Arrests made in sex slave trafficking case

 

The FBI recently named Atlanta as one of the 14 cities in the U.S. with the highest incidence of children used in prostitution. According to the state, more than 400 adolescent girls are being exploited each month in Georgia on the streets, through escort services, at hotels and online.

Research also shows that every day an estimated 300 men are purchasing sex from adolescent girls in Georgia, both knowingly and unknowingly. The U.S. justice system is trying to tackle that problem one trafficker at a time.

Authorities have put one man behind bars. The trafficker made a career of bringing underage Mexican girls across the border, to unspeakable horrors. By the time Amador Cortes-Meza gets out of jail he will be 76 years old.

The Mexican national was sentenced to 40 years in prison after being convicted of forcing into prostitution young girls he smuggled from Mexico to Atlanta. "He was the head of the human trafficking ring that brought 10 young women here from Mexico on the promise of love and marriage and coming here for a better life and after he tricked the women into coming here he then forced them into prostitution," said Sally Yates the U.S. Attorney in the Northern Georgia District.

According to Yates, some of the victims were as young as 14 years old and were held as slaves. The girls were forced to have sex with dozens of men every night in locations around the Atlanta area. In fact, the first night that they were here, the young girls were forced to have sex with 20 men each. There were some nights that would be as many as 40.

Nine of the victims testified in court against Cortes-Meza. One of them said that Cortes-Meza would say that he would take it out on her mother if she tried to escape. Authorities say the level of cruelty against the victims is hard to describe.

"Daily beatings to remind them that they needed to stay in line," said Special Agent Brock Nicholson with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "Atrocities that are hard to believe can occur here in the United States." The case is being tried in the federal court building in Atlanta, and is proving to be an example of how human trafficking crosses borders.

The victims were recruited in Mexico by Mexican traffickers, were brought illegally to the United States and offered to American and also foreign customers. In addition to Cortes-Meza, five other members of his ring, including a brother and two nephews, pleaded guilty to similar charges.

They were all given sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years. The women and girls were given temporary asylum in the United States while the case continued. A U.S. Law passed in 2000 allows them to now apply for permanent residency.

Morocco marriage gives new twist to 'arranged' marriages

 

Marriage in Morocco has an increasingly changing face these days as young men and women in search of lifetime partners head for the souk, in this case a "cyber" marriage souk.  In a country where many marriages are still arranged, a click of a computer mouse will take the Internaut to Soukzouaj, a free site where thousands of lonely hearted young Moroccans look for their soul mates

"This marriage site was created in June 2010," Yasser Nejjar, founder of soukzouaj.ma, told AFP. "So it's recent but but it has a real success because it's free and it's near." Every day almost 2,600 prospective partners visit the site, two thirds of them women. Its shows a map of Morocco divided into 16 sections, and the user can click on the part of the country they choose to start their search.

"Today, for example, there are 1,670 posts from women as against 870 from men. To my mind that means women are more daring than men," Nejjar observed. "Most of the posts show there is a great desire for commitment and 'seriousness', in what they call 'halal', that is to say legal, which is in line with religious norms. In short, marriage."

Observers of Moroccan society regard matrimonial sites as a new phenomenon, linked to new forms of communication, even if there are many family-arranged marriages in a country where Islam is the state religion. "Today girls make demands," said sociologist Soumaya Naamane Guessous. "They want husbands who love them, who respect them, men not smothered by their mother, who allow them to live far from their in-laws."

She says that the success of soukzouaj, quite apart from the fact that it is free, in a country where arranged marriages are common, is due to the fact "that young girls no longer accept the first suitor who knocks at their family's door, or whom the family suggests." Latest official figures show more than 13 million surf the net in this North African kingdom of about 32 million residents.

The Internet has also played a role in recent demonstrations for pro-democracy reform in Morocco, following a trend across the Arab world that started in Tunisia where sweeping protests led to the ouster of president Zine el Abidine Ben Ali in January. The first rallies in several Moroccan cities on February 20 were in answer to a call by young people via Facebook.

On Soukzouaj, most of the posts by women, in the Moroccan dialect, darija, and French, emphasise the need for "respect" for them and a requirement that the prospective spouse be a "practising Muslim". "Young Moroccan woman, teacher, seeks Muslim with a good heart, good man, who respects women and is generous from every point of view," reads one post. The men, for their part, highlight their social standing and "seriousness".

"I am Simo, 28, from Rabat, computer engineer in a ministry, practising, nice and very serious, looking for serious girl from same city for serious relationship which, God willing, will result in a bright and holy marriage," said one man in search of the wife of his dreams. The arrival of marriage sites demonstrates the upheavals and changes resulting from the modernisation of part of Moroccan society, observers say. "We see, too, that there is a lot of loneliness, disappointment among both men and women," said Nâamane Guessous.

Rizwanur to change to Hinduism

 

During the arguments today on Rizwanur Rehman case in the 9th Fast Track court, it was revealed that Ashoke Todi, Priyanka’s father, had asked Rizwanur to convert to Hinduism to which he had agreed. However, Rizwanur’s relatives had opposed the idea as they feared it may affect the marriage prospects of the girls in the family. The court today heard the arguments on framing of the charges against the accused in the case.

Referring to the letter written by Rizwanur to the Association of Protection for Democratic Rights(APDR) on September 19, 2007, Mukherjee said Priyanka had apprised her father on August 31, 2007 about her marriage with Rizwanur. Following this, Ashoke had contacted Rizwanur over mobile phone and asked him to convert to Hinduism, the idea which was opposed by his family members, said Mukherjee.

In response to Judge Amit Chattopadhyay’s query about Pradip Tody’s meeting with Rizwanur’ former girlfriend Pompy Roy, Mukherjee said Priyanka had come to know about the split between Rizwanur and Pompy in 2006 and so the matter was settled between the husband and wife and so the meeting between Pradip with Pompy could not be considered as an offence, he said.

Cases against seven persons for kidnapping teenager girls

 

The Haryana police have registered cases against seven persons involved in two separate incidents of abduction of teenager girls in the district, police said today.A resident of Dabua colony had lodged a complain against two persons, Harilal and Sonu, for allegedly abducting his 17-year-old daughter after a promise of marriage, they said.In another incident, a resident of Dhauj registered a case against 4 persons, including his son-in-law and three other members of his family, for allegedly abducting his 16-year-old daughter.Investigations are going on in both the cases, police said. EKA

Young couples are increasingly creating children out of wedlock

 

Explaining their decision, they said that their relations are serious so it is not important whether they have a baby before or after marriage. They say it is better to have baby before marriage because the infertility rate is very high now. “We are ready to get married so we decided to not use contraceptive devices. Whenever my girlfriend is pregnant, we will immediately organize the wedding,” said Toan, a construction engineer in Hanoi.

It is important that his parents also back his decision so his girlfriend doesn’t feel great pressure. However, many couples are not lucky to have a baby even after forgoing contraceptive devices for a long time. Infertility is on the rise in Vietnam. The rate was eight percent in 2010, said Deputy Minister of Health, Director of the Central Obstetrics Hospital Nguyen Viet Tien.

At the country’s largest obstetric hospital, Tu Du Hospital in HCM City, the infertility rate is 10-15 percent. Some 40 percent of the cases occur in wives, 40 percent in husbands, 10 percent come from both sides and 10 percent are unclear. Having a baby before marriage is no longer considered “unacceptable” in Vietnam. Many parents are glad to welcome both the daughter-in-law and the grandchild at the wedding ceremony.

Many future mothers-in-law advised their sons to be serious in relations but encouraged them to “test” the girl who they plan to get married to know that she will not be childless. “I’m afraid that my son will marry a childless girl. It is no problem if she is pregnant before getting married,” said Mrs. Nguyen Kim Chi, 50, from Hanoi. This behavior is understandable because many families are too poor to treat infertility. At obstetrics hospitals, many couples spend dozens of thousands USD but they could not have a baby.

Besides natural reasons, many young couples are childless because of the wrong lifestyle in the past. Doctor Nguyen Thi Hong Minh, from the Central Obstetrics Hospital, said that having sex liberally and lack of knowledge of contraception has led to an alarming rise in abortion, especially among students and youth.

It is advised to take urgent contraceptive medicines just four times a month but many girls take four pills a week, doctor Minh said. Vietnam is one of the three countries that have the highest abortion rate in the world. The country has around 70,000 abortion cases a year, with 20 percent made by juveniles.

Rules modelled to prohibit minor girls’ marriage

 

The state government has framed Child Marriage Prohibition Rules 2010 under the provisions of Child Marriage Prohibition Act 2006 to ban marriage of girl child below the age of 18 years.

Social welfare minister Parveen Amanullah said this while giving a reply to the short notice question of Binod Narayan Jha of the BJP in the assembly, who queried whether 69% girl child below 18 years of age were married in Bihar? Amanullah replied that the National Family Health Survey-3 had reported that in 2005-2006, at least 69% of the married women were married below the age of 18 years.

Keeping this in view, the state government had launched a scheme to encourage the girl child to get empowered first at schools by providing them bicycles and uniforms under the CM's bicycle scheme and CM Balika Poshak Yojana. The government announced 'Kanya Vivah Yojana' to give Rs 5,000 for the marriage of every girl attaining adulthood at the age of 18 years, whose parent's annual income is Rs 60,000 or below.

Amanullah added that the Bihar Women Development Corporation, with the aid of UNICEF launched a pilot scheme, `Bhagidari', in 20 blocks of Gaya, Nawada and Vaishali districts for creating awareness with the help of self-help groups and block-level organisations against child marriage. She said that under the provision of Child Marriage Prohibition Act, the subdivisional officer would act as child marriage prohibition officer who would participate in capacity development programme along with other district and block level officials and police officials for enforcing the Child Marriage Prohibition Act.

She said that the helpline running under the Nari Shakti Yojana will register cases under Child Marriage Prohibition Act on complaints made by the victims subjected to child marriage. The affected women would also be provided counselling, she said.

Music Teacher Sentenced For Maltreating Girls

 

A Ramona music teacher who molested two young sisters who lived down the street from him was sentenced Friday to 15 years to life in prison. Mark Lewis Kinney, 48, was convicted last month of five counts of committing a lewd act on a child, one count of possession of child pornography, two counts of using a minor in obscene matter and an allegation that he molested more than one victim.

Jurors acquitted Kinney of molesting a third sister, said Deputy District Attorney Chantal De Mauregne. The prosecutor told El Cajon Judge Allan Preckel that Kinney had been convicted of a prior sex offense with a minor in 1984, for which he was placed on probation and given psychological treatment.

"This (the current case) was not a one-time situation," De Mauregne told the judge. "This was not a fluke." She said Kinney groomed the victims over a long period of time -- from 2003 to 2009 -- and videotaped one of them doing a lewd act to herself. Kinney told the girls -- now ages 10 to 12 -- not to tell anybody what happened, the prosecutor said.

She unsuccessfully argued that Kinney should get 30 years to life behind bars -- 15-to-life for each victim. The victims' parents -- who are related to Kinney through marriage -- asked Preckel in a letter to be lenient with the defendant. "It is common, especially when the perpetrator is someone that's very close to the family," De Mauregne said outside court. Preckel said 15 years to life in prison was a fair sentence, considering Kinney's conduct.

"Fifteen years to life, in the court's view, is not a lenient sentence," the judge said. As a minimum, Kinney will have to serve 15 years behind bars before he's eligible for parole, Preckel said. The oldest sister testified that Kinney molested her when she was 9. Kinney, a pianist and drummer, gave private music lessons throughout San Diego County. He was arrested in December 2009.

Forced Marriages in Our Own Backyard

 

On February 22, 2011, Jessie Bender, a 13-year-old southern California girl, ran away from home. No, Jessie was not into "sex, drugs, or rock n' roll." On the contrary. Jessie was terrified that her American-born mother, Melissa, a convert to Islam, and her mother's Pakistani boyfriend and acting stepfather Mohammed "Mo" Khan, had decided to send her to Pakistan to be married against her will. Had Jessie gone, her mother and "Mo" would have received $3000.00.

Initially, her mother told police that Jessie had been abducted by a Facebook predator. Melissa, in full hijab, made a tearful plea for the television cameras. "If you are holding my daughter, please let her go…Please, I beg you to let my daughter go. She's just 13 years old."

This tearful, public, pseudo-honesty reminds me of the Afghan-Canadian Safia family who wept in public, mourning their three dead honor murdered daughters: 13 year-old Geeti, 17 year-old Sahari, and 19-year-old Zainab, and Safia's first wife, 50-year-old Rona Amir Mohammed. In a bid for sympathy, and to throw the police off their trail, the three murderers shed copious tears, grieving, loudly.

Jessie Bender's mother went on television and lied about her daughter. Yes, it is true, Jessie had communicated with an adult male on Facebook, but that is not where she ran. Jessie's uncle had hidden her at an Apple Valley motel. Within a week, it became clear that Jessie's mother, Melissa, and her pseudo-stepfather "Mo, " had both been lying. Melissa herself had visited Pakistan and may be seen in a photo smiling broadly, wearing very serious hijab and standing next to a turbaned tribal elder who is holding a gun. Possibly, she is also standing next to "Mo."

Patricia "Tissy" Said in Dallas, assisted her Egyptian-born husband Yasir who honor murdered their two daughters, Sarah and Amina, for refusing such arranged marriages.

Like Texas's "Tissy" Said, California's Melissa Bender also seems a bit…dim-witted, easy prey for a smart or charming Muslim man who wants (or needs) to bring his Pakistani brother over to America. "Mo's" brother is, apparently, in some kind of trouble and has to get out of Dodge City pronto.

Yasir Said hatched a similar plan: He wanted to marry his American-born, American-citizen daughters off to hand-picked Egyptian men who would then be able to become American citizens. Whether Said was doing this for money, "honor," or jihad is unknown. Tunisian-born Samia Labidi, who lives in France, describes such marriages between under-age Western girls and older Muslim foreign men as part of a larger jihadic plan. This may not be true in the California Bender case, but it may be true in other cases.

And, by the way, "Tissy" Said herself married Yasir in Texas when she was only 14 years old. She did so with her father's permission. I have no doubt that both she and her father believed that Yasir was the Sheikh of Araby and would provide for "Tissy" royally. Instead, he did what many Muslim Arab men do: He sent his wife out to work and lived off her pitiful earnings.

Melissa has six children from six different fathers. She has also lost custody of two children to their maternal grandmother. I do not justify her stupidity and cruelty but it is clear that she may not be in good mental or intellectual health. Nevertheless, her children are at her mercy.

Jessie was found hiding about 30 miles from her home. Since then, Jessie and her siblings have been in child protective custody.

An estranged family member confirms that Jessie indeed "was going to be married off to [the stepfather's] brother over in Pakistan because he was in some trouble and they wanted to bring him over to the states. They were going to get paid $3000 for this."

It is common for Pakistani fathers to sell their young daughters into marriage in order to make a quick buck. Bride prices range from Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 200,000 (1,400-3,500 USD), and younger girls receive higher prices. For example, one ten-year-old Pakistani girl was sold into marriage by her father in order to settle an outstanding debt. According to Amnesty International, a medical examination showed that she had been subjected to rape and torture. I am sure there are thousands of such cases throughout the Islamic world.

According to one blogger, "Had ["Mo"] Mohammad Khan taken [Jessie] to Pakistan and married her off, it would have been almost impossible for the child to escape again. Particularly from a rural area. She would have been repeatedly raped by her 'husband', beaten by her in-laws and turned into a slave. And Khan would have likely profited from the exchange. Khan didn't just marry or live with a middle aged American woman; he married a woman with at least one girl at home. And in Pakistan that translates into a salable commodity."

This is not the first time that young American girls have been spirited away as unwilling brides to a Muslim-majority country. In 2004, 26-year-old Philadelphia resident Omar Rashaad Bey, an American citizen, entered into an "Islamic marriage" with a 14-year-old girl and then moved with her to Cairo. While in Egypt he had an affair with her sister. He then "married" another 15-year-old Philadelphia girl via the Internet and brought her to Cairo too. American officials started an investigation after the first "wife" brought their one-year-old son to the Embassy to register him for an American passport. Bey eventually returned to America, where he was arrested and indicted on three counts of engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places. In March, 2011, he was sentenced to eight years in prison and ordered to register as a sex offender.

Europe is plagued by many more such cases of forced child marriage. According to the BBC, the police in South Wales have dealt with 49 cases of forced marriage in the past year (2010) alone.

"Strategies for helping victims included supplying them with a secret mobile phone if they feared they were being lured to their family's country of origin as a prelude to a forced marriage….The [special police] force had also set up a 'buddy' system where forced marriage 'survivors' were a role model to those who were now going through the trauma."

Even Saudi Arabia, which is rife with child marriage and has no law against it, has begun taking baby steps to stop the practice. According to the Saudi newspaper Al Watan, 40 cases of child marriage were prevented in the eastern part of the country when authorities spoke out against it. In 2009, the Saudi Minister of Justice issued a statement saying that it would soon implement a ban on the practice, although it has failed to do so. The Facebook group, Saudi Women Revolution, which I have written about before, has a petition on its website demanding that the Justice Ministry follow through on its initial promise.

While the American State Department occasionally rattles its rusty saber on behalf of Muslim women's rights, if our government has, so far, refused to get involved in Libya, (even after the Arab League has asked for such involvement), and refused to get involved in Darfur--then I doubt our country will go to the mat for women in Muslim countries.

According to Newsweek, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton favors women's rights everywhere. She is quoted as saying:

"I believe that the rights of women and girls is the unfinished business of the 21st century….We see women and girls across the world who are oppressed and violated and demeaned and degraded and denied so much of what they are entitled to as our fellow human beings."

When challenged by Egyptians who argued that her many references to women's rights in Egypt constitute meddling in Egyptian internal affairs, she responded: "If a country doesn't recognize minority rights and human rights, including women's rights, you will not have the kind of stability and prosperity that is possible."

However, on her watch, the American State Department is backing away from its verbal commitments to women in Afghanistan.

In 2010, when the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) sought bids for a land reform program in Afghanistan, it initially insisted that the winning contractor meet specific goals to promote women's rights: "The number of deeds granting women title had to increase by 50 percent; there would have to be regular media coverage on women's land rights; and teaching materials for secondary schools and universities would have to include material on women's rights."

Later, however, USAID backtracked and eliminated the requirements. According to J. Alexander Thier, the director of USAID's Office of Afghanistan and Pakistan Affairs, "If you're targeting an issue, you need to target it in a way you can achieve those objectives….The women's issue is one where we need hardheaded realism…if we become unrealistic and overfocused . . . we get ourselves in trouble." Another "senior official" said: "Gender issues are going to have to take a back seat to other priorities."

Brava to California's Jessie Bender for saving herself and at least two of her siblings. She lives in America and believes that she has certain rights. So young--so brave. But what will become of her? She has a mother--the only mother she will ever have--who was ready to sell her down the river for $3000.00. Who can, who will, ever take her mother's place? The cruelty of this American-Muslim mother to her American (probably non-Muslim) daughter is breathtaking. I have written about this phenomenon in Woman's Inhumanity to Woman.

Child marriage is opposed by the Convention Against All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). It is a toothless document. The United Nations does not enforce individual rights over the objections of its member nation states.

Child marriage is an abomination. Think of the girls you know who are 10, 12, 14 years old. Can you imagine how a forced, arranged marriage to a much older stranger, probably one who believes it is his absolute right to rape and beat his wife, would psychologically cripple them for life, stunt all growth, demoralize them forevermore?

Who can ever forget the film Osama? It is set in Afghanistan and concerns an 11- 12 year-old girl who must dress as a boy in order to work to feed her widowed mother and younger siblings. (Under the Taliban, women were not allowed to work; they starved or turned to prostitution which meant degraded and dangerous lives).

However, the dreaded Taliban drag the girl Osama away from her job in a small shop and into a madrasa. She is only found out when she begins to menstruate. The imam who runs the madrasa is old enough to be her grandfather. He is fat, gross, coarse, cruel, and ugly. However, he is very attracted to this 12 year-old boy/girl, marries her, and locks her up together with his other, three much older wives.

We should not want to consign young American girls, Muslim and non-Muslim to such cruel fates.

People give ways to overcome child marriage

Cancellation of rations cards of the families observing child marriage was among the suggestions offered by the people to the core committee on prevention of child marriage headed by former Supreme Court judge Justice Shivaraj Patil at Dharwad on Wednesday. Sensitising the officers, particularly the tahasildars and police inspectors about the provisions of the law to curb the practice was another suggestion.

Justice Shivaraj Patil who arrived in Dharwad on a two-day visit to review the situation in north Karnataka districts recieved suggestions from the people and representatives of NGOs of Dharwad and Gadag districts. He will listen to the people from Belgaum district on Thursday and later attend an interaction session with the public.

Ashok Yaragatti of Karnataka Integrated Development Society (KIDS) suggested that there was need to sensitise the officials. Citing certain instances, he said the tahsildar and police officials were found to be unaware of their powers and duties pertaining to the prevention of child marriage. He said Similarly, it should be made mandatory for the organizations conducting mass marriages to register themselves so that the government can have control over them. It should also be made mandatory for those entering the wedlock to produce birth certificate as age proof during the mass marriage and not the doctors certificate, he said.

Shankar Lamani, chairman of Child Welfare Committee (CWC) suggested cancelling the ration cards of the families opting for child marriage and denying them other government facilities. Such measures would make impact mainly in the rural areas where the child marriage is rampant, he said.

Pediatrician Dr Rajan Deshpande said there has been increase in minor girls becoming mothers as a result of child marriage and suggested that lessons on the ill effects of child marriages should be included in the school curriculam. He felt this would create awareness among the children and parents and help prevent child marriage. He felt mothers should be sensitised on this issue.

Earlier, in his address Justice Patil said it was the responsibility of all to put an end to child marriage. "Poverty, ignorance and others reasons have kept this practice alive. The core committee would conduct such consultative meetings at various places to prepare an action plan on prevention of child marriage in next six months" he said.

Preventing Child Marriage via Education

Imagine: in your hometown, only three in 100 girls ever learn to read. Female students in high school are a rarity, and a girl's reputation is so fragile that she is rarely permitted to venture beyond her village unescorted -- not even to go to school. It may sound unfathomable, yet this is the universal reality for the young women living in Mewat, Haryana, a rural part of northern India where tradition dictates that a teenage girl's "marriage-ability" and manual labor take precedence over her human rights.

International nonprofit Lotus Outreach has worked with locals in Mewat since 2007 to implement the Lotus Education as a Right Network (LEARN) project. When officers pushed the issue of female attendance, the indigenous Muslim Meo tribe showed great hesitation to let young girls travel alone to reach schools in neighboring villages. But in 2010, Lotus Outreach found a simple yet effective solution: trusted local owners of minivans were hired to safely chaperone village girls to school each day in a new project called the Blossom Bus.

"The improvements LEARN officers have brought to schools were instrumental in convincing these families to take a leap of faith and break with social conventions by sending their adolescent girls to available schools," says Glenn Fawcett, Lotus Outreach Executive Director of Field Operations. "Our first three buses were immediately fully booked and the waiting list is growing every day."

Mewat's misfortunes clash sharply with the surrounding areas. The capital city of New Delhi -- with its shopping malls and thriving commercial activity -- is only two hours away. Yet here houses are made of animal dung, water buffalo roam into school yards, and electricity is a rarity. With a female literacy rate of 3 percent, Mewat ranks among the most regressive districts in terms of girls' education in all of India.

In Mewat, the immediate resource gap occurs in the form of transportation. Because few villages have secondary schools and allowing a girl to travel alone is widely believed to be imprudent by the pious Meos, female education typically ends at the primary level. This low ceiling feeds into a downward spiral for the female population by diminishing the return on a girl's schooling, and increasing the impetus to keep her at home, at work in the fields or marry her off to another provider.

In the three years LEARN officers have worked in the district they have found that given the option, many Meos would happily see their daughters advance in the formal education system. Since the launch of the Blossom Bus last spring, the sight of chattering school girls in bright pink headscarves stepping off one of the white mini-buses after school is a common sight.

Thirteen year-old Murshida, along with three of her sisters (ages 15, 14 and 12), were recently selected for the project. "My two eldest sisters stopped going to school after the 5th grade and were married at 14 and 15," Murshida says. "I wanted to study further after I passed grade five two years ago, but was refused by my father who was planning to marry me off." When LEARN Officer Suraj Kumar approached her mother about sending her and her sisters back to school, Murshida's heart leaped. Her marriage hadn't yet taken place -- there was still time to take another path.

Suraj proposed supervised transportation, even allowing for one person from the family to serve as the chaperone. After discussing the idea with the girls' parents, Suraj was able to secure their consent and now all four girls are back in school. "That was the most memorable day for the four of us," Murshida says. "Now we will not be pushed to marry before we turn 18."

By demonstrating that with a little attention and effort a few kilometers need not stand in the way of female empowerment, Lotus Outreach intends to spark a broad movement favoring girls' education in Mewat. Today, 12 vans in full-time operation keep 50 ambitious young women on track to complete high school. The cost per girl is $150 per year.

The implications of continued female education are profound. The greater bargaining power of an educated woman is felt by the entire household, since women are estimated to invest twice as much in their families compared to men. Moreover, educated women delay childbearing, space pregnancies, and raise healthier and better-educated children. The Blossom Bus aims to lead the way in reinstating female education as a norm rather than an anomaly.

Lotus Outreach is a California-based 501(c)(3) dedicated to ensuring the education, health and safety of vulnerable women and children in the developing world. The Blossom Bus is one of several successful projects it operates in Asia today.