Women in peril.

SEX SLAVES: THE TRAFFICKING OF WOMEN IN ASIA By Louise Brown Virago Press RM36.90 at MPH Mid Valley, pp276

"I FIRST met Sahana when she was 19 years old," Louise Brown writes. "She was an illiterate Nepali woman who possessed two valuable qualities: she was young and she was pretty. Her face earned her family the equivalent of STG50 (RM275) when she was sold, aged 12, to a brothel in India. It also earned her 10 customers a day and HIV."

Such stories about the Asian sex trade have been dragged out into the media spotlight for some time now and their very grimness have become almost a cliche. But Brown wants to stir up the waters by demolishing certain …