Why America Needs Rights4Girls

A conversation with Yasmin Vafa, co-founder and executive director of Rights4Girls, a nonprofit that advocates for the dignity and rights of young women and girls.

An image from Rights4Girls “No Such Thing” campaign, a national movement to make clear that there is no such thing as a “child prostitute”—there are only victims and survivors of child rape.

By Michael Judge

I first became aware of Yasmin Vafa and her advocacy work at Rights4Girls in August 2023 when Zephaniah “Zephi” Trevino was sentenced to 12 years in prison for her role in a fatal 2019 robbery in Grand Prairie, Texas. Zephi, who was 16 at the time of the crime, was tried as an adult and is now serving a 12-year sentence for murder and aggravated robbery.

I’d written about the case for The Washington Post in March 2021, shortly after a Texas judge ruled that Zephi, who had just turned 18, would be tried as an adult. In the Post, I explained how “Trevino’s family and attorneys allege she was being trafficked for sex by [the alleged gunman Philip] Baldenegro, whom they claim had plied her with drugs and threatened to harm her family if she refused.”

“Trevino’s sentencing shows the ways y…