Actually, slavery is illegal in every country in the world, even Islamic countries. According to Kevin Bales, who many regard as the world’s foremost expert on slavery, “Slavery is a crime in every country; governments have already taken the collective decision to stop it.” (p 128) This does not mean laws are enforced – in the U.S., law enforcement in some places turns a blind eye to slavery and human trafficking. There are an estimated 25 million slaves throughout the world, though, so it certainly does happen a lot these days!

If your daughter has not checked out the Trafficking in Persons Report, she definitely should. In that report, the State Department goes through the laws or actions (that are on paper) that governments are and have taken to address human trafficking. It can be found here: http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2010/

You also might want to look at this helpful fact sheet by the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking: http://www.unglobalcompact.org/docs/issues_doc/labour/Forced_labour/HUMAN_TRAFFICKING_-_THE_FACTS_-_final.pdf In it you’ll notice that “only” about 10% of the world’s victims of human trafficking are in what we’d think of as “Islamic” countries. You’ll notice, however, that a great majority are actually in Asia and the Pacific (56%), and that there is a higher percentage of victims in industralized nations than in “Islamic” countries.

Lastly, I’m glad your daughter is using my site, but I hope she’s found http://www.freetheslaves.net ! They have so much good information – they’re my go-to source when I have questions. They have a lot of great stories, as well, if they would be of any assistance.

Good luck to your daughter on her project!
Sarah

i asked because slavery is still going on in the islamic world as is one of the only places where its still legal to own slaves although i dont think it happens much now days.

but ive read most of your site and think its great. my daughter is looking for info on slavery for school project and your site is helping her a lot.

thanks, karl.

Thank you for checking out this blog, and thank you for your question. Unfortunately, I am not a historian, so I have not looked at the long history of slavery in the world, including Islamic slavery on this blog. The focus of this site is mainly the most prominent current form of slavery, human trafficking.

Best,
Sarah

Take care,
Sarah