Canaanite woman, Matthew 15:22-28, to tell us that
all men and women are capable of great faith.
Jesus taught women and created awareness Rabbi Eliezer wrote in the 1st
century CE: "Rather should the words of the Torah be burned than entrusted to a
woman...Whoever teaches his daughter the Torah is like one who teaches her
obscenity." Jesus overthrew centuries of tradition. In Luke 10:38-42, he taught
Mary, sister of Martha. Education liberates people from exploitation and
especially women from victimization.
Jesus used inclusive language -Luke 13:16. Jesus healed a woman from evil spirit
and He called her “daughter of Abraham”, thus implying that she had equal
status with sons of Abraham. "The expression 'son of Abraham' was commonly
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used to respectfully refer to a Jew, but 'daughter of Abraham’ coined by Jesus
was an unknown phrase and it occurs nowhere else in the Bible.
Jesus stood by those women who were condemned as sinful by the Jewish men.
The woman who had lived a sinful life and Simon, starting in Luke 7:36"
Jesus expressed concern for widows: Jesus repeated the importance of
supporting widows throughout his ministry. (Luke 2:36, 4:26, 7:11, 18:1, 20:47 and
21:1)
Jesus and children: Matthew 18:1-6. This passage speaks of Jesus’ passion on
children. He holds children at such a high esteem that he judges anyone who
causes a child to stumble will face a cruel death of suffocation under water. If
this is so how much the punishment would be if children are trafficked for
inhuman reasons?
Some positive points Hinduism and Dalit religion
The concept of “Amman” in dalit communities aims to protect women and safe
guard them from exploitation and oppression. Amman is the female God of the
oppressed communities in India. The God of the dalits is female and she has
many names and forms according to her manifestations. These gods are
believed to be revengeful and look very fearsome. They are fearsome and
anyone who causes any kind of injustice and brings misery to anyone she
becomes very angry and become furious and punishes the evil doer then and
there and there is no escape from her wrath. She is very good to those who are
good and do what is right and good. She is a terror to those who do evil. This
religious faith points to the power of God in woman or in womanhood, therefore,
it holds women in a very high esteem. This religion condemns vehemently any
form of violence against any woman old or young or child.
The concept of ‘Amman’ remains twisted by Brahmins, the upper caste men.
They have so twisted the philosophy of Dravidian religion that the Amman has
become the consort of Brahmin gods and their temple or shrine is pushed to the
outskirts of villages. The dalit women in the villages thus were made objects of
indiscriminate sex for the upper class land lords. ‘Mathamman’, ‘Devadasi’ are
some of the dreadful, disgusting, cruel and dehumanizing systems imposed upon
dalit woman and they are given demeaning identity called the “Servant of
God”-Devadasi. With this bastardly identity she becomes the devotee of god.
Instead of worshipping and adoring the womanhood in Amman culture now
they are deformed in to prostitutes with gods’ blessings and do sex service with
religious sanction.
Hinduism is a complex religion. On the one hand it hails women and women
hood and on the other it treats women with contempt and disgrace. What is
practiced has no link with what are said in the scriptures and to intensify this
complexity the scriptures also show powerful signs and sounds of male
chauvinism.
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Know how of inter-religious dialogue concerning human trafficking
Since Practice is divorced from Philosophy, dialogue within a religious community
and between religious communities becomes the immediate necessity.
How to use the fear psychology applied in all religions meaningfully and
effectively will be one of the tasks of inter-religious dialogue. “God will punish
every sin done against a human to disfigure the image of God”. Every religion
except Buddhism preaches God’s punishment here or eternally in hell. Every
religion propagates reward for good and suffering and pain for doing evil. How
to preach hell productively is the task of religious communities. How to preach
forgiveness is also an equally challenging task. The understanding of
“Forgiveness” needs re-interpretation. Who should forgive who and on what
grounds and conditions?
What is fear of God? How this important component of religious teaching be
made effective in transforming and correcting irresponsible and destructive
human behaviour?
What are the measures taken by the religious institutions to spread the message
of love and brotherhood and sisterhood in the communities? What are the
initiatives taken by the believers in God of all religions to permeate the society
with the spirit of love? When discussed on the issues of bizarre sexual behaviour,
people ask, “Why Christians appear on television and movies and magazines
with their cross hanging on all parts of their body with “Jesus Christ” and other
four lettered words in their lips and with overtly sexy movements?” The answer is
simple;”They are not real Christians”. Why Christians who follow the religion of
love- ‘loving God and loving neighbors’ remain indifferent about social issues?
The answer again is very simple, ‘They not matured Christians’. Then, Where to
find these real Christians?
Islam speaks about brotherhood and Buddhism speaks about non-violence. Our
task is, How to be inspired spiritually and socially by these great teachings?.
The concept of Stewardship is yet another important component in spiritual
exercise found in all religions which could be effectively taught and put in to
practice to combat with social issues like human trafficking.
Conclusion
Children and youth ought to be our target group for creating awareness.
Children and the youth can be inspired and educated and imparted with the
message of love, chastity, morality and other human values. If our intention is to
eliminate human trafficking our concentration and focus should fall on the next
few generations which form youth and children.
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Children and youth of all religions should be encouraged to fear God, respect
fellow humans and love neighbours both men and women.
Children and youth also need both religious and secular counseling on human
sexuality and responsible sexual behaviour, culture and practice. Religious
communities may be encouraged to establish Counselling cells, and vocational
and career guidance cells to cater to needs of children and youth.
Apart from this every religion should follow a vehement behaviour correction of
the believers of their own faith. This will enable the government agencies and
social organizations to control social problems and reduce crime and violence
of all kinds.
For example church should use the pulpit effectively to bring about awareness
on sexual behaviour, the needs and contentment and responsible social
behaviour.
There must be literatures made available for all to read and be informed on
common community life and practices irrespective of faiths which is inclusive of
all walks of life. If possible this should become part of the curriculum in Sunday
school-Christian education, schools and colleges.
Posters and other public notices could be created which is of inclusive nature
could be displayed in all religious centers and worship places. Such initiative may
build religious harmony and create peace among conflicting communities.
Dr. V. Esther Kathiroli
Director, Tamilnad Christian Council,
Chennai, India.
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