Somaly Mam (1970), descendant of the Phnong ethnic minority of Cambodia, was sold as a slave on several occasions and forced to engage in prostitution until 1991, when the man who would later become her husband got her out of the brothels of Phnom Penh. She began helping the women of the brothels and then left for France in 1993 in order to study French. In 1995 she returned to her country with a Doctors without Frontiers mission, and the following year she founded the Action Association for Women in Precarious Situations, which she has headed since then. After an intense struggle against prostitution, constant death threats have forced her to move to France, from where she continues her struggle against 'modern slavery'. She returned to Cambodia in spite of death threats to contribute to save children form sexual exploitation.