To gain her freedom from the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, Mu Sochua's parents put her on a plane to Paris. It was 1972 and she never saw them again. After 18 years of exile as a leading figure in the Cambodian community leader in the San Francisco Bay Area and in the Cambodian/Thai border refugee camps in charge of education and social services, Mu returned to Cambodia and found her country transformed into what Time magazine called "a pervert's paradise," where women and girls were so devalued that becoming a sex worker was a common fate. The international NGO Vital Voices honored Mu Sochua in 2005 for her efforts in combating child trafficking in Cambodia. As Cambodia's first Minister of Women's Affairs, Mu negotiated an agreement with Thailand allowing Cambodian women trafficked as sex workers there to return to their home country in lieu of being jailed, authored and defended the Domestic Violence Law in Parliament. She pioneered the use of frank television commercials and toured the country for five years to spread the word about trafficking to vulnerable young girls and boys. Mu continues to be steadfast in calling for international attention to government corruption and human rights abuses in her government. She is the first woman to become secretray-general of a political party in Cambodia and as the opposition party top leader she constantly faces threat and intimidation. (6.2009)
Read more about Mu Sochua:
Crusader Rowing Upstream in Cambodia
By Seth Mydans, New York Times
February 21, 2010
