Pardis Mahdavi has been discussing human trafficking upon the release of her book, Gridlock: Labor, Migration, and Human Trafficking in Dubai.

Focusing on trafficking and migrant labor, Mahdavi interviews sex workers, taxi drivers, construction workers and domestic servants labouring under the Gulf’s kefala system.

Significantly, the Pardis’ objective is to de-mystify and de-stigmatize the industry, since:

to work toward solving this global problem, we need to be honest about what trafficking is—and is not—and to finally get past the stereotypes about trafficked persons so we can really understand the challenges migrant workers are living through every day.

To read the full interview with Jadaliyya, click here.