When Meerim and Ajara had just started their first year of university in Bishkek, the capital of Kyrgyzstan, the two young women stumbled upon an opportunity to make money.
Azara saw an ad on Instagram looking for a beautiful young woman.
"They told her that you just had to exchange messages with people online, show them your underwear, and nothing else. They provided a lot of money," Milin, 22, told RFE/RL on the condition that the media use pseudonyms for her and Azara.
The two girls began working at a webcast studio in Bishkek, interacting with clients from around the world who paid them to chat, undress and have the two of them perform unspeakable acts in front of camera.
"I received about $1,000 in the first month, and Azara got more. She got about $3,000. The second month's salary was also good. But then it was cut. They started paying us about $600 each," Mirin said.
Screenshot of related reports
That's when trouble begins.
Mr. Mirin said the two had been victims of blackmail from their employers. Within a year, Azara was killed.
Many women who have been abused are afraid to call the police, the report said.
Taalai, a former manager and recruiter at a studio in Bishkek, agreed to speak with RFE/RL under a pseudonym, saying a building could accommodate up to 30 young women at the same time, with some studios offering free accommodation for women.
"In my studio, we have 30 girls, but only 5 of them make decent money. We have a model here who agrees to a $235 monthly salary. But from her we make at least $2,000 a week. ”
Other industry players in Kyrgyzstan confirmed Talay's claims, saying most studios take 50-70 percent of women's income.
Tale said he prefers to look for young women from rural areas.
"You need to find inexperienced women who don't understand anything. You give them a little money, a few hundred dollars, and they'll work," he said.
Talay said he is increasingly working with women in Almaty or the moscow suburbs. "Bishkek is too small to find young women ready to work," he said.
Unlike young women recruited from rural Kyrgyzstan, Mirin and Azara are no strangers to Bishkek, but they are so in debt that they dare not tell their parents. Their waiters don't pay enough for their jobs, and webcasting seems to be an answer.
When Mirin and Azara began complaining about their pay cuts around the third month of their employment, studio executives responded by threatening to leak their intimate videos and personal information.
Millin said a female manager at the studio said she had the phone number of Azara's boyfriend.
"Azara is stubborn. She said, 'She doesn't have his phone number. She was bluffing. I don't know how she did it, but it turns out she has all the contacts on Azara's phone. She must have downloaded them somehow. Then she sent him a couple of videos on WhatsApp," Mirin recalled.
Mirin said Azara fell out with her boyfriend and "ended their relationship" and that Azara was "under tremendous pressure."
Mirin said she and her friend did not speak for a "long time" after that.
"I tried to calm her down and talk to her. But I myself was afraid that my photos or videos might be leaked. They may be sent to my parents or friends. I deleted all my contacts and accounts: Instagram, Facebook, VKontakte. I even changed my phone and got a new SIM card," she said.
"Then, when I decided to call her and see her, I could barely recognize her anymore. She was confused and tired. Then, in the summer... My parents said Azara hanged herself. So, they buried her," Mirin told RFE/RL. "Imagine: she's only 19 years old."
Millin said she and Azara felt unable to seek help from police for fear of exposure.
Now, Millin has been out of the business for more than two years. But she believes it is a service industry like other industries, and its practitioners should not face prosecution, harassment or abuse.
She said that while she and Azara entered the industry "out of stupidity and debt," the job was a matter of life and death for many others.
"There are a lot of young women whose parents are sick and whose children have disabilities. They really need money," Millin said. "What's more, they didn't do anything bad there. They didn't steal anything. ”
Mirin said their family and friends don't know what happened to Millin and Azara in the industry to this day.
Although this is a tragedy that occurs abroad, such cases often appear in our society.
Don't believe in the various temptations on the Internet, the pie will not fall from the sky, these temptations are often the tricks of criminals, waiting for people to jump.