The environment that Lakshima has grown up in doesn't allow her or other young women to realize that they can stand up for themselves and have a voice. Even before Lakshima gets taken to the "Happiness House," she is constantly told that she is worth less than men. She lives in a completely patriarchal society; her stepfather treats her mother with disrespect and her after she gets her period her mother tells her that now she must be a women, a term that pretty much consists of feeding the men, bowing to them, letting them have sex whenever they want and washing their feet. She states that it has always been the fate of women to suffer serving men. This does not set up Lakshima to feel proud, powerful and strong being a women. So once she is sold, the environment she lives in is a setting for the "mind control" to only worsen. After multiple men have used her as an object to pleasure themselves, one night a man comes in who, after they sleep together, holds her and shows her love and kindness. She refers to him as the hugging man, stating, "In the days after the hugging man leaves, I consider myself in the mirror...Sometimes I see a girl who is growing into womanhood...It doesn't matter, of course. Because no one will ever want me now" (178). Even despite the gracious, small acts of kindness that she receives and the obvious fact that she has been forced into these acts, because of the messages that have been thrown at her her entire life she still believes that she has been ruined and is not worth anything. This is why education is so important. Once Lakshima begins to read and see that there are ways to live a free, powerful life, she fights back and trusts the American's to take her to safety. This is similar to malala yousafzai, who had the courage and strength to stand up for education because she already was educated. It is a simple message, but a challenging one to put into action: education will conquer mind control.
I completely agree Amara, if Lakshimi was more educated about the world around her she would have a much easier time getting out of the happiness house. Her fellow women always say that the Americans are bad and beat you publicly in the streets, but this is generally not true. In fact it was an American man who saved her life. In the 1850 slave publication, which has not changed drastically, it says," Deprive access to education and recreation, to ensure that slaves remain uneducated, helpless and dependent." This is a published rule from 1850 about the treatment of slaves, and the way it is put so plainly, harshly, and openly disgusts me. It is crazy to see what improvements education could be to the sex slaves around the world, and with a positive spin, with just knowledge it might even self- destruct as an industry in the long run
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