Solidarity with women who are not easy, but simply poor.

The despicable phrase "they are easy because they are poor" is the most abject reflection of a global mindset that exploits vulnerable beings within a structural context predisposed to racism, femicide, and human trafficking. Spoken by state representative Arthur do Val in sexist audio recordings while discussing Ukrainian refugees, this reasoning reveals the phenomenon of believing in supremacies, whether of one nationality over another, of a position of advantage in the social and economic pyramid, or of gender or skin color.

That's without even going into the outdated model of labeling someone as easy. 

Do Val's thinking, which unfortunately is not limited to Brazil, is fertile ground for countless types of violence against women. Based on this principle, women are killed, raped, and trafficked from poorer and more vulnerable countries to others where there is capital and interest in "cheap meat." 

Behind the mask that has been lowered by do Val, there is a female population that is exploited, violated, traded, trafficked, and murdered in First World countries. The Global Report on Trafficking in Persons indicates that approximately 50 victims were detected and reported in 148 countries in 2018. Almost half of them globally were adult women and 20% were girls.

The connection between the congressman's statement and the situation of a trafficked woman was first presented to me by Wanessa, in 2018. She's a woman from Rio de Janeiro whom I met at the Project Rescue, a shelter for vulnerable people in Brazil, in Zurich. Having escaped a situation of forced labor where she was compelled to prostitute herself, Wanessa told me that her husband, a Swiss businessman, not only seized her passport but also said she wouldn't be his last resort: "He would go to India or somewhere similar to find another one; there are always poor, easy women wanting them." 

Given the exploitation of human misery, I must then report that we, Brazilian women, also suffer from this same phenomenon. Yes, because wherever there is poverty, dreams, and naiveté, there will be potential victims. And in this context of lack of options, many cling to the dream of marriage with a charming foreign prince with blue eyes.

In my book, International Loves, which I published in 2020 about relationships between Brazilian women and men from 19 different nations, I interviewed fellow countrywomen to portray what changes in the life of a woman who shares intimacy with someone from another culture. I didn't know what awaited me, beyond romantic stories rich in sociocultural differences. 

There is a sordid profile of men from First World nations who take advantage of their privileges to seek women in more deprived countries, like ours, precisely because they find them easy, since they are poor. 

There are countless cases of human trafficking through marriage. Yes, a man goes to Brazil, chooses a victim, courts her, promises her the world, meets her family, marries her, and takes the girl to his country. Obviously, he never lets her learn the local language, in order to control her better. There are cases of isolation at home – unlawful imprisonment – ​​deprivation of food, prohibition of contact with loved ones, violence, and even appropriation of documents and the obligation for the woman to prostitute herself to pay her personal expenses. 

Wealthy Switzerland is not exempt. Presented here through the case of Wanessa, it too has its men who seek out these more vulnerable societies as their sex slaves. The Center for Support to Migrant Women and Victims of Trafficking in Women (FIZ, in German) handled 108 new cases of human trafficking in Switzerland in 2018 alone.

Because of the book, I conducted a series of interviews on the subject with sufferers and people who work with the problem. I also interviewed the Austro-Dutch woman Eva Danzl, who has been a counselor at FIZ for over 25 years. As a witness to the profound suffering caused by one of the most Machiavellian evils that human beings are capable of committing, Ewa has her own theory regarding the perverse act of marrying someone and subjecting them to slavery or forcing them into prostitution.

“The aggressors are not sick. It is malice combined with a capitalist desire for profit fueled by little work. Racism reduces the other to a different category of human being. And the fact that this person does not have the same status in the social hierarchy as the aggressor makes this individual feel superior, believing that they have the right to assault and exploit. So, this whole issue revolves around the question of equality.”

Thus, within every offended Ukrainian woman, there resides a Brazilian woman outraged by this kind of sick thinking. Make no mistake, from the root of these opinions arise the greatest barbarities committed against the most vulnerable.