"The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one, he was appalled that there was no one to intervene." (Isaiah 59:15)

 

Last night at the bar area, a Thai woman was being dragged by two men, a foreigner and a bar worker. She was drunk but crying and resisting as they dragged her toward the street. The white guy caught my eye and I asked him where he was taking her. He calmly answered "to the room where she belongs." Suddenly he exploded at me with foul language that it was his business and not to start with him. I began to walk away and he continued to yell, charging in my direction. The Thai worker pulled him back and they forced the woman into a taxi. As the taxi pulled away, the man yelled after me while the woman still struggled to get away. The Thai worker said, "Never mind, she is drunk. They stay together." I was so angry! "That guy is dangerous," I said, and he agreed. "The guy will beat her senseless and probably rape her." He said nothing. The area was crowded with people watching but no one stepped forward to intervene.  I began to move toward the police box a hundred feet away but last year when I asked a police to help a woman being attacked his answer was, "It's just his girl." I felt powerless.

 

This scene played itself over and over in my mind through the night. What could we have done differently? Why does payment of money give a man the right to abuse a woman? Where are human rights for these women? Where are the voices of opposition to the injustice? People turn their heads; no one wants to see because no one wants to get involved.

 

Don't write telling me to be careful, that my life is in danger. My safety is always one of the first concerns addressed by supporters. I know you care. I value your prayers for my protection and we do take measures of caution. I have a supportive husband. I have friends to help me, to care for me. I can get good medical care. I can get legal aid. I can call out to God.

 

Please be passionately concerned for the women who do not know where to get help, who do not have good options for assistance. Please be angry at the injustice toward women the world over and the lack of intervention by governments, communities and even the church. Anger at injustice is not a sin; apathy is.

 

According to Melissa Farley, "The experience of prostitution is the experience of being repeatedly sexually assaulted, being dominated, battered and terrorized."1 One of her contacts relayed her experience:

 

"I wonder why I keep going to therapists and telling them I can't sleep and I have nightmares. They pass right over the fact that I was a prostitute and I was beaten with 2x4 boards, I had my fingers and toes broken by a pimp, and I was raped more than 30 times. Why do they ignore that?"2

 

God is looking for people to help. I don't know if I could have done anything different last night. I've played many scenarios in my mind. As we left we prayed the man would fall asleep in his drunkenness and not harm the woman. We prayed someone will help her and that God will lead us to her. If you pray for her, she could be one of the fortunate ones to escape the system of abuse. Oh, church of God, join us in response to the call of Isaiah 58 "Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? . . .  then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I."

 

1 Melissa Farley and Howard Barkan, "Prostitution, Violence, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder," Women and Health 27(3) (1998): 46.

2  Melissa Farley and Norma Hotaling, "Prostitution, Violence, and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, (paper presented at Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, Sept. 4, 1995) 1.