Nice combination, hey…. past weeks I have come across articles from different countries on brothels, prostitution and rights! And I thought I’d say something on the issue as well…the constitution does provide for freedom of expression, although every right has a limitation…. gosh I miss my law classes.
The first article I read talked about a Russian guy meeting his wife at a brothel, how deeply saddened he was to see her there and that this has affected their marriage, apparently she worked there so she could earn some extra-money to support the financially burdened family and he clearly did not see it that way. The moral question is what was he doing there in the first place, why was he so heavily upset that he wanted a divorce…shouldn’t she be as well?
The second article this morning (http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=331504&area=/insight/insight__international/) was about how sex workers protested against the Nicaragua government (second-poorest country in the Americas after Haiti) who shutdown brothels in the area of a city, they were protesting in what they said was a violation of rights. Prostitution for them is a ticket out of poverty and what the government was doing is shutting down their livelihood. The girl who was interviewed talked about how her first boyfriend and some of the men from her hometown recognised her while visiting the brothel/ bar and how ashamed she felt…. It is funny how our society’s perception is that the girl has done something wrong yet the guys coming to purchase her services are immune from guilt…. Just picture the negotiation of the verbal contract when monetary value was placed for the service that was going to be provided to the guy’s needs, must have been on an equal footing yet the human value of that woman is seen to be lesser than that of a guy e.g. if he were to beat her up – she would probably land in jail, he would walk free and the pimp will have his/her commission anyway, isn’t that just regressive! But I must say it has become so progressive that the most taboo topic of society, which I may add has been practised way before any of our time, has become open…well atleast open enough to write about it.
The last article (http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/pierredevos/2008/02/05/real-transformation-requires-protection-of-sex-workers/) writes about how a sex worker challenged the fairness of her dismissal by her employer, who would have thought this would land at the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration, but the case got thrown out as sex work is still criminalized in South Africa.
…. Law in this day and age has been influenced by society trends/changes, where social dialogues take place to accommodate the best solution to our lives, yet sex workers are being punished because of the moral prejudices of the majority of our society, especially countries that have still criminalized it. The question that still keeps on popping to my mind is why is there prejudice against the practitioners and not the clients.
I think gender equality has a long way to go in society still and prostitution is a fraction of it.
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