This was a criticism of my poem, which I read at the SET ALL FREE service in Durham Cathedral on 24th March, 2007. The service commemorated Wilberforce’s Anti-Slave Trade Bill of 1807; but we also reflected upon and responded to issues of slavery today.

At the time we were planning the service, I was also researching aspects of slavery for my book Engaging Politics? [see elsewhere in these pages]: Reina was forced to service 25-30 men a day. Sonali was sold into prostitution at just 13 years old. 12 year old Sabina was forced to work in a brothel: “During the day I did the housework. At night I gave company to the men who came.” America, India, Bangladesh. Stories from around the world of what is happening today.

And an aunt? Oh, yes, all too often the women sexually trafficked know the person who starts the process. One report [called “Stolen Smiles” from the London School of Hygiene and tropical Medicine] tells us that many women are kept in the trade by threats to their relatives. Parents, left behind, on the other hand, are often ignorant of what their daughters are doing. And what they are doing is risking their lives: never mind the physical and sexual violence (‘I’ll kill you, you bitch.’) experienced by 95% of the women; there is AIDS and other STDs, and who is going to treat a woman only worthy of being shunned, who is an outcast? But these women “didn’t choose prostitution – it chose them.”

March 2007

She ‘comforts’ up to thirty men a night.
Made older than her years, she does not hear
The soft murmurs of gratitude – and the
Furtive exchange of gifts

While the sun is up she cleans and cooks,
And cooks and cleans.
Life far from home is never easy –
But her parents think she is doing
Well for herself

Five years ago she left home with an aunt;
Promises of education, a better life in a far-off land.
Visions of hopes and hopes full of dreams:
This departure’s temporary –
There will be a rich return.

She learnt fast
Much that is not taught in any school.
Dutifully, as the Devil laughs
and takes his pleasure, she
Lays down her life again.

Once, she knew how to smile,
How to laugh, how to cry.
But her smile has been stolen, and death
Stalks her body – and her eyes.