Kolkata: Nearly 20 per cent of clients of the Indian sex market is from the US and trafficking of women in that country has surpassed the slave trade existed in the early 19th century, noted American feminist and founder of Ms magazine Gloria Steinem said today.

"Twenty per cent of people who buy sex from India are Americans," Steinem said during an interaction with women's rights activists at the American Centre here.

A board member of American Anti-Slavery group, Steinem said trafficking of women in the US has grown at a faster pace than the slave trade of the 1800s, due to modern transport facilities.

"It is easier to bring in girls than drugs," stating that one out of eight women in the US were rape victims, Steinem, co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, said the government there should take serious action to prevent trafficking of women.

"The cult of masculinity was cutting the life span of men. It is to prove their masculinity that they go out to wars and get killed," she claimed.

To prove her point, the author of Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions cited the example of Mohammed Atta, the prime accused in the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centre.

"Since childhood, Atta was insulted by his father and told his two sisters were "better men" than him. He developed a dislike for women so much so that he had prohibited his body to be touched by women after his death. It was to prove his masculinity that he went and attacked the World Trade Centre," she said.

Source : PTI