I have mentioned previously that the Ottoman empire was not perfect and in particular towards the end became quite corrupted. That I won't deny at all. However let's take a look at how some women are treated in Western Countries today shall we?
http://www.channel4.com/news/2003/02/week_2/11_slavery.htmlSlavery in Europe
Human Traffic Published: 11-Feb-2003
By: Gaby Rado
Channel 4 News uncovers the modern day slave trade taking place across Eastern Europe. Our correspondent talks to the women in Romania who were literally sold into slavery.
Diana isn't sure of her surname - and she can't read or write. She probably has a mental age of about ten, but not long ago, she even wanted a baby's dummy. She's now safe in a women's refuge in Romania.
But just a few weeks ago, she was a slave. We filmed her standing next to a man who was about to sell her – she was asking him if her buyer would beat her. He said her new owner will feed her and give her warm clothes. Minutes later, four hundred dollars is paid for her.
She told Channel 4 News: "I was prostituted by force. I was beaten with a chain, I was kept undressed, naked in the cold, outside in the cold, and chained in a dog's cage, a large one.
"And after they gave me food, they kept me eight weeks without eating, then I was taken away by men, raped."
This is Bucharest, Romania, but it could probably be anywhere on the poorer fringes of the former Soviet empire - Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus.
With freedom from communism came the domination of money. And with that, young women with no money became pieces of merchandise.
We decided to test how easy it would be to buy a slave - for anyone, at any time. We drove into a run down part of the city, and in less than half an hour, had found someone who said it could possibly be arranged.
We were taken round the corner and shown a girl. She's obscured by one of the men.
The woman walked back into the courtyard.
If we had proceeded, it may have gone something like this. An undercover team went to the house of a man calling himself "Shorty".
A young woman appeared, and underwent the most degrading kind of exhibition. The team claimed they would come back with money and left.
Two weeks later, they contacted Shorty again, and he said the blond woman had already been sold.
Outside, Diana clearly showed her relief at having a new owner. The pay-off for Shorty took place at a nearby park - there's little doubt he was to take a cut as the middle-man. Finally the four hundred dollars in local currency is counted out.
Diana is then taken to a women's refuge and the full horror of her story emerges and shows the burn marks on her shoulder, thought to have been made by red-hot chains.
She said she had been their slave since she ran away from home in the city of Timisoara at the age of ten after her father had raped her.
She's then told she was nobody's property and would have food and a bed to sleep in.
Diana, who's in the refuge with eight other former enslaved women, has changed in appearance.
Her weight has increased because of "street kid sydrome" the impulse to overeat, caused by former starvation. This is the only refuge of its kind in Romania, where ten thousand women are thought to be trafficked every year.
Her story may well be typical.
Diana: "I was prostituted by force, I was beaten with a chain, I was kept undressed,naked in the cold, outside in the cold, and chained in a dog's cage.
"It was a large one and after they gave me food, they kept me 8 weeks practically without eating, then I was taken away by men, raped, I was forced to do all types of sex."
The founder of the refuge says the final amount paid for Diana was actually too high. Had the buyers not posed as foreigners it would have been around $100, we were told.
During our filming, by chance, we spotted Shorty the trafficker on the streets, openly talking to policemen. The Romanian authorities say whatever measures they take, corruption does take place.
After her unimaginable past, Diana hopes she has a future. She wants to learn to be a cook, and maybe have a family.
But for the unknown, un-named young blond woman, she and thousands like her have disappeared into the night, sold at least once, but more likely several times more.
Trafficking in women is a growing trade and while poverty and profit-making exist side-by side, it will continue.