ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Stolen Woman - A Christian Suspense Novel About Human Trafficking

Updated on November 9, 2017
Cari Jean profile image

Cari Jean resides in North Dakota, where she works as a freelance writer and blogs at Faith's Mom's Blog.

Asha (pronounced Ah-shah) is a young woman who has felt slightly out of place all of her life. Born in Bangladesh, she grew up in a small town in western North Carolina. Throughout her life she has wondered why her parents gave her up for adoption.

She dreams about going to the place of her birth one day - to look for answers and to discover her culture. Then, while in college, a missionary offers her the opportunity to join his team on a short term mission in an orphanage in Kolkata, India just across the border from Bangladesh. Asha is completely unprepared for what happens in India and how it changes her life in many ways, forever.

Asha

The heroine of the book, Stolen Woman, is very passionate, sensitive and intelligent. Although born in Bangladesh, Asha experiences complete culture shock in India. Though she desires to embrace her culture, she finds she has many things to learn.

For one, Asha had studied hard to learn the Bengali language and upon arriving in India she is confused as to why no one could understand her. Trying to speak Bengali with a southern accent causes some major miscommunication.

She also manages to get lost in India while running after one of the orphans at the missionary compound.

Then there is her reaction to the little boy going to the bathroom in the river - the same river where people bathe, do laundry and get drinking water; and when she can't figure out how 16 people are going to fit into three taxis. Her missionary friend has to explain to her that there is no such thing as personal space in India.

Asha also has a knack for not wanting to follow the rules at times and taking matters into her own hands which often results with some not-so-good consequences.

Stolen Woman

Stolen Woman focuses on one particular predicament in which Asha finds herself.

One day, while trying to do a favor for one of the orphans, she sets out on her own. A rickshaw driver misunderstands the address she gives him and upon arrival, she finds herself in a very unsettling, mysterious place. Little did she know this was the dark, evil side of Kolkata.

When she looks up into the window of a nearby building, she sees a young woman standing there. The woman seems startled when Asha makes eye contact with her and smiles. The mysterious woman throws a note out of the window and it flutters down to Asha. The woman in the window is asking Asha for help and that she is a "stolen woman."

Asha has no idea what the note means but when she makes her way back to the compound and tells a few people what happened, they tell Asha that she can never go back there again. She gets very upset by their reaction. She wonders how Christians such as themselves would not want to help this woman. Not knowing the harm that could come to her, Asha takes matters into her own hands.

Stolen Woman takes place in Kolkata, India.
Stolen Woman takes place in Kolkata, India. | Source

About the Author

Kimberly Rae has been published over 100 times in Christian books, magazines and periodicals. Stolen Woman is her debut novel, the first in the Stolen Series. Her first novel proves to be suspenseful and mysterious and while it is based on the difficult subject of human trafficking, the book contains a message of hope.

Kimberly Rae, who has lived in Bangladesh, along with other countries around the world, does a fantastic job of taking the reader right to India. With her descriptive words and phrases, it was easy for me, who has never been there, to picture it all in my mind.

I felt like I was there with Asha as she went to the missionaries' compound where she would be staying for eight weeks. And I shuddered as she accidentally discovered the red-light district where the evils of human trafficking took place. I could see in my mind both the beauty and the hopelessness that many encountered while visiting or living in Kolkata.

Stolen Woman contains many twists and turns that totally kept me guessing. Right when I thought I had it figured out, I was wrong. This book which is full of mystery and suspense also contains a great message of hope and redemption for those who seem like they are in hopeless situations. I could also personally identify with the message that no matter how bad we mess things up, God can turn our mistakes into something good. The book also contains a surprise element, which I thought was very sweet.

Whether you read Christian fiction or not, I highly recommend reading Stolen Woman.

Young girls like this one living in India are in danger of becoming sex trafficking victims.
Young girls like this one living in India are in danger of becoming sex trafficking victims. | Source

Human Trafficking in India

Eventually Asha learns that this mysterious place she accidentally finds is the red-light district of Kolkata. Worse than that, most of the women (some of them young girls) did not have a choice in living there as prostitutes. These women were kidnapped, sold by family members or lured by fake job offers. Oftentimes, women who have been involved in prostitution cannot return home because their families won't take them back.

According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, India is the fourth most dangerous country for a woman. Not only is this due to the prevalence of human trafficking, but India is also known for female infanticide because of the preference for a male. Millions of girls and women in India are trafficked each year.

Even though this is illegal in this part of the world, authorities do not pay much attention to the matter and little is done to control or eliminate human trafficking.

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)