As she speaks, tears moisten her weary eyes. She instinctively raises her hand to wipe them away. I imagine that this young woman, introduced to me as 'Mary', has cried on countless occasions during her young life: a life that could have offered so much but had turned out to provide her with fear and regret.
I meet Mary in the dilapidated surrounds of prison 325 in Tirana, Albania's capital city, where she lives in a cramped room with six other women. However, look beneath the surface and listen carefully to Mary's story and you'll discover that she is much more victim than criminal. It's true: she was sent to prison six months previously for prostitution. But this is far from the full story.
It began when Mary was just 14. She ran away from her family and met a man who took her to Kosova with the promise of marriage. She trusted him. He took her to the city where he said his family was. 'This is when I discovered he had lied to me,' Mary tells me. 'He abused me, putting me in cold, freezing water and beating me. It was awful, I worked for six months on the streets. Then one night, I escaped from him.' She managed to return to Tirana but became desperate for money and turned to prostitution. She has been imprisoned twice. All this, and Mary is just 21.
