In 2008, we watched Iraqi news correspondent Muntader-al-Zaidi fling his shoes at the then American president, George W. Bush. “This is from the widows, the orphans, and those who were killed in Iraq,” he shouted. In 2011 alone, we have now seen the portraits of more than 15 Middle Eastern rulers disgraced by their citizen’s shoes in the wave of revolutions that have swept through the Arabic nations. From these incidents, it could be logical to conclude that the “old-fashioned shoe” is a just as powerful weapon of protest as Facebook, Twitter, and any other social media outlet. And from a completely different standpoint, Ateba Crocker, founder of Shoe Revolt, would probably agree.
Shoe Revolt is a fledgling social enterprise, started in 2010, dedicated to using donated shoes to fight back against human sex-trafficking in the United States. Ateba Crocker explains the motivation behind her social enterprise in a ClearlySo interview: “I was mad – mad that there weren’t enough resources available for shelters and non-profits fighting this huge issue.”
According to the ShoeRevolt website, more than 50,000 women are sex-trafficked each year and most of them are girls between the ages of 12-14 years old. This +32 billion dollar industry takes young children from more than 127 countries to be exploited in 137 different countries, reports the UN, and the majority of their stories are never heard. In the United States and abroad, there is a clear lack of resources in shelters, aftercare, and therapy for these victims, leaving many of them with returning to the industry as their only option.
With the help of celebrity star power like Sarah Jessica Parker and the use of pop retail – a method that involves borrowing donated storefront to host spontaneous shoe sales, Shoe Revolt is working to change that. Her online shoe boutique sells new or gently used donated shoes that have been re-designed by sex-trafficking victims, celebrities, or sold as originals. 100% of her net profit from these shoe purchases is given to a variety of sex-trafficking shelter and support centers within the United States. (For a complete list, you can visit “The Shelters” on the Shoe Revolt website.”)
I am not a shoe person – (I think I may have even worn my hiking boots to a wedding once), but I am a woman and I am a traveler. It makes me angry that certain parts of the world are excluded from my reach because of the fear of traveling alone as a female. It makes me angry that countries like Thailand, Tunisia, and elsewhere continue to blatantly cater to sex tourism. And it makes me angry that before I had reached the age of 22, I already had close friends that had experienced rape, assault, and unwanted sexually-transmitted infections, none of which were consequences of their own personal actions…Yet it’s not the fact that it happened that makes me the most angry, it’s the fact that my reaction had been one of initial shock, followed by subdued acceptance. These were the facts they told us in health class so I shouldn’t have been surprised when they happened.
I know now that acceptance of women’s role as a second-class citizen is no way to creative positive change in this world. I’m ready to join this shoe-down, so eloquently put by Shoe Revolt: “to refuse to obey the constraints imposed by another, to rise up against the injustice of human trafficking, to break the shackles of the abuse, to get out of line, to rock the boat, to take up arms, to eradicate human trafficking with purchasing power” or any way we can.
If you are a victim of sex trafficking and need help, contact the National Human Trafficking Resource Center 1.888.3737.888
