Slavery
We watched the film Osama yesterday. Apparently it was the first film made in Afghanistan after the end of the Taliban regime (which banned film-making), and it's about the hardships (enslavement?) of women under the regime. As the rating said, "content may disturb". But it's pretty authentic, I think – the lead actor was a begger girl that the director more or less picked up off the street. The film's in Arabic but subtitled, and it uses cinematography I thought was quite different to most western movies.
Speaking of slavery, yesterday at work we were talking about a missionary couple in Khartoum, Sudan who bought some young girls at a slave-market, freed them, and helped them start a new life. (Yes, slave-trading is definitely still around.) But the question was, is this a noble act, or is it tacitly approving the slave-trade by buying them and perhaps even helping raise their prices?
Comments
It's noble, it's glorious, it's like the kinsman-redeemer business.
Yeah, does ring of "you have been bought with a price". Somehow to me it still seems slightly fishy, like accepting a bribe to get something good done.