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Sex workers’ unions are
demanding protection of their legal and human rights.
A sex worker is anyone who trades sex for money or other favors. Many people picture sex workers as women who do not wear many clothes, flirt with men, and work in brothels or on the street But women who sell sex are a diverse group. A sex worker may be a young girl or an older woman with 6 children at home. She may work in a brothel, in a bar or a club, on the street with a pimp, or in her own home. What most of these women share in common, though, is that they sell sex because they desperately need money.
¨ Sex workers, like other women, are working to make a living.
In this book we use the term ‘sex worker’ instead of ‘prostitute’. We do this because many people think of a prostitute as a bad woman who should be punished. The term ‘sex worker’ emphasizes that sex workers, like other women, are working to make a living. For the same reason, we call the men who buy sex ‘clients’ or ‘customers’.
There are also many women who do not think of themselves as sex workers, yet occasionally they trade sex for favors, like a place to live or a job. We call this ‘survival sex’. These women face many of the same problems that sex workers face.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide information on the health problems sex workers face, and about ways sex workers can help themselves. It also helps people understand what life is like for women who must trade sex to survive.
Many people think women become sex workers because they are immoral or too lazy to find other work. But most women do so because they need money and have no other way to earn it. These women need money for food and shelter, to support their children and families, to pay debts, or to buy drugs.
¨ Most women who sell sex would rather have a job that pays well and that gives them dignity and respect.
This desperate need often arises in situations a woman cannot control: for example, her husband dies, or she gets divorced, or her husband or family abandons her. Or she may be raped or have an unplanned pregnancy and find that no one will marry her. If she has no job skills or ways to get money, she sells the only thing she has - her body - in order to survive.
This young girl did not have
enough money to be able to finish her education. She cannot find a job, so she
must sell sex to buy food and
clothes.
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Every morning around 9 o’clock, Nawal (not her real name) steps out of the tiny room she shares with her husband, locks her two small children inside, and walks to the wealthy area of town where she ‘works’. Wearing a traditional dress with faded colors and a cheap black scarf thrown loosely around her head, she looks just like any other poor woman you see everywhere in Cairo, Egypt. She is not. Nawal is 20 years old and she is a prostitute. ‘Working’ a certain street until it is time to go home around 2 or 3 in the afternoon, Nawal earns an average of LE. 20 (US $6) a day. She does not work on Fridays or religious holidays so she can spend time with her family: her husband, who works occasionally as a construction worker, a 4-year-old son, and a 1-year-old daughter. Nawal’s father was blind, and he made money by begging in central Cairo. When she was a young girl, Nawal spent more time in the street guiding her father around than at home. She never saw her mother. At 13, she got married. Two years later, after giving birth to her son, she had to look for a job. Her husband was getting less and less work. With no education or skills, Nawal tried working as a house cleaner in an apartment building. But she stopped when the building guards refused to introduce her to customers unless she had sex with them. Nawal does not use the word ‘prostitute’ to describe herself. She refers to herself as a servant. She knows she has to save money for her children: “I want my children to go to school so that they don’t grow up to be criminals.” Because her work is not considered ‘real’ work, Nawal, and thousands of women like her, get no help from the government or the police. Nawal has been robbed several times, but no one would help her. Officially, she does not exist. And the thing that really puzzles her is that a lot of people think that she enjoys sex work. She does not. She just does not know any better way to survive. - from an interview by Ahmed Badawi |
¨ Because many men fear they will become infected with HIV/AIDS when they have sex with older sex workers, there is an increasing demand for younger girl children to work in the sex trade.
Other women are forced into sex work. Often women are tricked into thinking they are going to get jobs or rich husbands in other countries and are sold into sex work instead. Then it is almost impossible to stop selling sex. The woman may be in a new country illegally where she has no rights, no money, and no way to return home. She may have large debts to repay, or her employer may threaten to hurt her if she leaves. She has become a sexual slave.
This girl was sold by her
family, thinking she would get a job in another country. Instead, she was sold
again to a brothel owner who forces her to sell sex.
This woman lost her home and
land when her husband died, because there were no laws saying his property must
be given to his wife. Now she has no money. She started selling sex to feed her
children.
Because of her work, a sex worker has a greater risk of getting sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and HIV/AIDS than other women. Her risk is increased because sex work does not pay well, and so she must take a large number of clients each day. She may want to protect herself by using condoms and other safer sex practices, but the men who pay her can make this difficult. They may demand sex in the vagina or anus but refuse to use condoms. They may even become violent if she refuses unsafe sex practices.
If a sex worker is addicted to drugs, her need for drugs may make her more willing to exchange unsafe sex for money or drugs, and less able to take care of herself.
As with any woman, if a sex worker gets an STD, it may lead to infertility or cancer of the cervix. Infection with an STD like herpes, syphilis, gonorrhea, or chlamydia greatly increases her chance of also becoming infected with HIV/AIDS. These risks are even more serious for young girls. Since their genitals are not fully grown, they can be damaged more easily during sex.
In some communities up to 9
out of 10 sex workers ore infected with HIV.
Many sex workers do not have good information about STDs, or about how to treat or prevent them. Information and health services are often not available to sex workers because of people’s prejudice against them. When sex workers do go to a health center for help, they may be treated badly or refused services.
Figure
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Are sex workers responsible for HIV/AIDS? Sex workers are blamed for much of the AIDS epidemic. But it is the men who buy sex from them who infect sex workers and often their own wives. By blaming sex workers, these men fail to take responsibility for spreading the disease. Sex workers want to practice safer sex. But HIV and AIDS may not seem like the most important problem they face. They often have more immediate, daily problems - such as bad treatment by the police, low wages, dirty and expensive hotels, difficult or violent men, and problems with keeping clean, getting enough to eat, and taking care of their children. If a sex worker does become infected with HIV, she may have no choice but to continue selling sex to survive. As one sex worker says: “Those who blame us do so on full stomachs. I should feed myself and my children adequately. My children should go to school. To say that AIDS kills without giving me a well-paid job is like saying I should die of hunger. To me, that is the only way to survive.” |
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Women who sell sex need safe, effective, and low-cost family planning methods to prevent pregnancy. If these methods are not available in her community, a sex worker is likely to have an unwanted pregnancy. If she continues the pregnancy and must also continue selling sex, she puts both herself and her unborn baby at risk for complications or STDs. Or she may feel she has no other choice but to have an unsafe abortion. All these situations are dangerous.
Figure
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A sex worker may live with others in a house for sex work (brothel) or work on the street These conditions make it easy for her to be violently attacked, raped, or robbed, especially if she is a child. If a sex worker is ‘owned’ or controlled by a man who gets part of her money (pimp), he will often use violence to keep her under his control.
¨ In some places, women can be arrested for sex work simply by having condoms for their own protection.
Because sex work is illegal in most countries, a sex worker is often denied any legal rights, including protection from the police. Or she may have to pay the police a large part of her earnings in exchange for ‘protection’. Since most laws are made to protect men from ‘immoral’ women, a sex worker may be arrested, beaten, harassed, or even raped by the police instead.
Figure
If you are being mistreated by the law because you are a sex worker, try to learn more about your rights. There may be a prostitutes’ rights group in your city or country. Or you can write to one of the organizations listed for advice on how to organize a group.
Many women do not have the choice to stop selling sex. If you must continue, it is important to protect yourself from STDs and HIV/AIDS. For more information, see the section on ‘Safer Sex’, and the chapters on “Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Other Infections of the Genitals” and “Family Planning”.
Here are some other ideas:
· Use latex condoms every time you have sex. Make sure you always have condoms when you work.
Figure
· Hand sex (manual masturbation), oral sex, or sex stories (fantasy), are safer than sex in your vagina or anus if you cannot get a client to use a condom.
¨“If they don’t want to use a condom, I ask them if they ever listen to the news, if they have ever heard of AIDS. I tell them I’m not willing to take the chance.”
- Jolanda
· If you are unable to use a male or female condom, using spermicide alone or with a diaphragm will give less protection than a condom, but it is better than no method at all.
- Spermicides give some protection against 2 common STDs, gonorrhea and chlamydia. But using spermicides too often can also irritate the skin in your vagina, making it easier for germs to pass through the skin and infect you with an STD, especially HIV. Spermicides used every other day are less likely to cause irritation.
Figure
- You can put your diaphragm in before you begin work, in case the man refuses to use a condom. Add spermicide between sex acts, but do not remove the diaphragm. It must stay in for 6 hours after you have finished working.
Figure
¨ Protecting yourself and others from STDs means having safer sex with your clients, and also with your husband or boyfriend.
IMPORTANT
Do not use chemicals like bleach or
detergent to wash our your vagina. They can cause serious injury!
· Inspect your clients’ genitals for sores or discharge before you have sex. Refuse to have sex with any man who has signs of an STD. Remember you cannot tell by looking if a person has HIV/AIDS.
It is always best to prevent STDs by practicing safer sex. But sometimes these methods fail. Condoms can break, or clients can refuse to use them.
¨ STDs that are not treated quickly can lead to serious illness and even death.
Get early treatment
If you think you have been exposed to an STD, early treatment can prevent the infection from getting worse. STDs that are not treated quickly can lead to serious illness and even death.
If possible, have regular exams for STDs. If you are having signs of an STD - discharge or bleeding from your vagina, pain or sores on your genitals, or pain in your lower belly - see a health worker trained to treat STDs as soon as possible. Even if you have no signs of infection, go to a health center or clinic at least once a month for treatment if you have unsafe sex often. If you use condoms every time you have sex, you may need to visit a health center less often.
Figure
Since you probably do not know what STDs you have been exposed to, you should be treated for as many as possible. Different antibiotics can treat different STDs, so you may need to take several medicines at once. Remember, no medicine can cure HIV/AIDS. See the chapter on “Sexually Transmitted Diseases and Other Infections of the Genitals” for information about how to treat STDs.
¨ If you are at very great risk for getting STDs because of unsafe sex, a medicine called azithromycin can be useful because it treats a number of STDs with only one dose.
Testing for AIDS
If you want to be tested for the HIV/AIDS virus, see The HIV Test. Check with your local clinic to see if they have a National AIDS Control Program. They may have special programs for testing sex workers for HIV and for treating their problems if they have AIDS.
IMPORTANT
When you take antibiotics to treat
STDs, be sure to take the recommended dose for the full amount of time. If you
take too small an amount, or do not take it for the right number of days, your
signs may go away, but the infection stays in your body and continues to cause
damage. And the next time you try to treat the infection it will be harder to
cure. Then you may need to use other, more expensive drugs. Many medicines that
once worked for STDs are no longer effective because people used them
incorrectly.
In order to get more men to use condoms, men must believe that it is in their own interest and that of their sex partners to prevent STDs, including HIV/AIDS. This kind of education is best done at the community level.
As a sex worker, you can help by joining together with other sex workers to make condom use the expected or normal practice. Then clients will begin to want to use condoms.
¨ Use role plays to practice negotiating condom use with your clients. Ask other sex workers to practice with you.
When you are with clients, your attitude is important. If you believe in yourself and know what you are talking about, you are more likely to convince a man that condom use makes good sense. Here are some ideas:
· Explain that condoms can:
- protect him as well as you from disease.
- make him less likely to pass on STDs to his wife.
- make his pleasure last longer
· Assure him that you will still make sex good for him.· If you practice oral sex, learn to put the condom on with your mouth.
Figure
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A sex worker in a discotheque in Duala, Cameroon, tells the following story: Where I work, we understand the risk to our health and our lives from HIV and AIDS, so all the girls are given condoms. We teach our clients that it is in their own interest to protect themselves. Most clients now agree. We make sure that the act will be enjoyable, so they will come back for more. But there are always those men who think that by not using condoms, they are being ‘real men’. That going ‘live’ is getting the real thing. We almost always find that after a guy has tried without luck to get 4 or 5 of us to have unsafe sex, he will either just leave or agree to see if he can have just as much pleasure with a condom on. If he insists on unsafe sex, we gather together and chase him out! We do not like to lose clients, but we value our lives and our health. Slowly, things are changing. Where we work, Using condoms has become the smart thing. |
Sex workers are organizing to
improve their lives. They want the same things as other
women.
Because of their low status as poor women and as sex workers, women who sell sex sometimes feel unworthy and unable to change their lives. Working alone, it can be very difficult for a sex worker to make her clients use condoms, or to protect herself from violence.
¨ “I used to work in a club where we didn’t always use condoms. There was a lot of pressure NOT to. So I left. Now I work in a house where condoms are the RULE. It saves me a lot of worrying and arguing.” - Anita
But in many places sex workers have learned that by working together they have more power to make the changes necessary to improve their lives. In some places sex workers are organizing to improve their working conditions, by insisting that their clients use condoms, or organizing against rough treatment from police. In other places, sex workers with the help of others in their community have started programs to get training, or to learn new skills so they will be less dependent on sex work.
Here are some ideas that sex workers from around the world have shared about how they are working together and working with others to make their lives better.
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Teach each other how to make your work safer. You can get a group of sex workers together to talk about: · how to use condoms to prevent STDs, including HIV/AIDS, and how to get treatment for STDs when necessary. · how to limit the time a sex worker spends with clients. |
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Organize for greater safety. Working together and supporting each other can help sex workers reduce the threat of violence from clients, police, and pimps. Join with other sex workers to plan how you can support and protect each other.
Learn new skills. You can work to organize programs that teach reading and writing or job skills. Sometimes sex workers can teach each other new skills, or it may be possible to get help from people in your community who can be teachers.
Figure
When a sex worker has other skills, she can earn some money doing other jobs. She then has more choice over which man to have sex with, or she can refuse a client if she does not feel safe.
Figure
Create a loan fund. A group of sex workers in Nairobi, Kenya, joined their money to create a loan fund for their members. Many use the fund to pay their children’s school fees. Other groups have used loan funds to help each other set up small businesses so they can earn money in other ways besides sex work.
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Many groups of sex workers are trying to change the negative ways other people think about them. For example, a sex workers’ organization in Calabar, Nigeria does not allow members to fight in the streets or in the brothel. Members are also not allowed to use language or wear clothes that may offend the community. By changing the things that had made it easy for the community to criticize sex workers, they hope that people will begin to understand that sex workers are just women doing a job to survive. |
The community can help
Community members can help sex workers to organize for safer working conditions. You can:
· demand laws that punish those who exploit sex workers. This includes brothel owners, pimps and middlemen, police, clients, and drug pushers.· pressure police to stop violent treatment of sex workers.
· work for laws that encourage condom use by clients of sex workers. For example, in Thailand, the Ministry of Health requires sex workers to use condoms. If they do not, the brothel can be shut down or have to pay a fine. This law has helped sex workers to insist upon condoms. This protects the sex workers, the men who pay them, and their wives.
Figure
You can also work to prevent children from being sold or forced into sex work:
· Talk with parents in your community about the dangers of selling girls into service in other countries.· Provide help, such as jobs, counseling, and a place to stay, for children who run away from their families. With your help they will not be forced to sell sex to survive.
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To the health worker You can make the biggest difference in the life of a sex worker by helping her to get the care she needs: · Give the same respectful care to sex workers as you give to others. · Make sure health services are available, including family planning, abortion, and free or low-cost treatment of STDs and drug abuse. |
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