Imagine having an opportunity to cover the hell of little girls being sold into sex slavery, and turning it into a story pitying the men doing so.
That’s what the BBC did in its latest fiasco. I explain in the new episode. (It’s Episode 110, which also focuses on Canada’s descent — hence the episode title.)
British columnist Sonia Sodha is among those calling it out. “Why doesn’t this BBC story examine why there’s a market for fathers selling their young daughters to other men in the first place? What a strange omission -- it’s like the reality that these girls are being sold as child brides to be raped by adult men is invisible or something.”
She’s right. So are others who noted that the tradition of selling girls to be raped has existed in Afghanistan, and elsewhere, for centuries. So while the Taliban can be blamed for current horrors, this reality precedes them.
Even many Islamist governments that claim to ban child marriage allow it in practice. In Gaza, for example, marrying off a girl under age 15 is considered a misdemeanor unless a “medical” certificate is presented, saying it would not be detrimental to her health. And Hamas runs the “health ministry.”
Girls are also captured and traded internationally.
The BBC isn’t alone in its backwards framing. Other news agencies have done the same thing. Why does this happen? The answer is simple: victim narratives. In this episode, I explain what’s going on and how it affects news coverage from all over the world.
In every society, always, people only have as much freedom as they demand from their own government. People should rise up and demand that this practice be stopped.
It doesn’t occur to Big Media that these are adult human beings with the agency to take action. Yes, that would probably mean facing a brutal crackdown. But that’s what you risk — even your life — if it means getting your daughters out of sex slavery.
I did an episode recently on the at least 50 million people in modern slavery. When you combine the figures for sex trafficking and forced marriage, more than half of the total can be considered sex slavery.
50 Million People. Zero Headlines
In preparing the new episode, I kept thinking about a quote from Martin Luther King Jr.
An estimated 640 million women and girls alive today were married off as children. So were 115 million boys and men. The nations with the highest rates include Niger, Central African Republic, Chad, Mali, South Sudan and Bangladesh.
It’s a horrific practice. It’s up to people in all these societies to make it stop.
But in the minds of people who control big media, people who live in non-democratic countries — especially Islamist ones — must always be portrayed as victims.
The media infantilizes them, absolving them of any responsibility for their actions and the actions of their governments. It’s a form of dehumanization, and a failure to provide news consumers the truth.