They are confined in luxury condominiums to satisfy a select club of the rich and old in Malaysia, who visit them regularly in late afternoons. These "noon brides" are visited by patrons who wine, dine and have sex with them, before going home to their families.
But many of the women are confined, often against their will, and "shared" among a select club of like-minded rich businessmen, officials and activists report.
The "noon bride" phenomenon is only one dimension of the burgeoning trade in young women from southern China down to Malaysia. Many of them, hailing from rural areas in China, are lured on the pretext of working as office staff, nurses and interpreters.
"When I refused to work as a prostitute I was slapped, kicked and spat upon," said a woman identified only as 22-year-old Lin, whose story and that of her 23-year-old colleague Wern was published in local media in June.
"The man told me if I didn't work, I would be starved to death and never return to China," Lin told reporters. Police had rescued her after she tried to climb down from the 27th floor of a luxury hotel where she had been forced to do sex work.
Baradan Kuppusamy Asia Times Jul 16, 2003
