No angels in Indian brothels
No Angels' Sunetra Sarker, with Hasna Khatun
posing as a caged sex worker.
[Jeremy Woodham/CMS©]
The star of raunchy nursing drama No Angels put in a surprise appearance at the Christian Resources Exhibition on Tuesday to launch a CMS campaign on sex trafficking.
Actor Sunetra Sarker, who plays health care assistant Angie in
the hit Channel 4 TV series, offered her support to the Setting
Captives Free campaign, which focuses on the plight of women trafficked
into the Indian sex trade.
Endorsing the campaign, Sunetra said, "I support CMS in its
'setting captives free' campaign condemning the abuse of thousands
of trafficked women working in India's red-light districts. Join
me in my support and let's try and stop this evil trade."
The star added, "Even a single voice can make a difference. Go on, be an angel."
She hoped that adding her voice to the campaign might be the first step in reaching an even wider audience than the Christian world represented at CRE.
If passers-by were stopped in their tracks by a famous face, their eyes were soon drawn to the sight of an Asian woman in a bright red sari trapped in a cage of iron and wood that took up half the CMS exhibition stand.
Inside the cage, berating exhibition-goers with a voice half angry, half sad, was actor Hasna Khatun, playing the role of a prostitute trapped in the specially-constructed cage that mimicked the conditions in which many sex workers are forced to live and work.
"How much do you think I'm worth?" she cried. Posters proclaimed "Sex costs just 50 rupees. Life is pretty cheap too."
Minutes before Sunetra appeared at the CMS stand, Tony Campolo had opened the exhibition, imploring the organisations present to keep the poor at the top of their agenda. "There are more than 2,000 verses of scripture telling us to meet the needs of the poor," he said.
While the 3,000 deaths of 9/11 hung heavy in the American consciousness and the Asian tsunami had killed 300,000, Campolo reminded his audience that "Every week 30,000 children die of malnutrition or starvation."
He applauded the amount of resources available to churches to highlight needs around the world, saying that faith-based organisations were the single-most effective agents of social change, a fact that had been recognised by presidents Clinton and Bush in the US.