Wonder Woman of the Week: Sunitha Krishnan

The Wonder Woman this week is a woman that grew up in a corner of the world where to this day sees some of the most egregious acts of inhumanity against women and children. But for all the abuses committed against this social activist teenager, Sunitha Krishnan harnessed her post traumatic anger into a force for peace by highlighting the plight of women sold into sex slavery and children kidnapped into servitude for international trafficking.

While the issues endured by Krishnan and the people she fights to protect is certainly a subject known far too well and seen far too often, the videos included in this post are of a mature subject and contain images and information of a sensitive manner and should be viewed with discretion.

Sunitha Krishnan grew up in India, but the experience of children and women kidnapped into sex slavery share identical experiences. In Southern Asia however, girls are usually forced into the world of sex trafficking at a younger age. According to Krishnan, this age is usually ten years old or younger. Krishnan at first focused on reintroducing children rescued from the sex trade into safe communities through half-way houses that provided education, but soon found herself helping teenagers and adults also rescued from the sex trade.

One of the major reasons why sex trade institutions often go unnoticed or laws governing sexual assault against minors stems from an international culture of victim blaming women and girls for being the target of rape- blaming the victim's behavior instead of the rapist for the attack. Police officers themselves across the world often dismiss sexual assault against sex workers claiming the prostitute got themselves into the industry and deserve no sympathy- even when those sex workers were forced into the sex trade industry as either adults or children.

To the women and girls Sunitha Krishnan has rescued and rehabilitated, she is seen as a superhero. After time in her halfway house, girls have gone on to become welders, engineers, masons, and numerous other careers. Krishnan has been assaulted numerous times during her regency at the halfway house and cites fourteen separate instances of being violently attacked by members of organized crime intent on maintaining the institution of sex trafficking in India; but for all the violence criminals enact against her, Krishnan continues to campaign for the rescue and rehabilitation of victims of the sex trade.

Lazaro, Fred De Sam. "Sunitha Krishnan." Religion and Ethics News Weekly. PBS; 5 January 2007. Web. 24 May 2017.