From porn to rape in the Solomons

Lisa Williams-Lahari
When a sex scandal hits the headlines in one Pacific nation, the speed at which it is picked up as an item of interest to other Pacific nations is second to none.

And so it went with the September 1 headline in the Solomon Star daily newspaper, which ran a discretely edited photo under its claim that net-porn featuring Solomon Islanders is being made in Honiara hotel rooms and widely circulated amongst email users on the home front.

Two days after the story was printed, two twenty-something young men who featured in the ménage a trois were arrested over possession, production and distribution of pornography, a criminal offence in the Solomon Islands.

But once police investigators discovered the age of their much younger female accomplice, a 15-year old teenager, the charges became more serious.

Under the Solomon Islands Penal Code, anyone who has sex with a female 15 years or younger commits rape, a crime which attracts a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

As it usually does whenever issues affecting women of the nation pop up, the daily paper contacted the National Women’s Council.

Their response was a quick slam of the blame button, linking “evil men” to “manipulating vulnerable young girls into distasteful acts”. But just as quickly, the issues have mushroomed from a criminal act into the divides between social and moral codes of conduct in the Solomon Islands; and the gendered nature of what young girls and boys are doing with themselves in urban Honiara.

With the two men still in custody in late September while the case continued before the courts; the scandal roused community attitudes on young girls, sexual consent, and the internet which changes a private collection to X-rated porn at the press of a button; defying any border control or policing plan.

The furore has brought some curly worms out of the can; but with so many other issues to deal with on an already flooded priority list for lawmakers and enforcers here, it’s hard to say whether the dust, when it finally does settle, will reveal any real and effective changes in terms of sexual taboos which mask the realities of abuse, violence and risk in the informal flesh trade. Anyone who picked up the newspaper in Honiara last year would have had a sense of déjà vu at the current situation, and the SINCW response. Twelve months ago, the issue of ‘boat girls’ handling the informal sex-work industry servicing the fishing boats came to the fore; when a local journalist took on some on-the-spot research and came across a father taking his crying infant to the boat where his wife was ‘working’; so that she could breastfeed their child.

Enter researcher Sandy Bakale of Vois Blong Mere Solomons, an advocacy NGO which takes its strength from community awareness and advocacy on a wide range of human rights issues affecting women.

Spurred on by the massive interest generated in her community by the email porn coverage and the peripheral issues it raises, Bakale instigated a quick research project and started running informal surveys and interviews.

Her findings, preliminary as they may be, are revealing. She says much of the current attention to the email porn of the girl-next-door variety tends to focus on ripping into the character and motives of those filmed; before heading to the more serious issue of prostitution.

“By the time the newspaper highlighted the issue, the photos had already been circulating for a long time, both locally and amongst the Solomon Islander student community overseas,” she says. “I came across them two weeks before they appeared in the newspaper, and they were around a long time before I saw them.”

She also came across a second porn set doing the rounds, featuring older Solomon Islands women known to her. Feedback from her informants confirmed the photography of Pacific women as willing and confident sex objects is in fact more widespread than the evidence sparked by a few leaked collections suggests.

Unlike the hotel room antics of the Honiara teenager and her male duo, the second batch in circulation features two women in rural areas, performing with family photos and the household stereo in the background.
Both cases share a common thread in terms of community responses—the focus on ‘what kind of woman does this kind of thing’—discussions which threaten to rob the much-needed energy from the thorny issues of law enforcement on offences against the moral character of a nation in our criminal codes.

Add to the mix, the growth of internet access and abuse of that access in places like government offices and the security/watchdog dilemmas linked to moral policing continue.

Like most of the Melanesian nation states, the Solomon Islands has more than 80% of its population in rural areas. But thanks to PFNet and the high information exchange amongst the Honiara-based network, what goes around, gets around.

But when does erotica and the privacy of your own home and sex life become the criminal act of pornography?
Bakale says the starting point for the most recent scandal and the pictures which grabbed the attention of the Solomon Star, might be linked to theft of pictures from a laptop taken in for repairs rather than deliberate publication and sharing of pornography.

From there, her discussions with interviewees and focus groups went their natural course—tackling the issues of another crime—prostitution.

“What people told me has also been seen in my own observations—the fact that girls are ‘on the street’ shows that we are living in times of rapid change,” she says.

“There can be a high value, or no value on a women’s body. Some girls told me they do it (have sex with strangers) for money, others because they liked the look of a man.”

She admitted her own earlier knowledge of “50 dollar” women in local venues was also challenged.

Some informants, school dropouts at Form One and Two level (12 and 13 years), told her they had been bargained over, depending on their age and virginity, and given from 5000 to 10,000 Solomon Islands dollars (1000 to 2000 AUD) by clients who had been educated on HIV prevention and wanted a younger inexperienced girl.

“These clients tend to be loggers, who have lots to spend, and offer money. The girl would often not have an idea of her own price and wait for the man to tell her what he is willing to pay,” Bakale says.

She said in the urban areas, it wasn’t unusual for young women to be offered trips overseas on top of money; with known areas and gathering/pickup points in terms of the sub-culture of sex workers in Honiara.

Women, young and not-so-young, are blaming poverty and lack of opportunities for their move into sex work.

With its well-paid benefits, squatters and low-income earners are joining the unemployed who formerly dominated the industry, says Bakale.

“Inflation in the country has just made a lot of basic things unaffordable,” she says. “There have been drastic changes in prices, and this has led to a different ‘culture’ which seems to be affecting our own people.”

Her dialogues and discussions, assisted by five volunteers have activated an interest in further research on why Solomon Islands women are getting caught up in the exploitation of the sex/flesh trade.

Far more than an e-mail scandal which has already served up a huge share of shame and embarrassment in this small community, Bakale says there is a need to understand and analyse the key issues behind Honiara’s changing times.

“I just want to see what’s out there and make us understand in a transparent way what is going on,” she says.