6/2/2014 – Phnom Penh, Cambodia — A Cambodian woman who has been recognized throughout the world for not only her efforts to combat sex trafficking, but also for her own personal story of sexual slavery, has been exposed for ‘distorting’ her background to garner sympathy and lots of cash.
Somaly Mam, the president and (former) co-founder of AFESIP and the Somaly Mam Foundation, has resigned her position after a Newsweek article last month and other inquires exposed several critical errors in her celebrated biography.
In a statement by the foundation’s executive-director, Gina Reiss-Wilchins, she stated Mam’s resignation was accepted after the group was presented with the findings of a two-month investigation it had commissioned from a California-based law firm, Goodwin Procter.
While the world is full of anti-sex-trafficking activists, few can list supporters that include Queen Sofia of Spain, former U.S. secretary of state Hillary Clinton, actresses Meg Ryan, Susan Sarandon and Shay Mitchell, as well as New York Times Pulitzer-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof.
The AFESIP’s board consists of individuals such as Brandee Barker (Mark Zuckerberg’s former PR expert) and Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg.
Mam was listed as one of Time’s 100 most influential people in 2009 and has over 400,000 followers on her Twitter account.
Mam’s story is best known from her many personal appearances across the globe and through her autobiography, The Road of Lost Innocence, which was an international best-seller.
Its her heart wrenching personal struggle, that has raised millions for her cause, that has long been called into question and only recently been completely debunked – and we are not just dealing with an exaggerated talking point here or there – literally her entire trafficking resume is a complete and utter lie.
In her book Mam says she was turned into a domestic slave at a very young age by a man she only identifies as ‘Grandfather.’ According to Mam, ‘Grandfather’ would beat and abuse her.
Mam goes on to weave an intricate story of how she was sold “as a virgin” by ‘Grandfather’ to a Chinese merchant and then later forced to marry a solider who she described as very violent when she was only 14.
Later she was reportedly sold to a brothel in Phnom Penh – there she claims she was tortured with electrodes powered by a car battery.
The problem? Virtually everybody who knew Mam growing up says not a single bit of her story is true.
In fact, her childhood friends, adult acquaintances and school officials all say Mam was raised by a good family and attended school all the way through high school.
Not a single person remembers a ‘Grandfather’, Chinese merchant, nor soldier husband.
Mam even claimed that her own daughter was kidnapped, tortured and gang-raped by pimps angry with Mam’s work. In reality, her daughter had simply ran away with a boy she met.
And when Mam wasn’t pimping out her own fictitious story, she was apparently coercing young girls in her foundation’s care to tell similar lies – all in an effort to get millions in donations and endorsements.
In one example, Mam paraded a young girl named Long Pross into the media spotlight with a story about how she had been sold to a brothel and lost an eye after an angry pimp gouged it out.
In reality, a Dr. Pok Thorn has come forward to state that Pross was brought to his clinic when she was 13 and that he performed surgery on her to address a nonmalignant tumor covering her right eye – no brothel, no angry pimp, no real history of trafficking.
Additionally, many are now coming forward with claims that much of the money raised by AFESIP has been misused and that the group has only experienced questionable success with any of the victims it has taken into its care.
Its not know what will come of Mam or the foundation she built on a web of lies.
For now AFESIP says it will continue on and thanks Mam for helping to raise awareness about a very serious issue.
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