Faith, Fear, and Freedom: The Role of Religion in the Recovery Journey of Trafficking Survivors

Trafficking of women remains a significant challenge, particularly in countries in the Global South, with Nigeria notably as a hotspot country where external trafficking of women to Europe is linked to debt bondage and ritual coercion, and Uganda follows as an origin and transit country for women and girls into domestic servitude and sexual exploitation. Other countries include Pakistan, which has been rated as the highest globally linked to forced marriages and cross-border trafficking (Degani, 2025; World Population Review, 2025; UNODC, 2024). This study explores the complex role religion plays in the recovery journey of women survivors from trafficking. In the context of spiritual celestial faith, it is often interpreted as a source of healing, strength and resilience. Religious structures can also give a boost to silence, morals and shame from trafficking. Drawing on feminist and trauma-informed knowledge, this article examines how women survivors traverse spiritual belief practices, at times reclaiming autonomy through prayers and rituals to overcome fear of having taken part in sex work, a fear that is rooted in the exclusion and moral judgments imposed by gatekeepers such as authorities, communities, families, and peers. The analysis features how personal spirituality, faith-based organisations and religious communities can concurrently empower and constrain trafficking victims and equally rehabilitate and reintegrate survivors in the post-trafficking journey. In the context of social sciences, this article emphasises the significance of religious norms in shaping feminist gender discourses, particularly those excluded from mainstream society due to cultural and economic marginalisation. Existing research on trafficking tends to focus either on survivor narratives or on policy and legal responses. However, studies that examine the empowering role of religion in survivors’ recovery journeys remain limited, particularly within Global South contexts, and mainly when analysed through trauma-informed and feminist lenses.