Ain’t I a woman? Sex workers’ rights are women’s rights

From AWID: http://awid.org/eng/Issues-and-Analysis/Issues-and-Analysis/Ain-t-I-a-woman-Sex-workers-rights-are-women-s-rights

Between March 12-14, 2009, a dialogue between sex workers and violence against women advocates took place in Bangkok, Thailand. The ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’ meeting aimed to forge stronger connections between sex workers’ and violence against women’s movements.

By Kathambi Kinoti

Women’s movements have constantly been challenged to be more inclusive and embracing of diversity. In 1851, Sojourner Truth, an African American former slave and anti-slavery activist delivered her famous ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’ speech to an audience at the Women’s Convention in the United States of America’s state of Ohio. In those times, as she alluded in her speech, genteel men helped women – white, not black - over ditches and into carriages. Sojourner pondered why her strong arms, ability to work in the fields, bear the lash, and survive the sale of her children into slavery should make her less of a woman.[1] Feminist ideas about what women are entitled to have progressed since then, but marginalisation of certain categories of women continues within feminist movements.

From March 12-14 this year, a unique dialogue named ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’ was held between sex workers and activists working to eliminate violence against women. The meeting, which was held in Bangkok, Thailand drew thirty participants from all over the world including Nigeria, Poland, the Philippines, India, Pakistan, Myanmar, Thailand, the United Kingdom, the United States of America, Australia, Indonesia, Canada, the Netherlands and Malaysia. It was organised by CREA (Creating Resources for Empowerment in Action, India) and CASAM (SANGRAM’s [2] Centre for Advocacy on Stigma and Marginalisation, India).

‘Ain’t I a Woman?’ helped violence against women activists to track the continuum of violence in the life of a woman in sex work. It traced the violence perpetrated by the state and society, which marginalise people in sex work. It also highlighted the fact that sex workers include men and transgender people.

The idea for the meeting’s name came from Shabana Kazi of the organisation VAMP,[3] who wondered why sex workers’ rights are not considered to be women’s rights and violence against sex workers is not considered to be violence against women. The refrain ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’ challenges mainstream women’s rights activists to pose the same question with regard to sex workers. In many feminist circles, prostitution is seen as violence against women, even though while violence against sex workers does exist, the exchange of money for sexual services does not per se constitute violence.

Some of the dominant themes during the meeting included the need to address the tendency to equate all sex work to trafficking, the widespread, routine abuse of the rights of sex workers and the need to decriminalise sex work.

Sex workers’ rights advocates contend that there is confusion and ambiguity when the umbrella of ‘sex trafficking’ is applied across the board as the plight of sex workers. It is true that some girls and women are victims of sex trafficking. However it must not be assumed that every person in sex work is a victim of trafficking. When commercial sex transactions are often regarded uniformly as exploitation, sex workers are seen as victims. On the contrary, the vast majority of sex workers see themselves in fact as independent, knowledgeable agents, and perceive ‘protective’ laws as restrictive and out of touch with their realities.

Trafficking, prostitution and sex work may have interconnections, but they cannot be considered as one and the same thing. The ‘victimhood’ perspective in prostitution emerged in a particular historical context and regarded all commercial sex transactions as falling within the offence of trafficking. Commercial sexual exploitation is conceptualised as a product of social, economic and political structures with no room for agency by the ‘victims.’ On the other hand sex workers perceive ‘protective’ laws as harassment and contributing to the perpetuation of unsafe working conditions and violation of their human rights.

As in the case of sex work, migration and trafficking are often conflated in the dominant discourse resulting in the restriction of the mobility of women in search of work. This view considers all migration of women in non-organized sectors ‘trafficking.’ The illegality of sex work and unsafe working conditions sometimes force sex workers to identify themselves as ‘trafficked victims.’ This creates a vicious cycle with more criminalisation leading to unsafe conditions and repetition of the process. Sex workers say that it is easier to address trafficking if sex work is not illegal and underground. Meena Saraswati Seshu of SANGRAM says ‘Women’s rights activists should stand for sex work as work, and help society accept this.’ She says that only then can the areas where sex work is practiced ‘be extracted from the dark and dingy spaces they now inhabit.’

According to the dialogue organisers, some of the rights and freedoms that sex workers are entitled to, but which are routinely abused are:

* The right to live in a clean and healthy environment;
* Freedom from exploitation;
* Freedom from societal violence;
* Freedom from discrimination and stigma;
* Freedom from the accusation of being traffickers or associates of traffickers;
* Freedom to walk into a police station and file a complaint against those who exploit them;
* Freedom to report abuse, sexual violence, exploitation, coercion, debt bondage and slavery-like practices; and
* Freedom to access health care and to ensure condom use.

Sex workers’ rights advocates say that decriminalisation of sex work would bring many benefits. While there are many injustices associated with sex work, and sex workers need to be strengthened to fight back. ‘Jailing a few unscrupulous persons is but patchwork,’ says Seshu. ‘We need to change from within, and a criminal space will not achieve this.’

One outcome of the meeting was the conceptualisation of a campaign titled ‘Ain’t I a Human? Where are We?’ The campaign aims to bring violence against women within the purview of human rights, labour rights and international organisations and donors. The campaign, which will be virtual, will involve:

* A secondary research study on violence against women initiatives to look for gaps in relation to sex workers’ rights and to make suggestions based on this research;
* The production of a briefing paper on sex workers’ rights that can be used as an advocacy tool nationally and globally;
* A petition and open letter on sex workers’ rights that can be sent to international organisations, donors and the media;
* The generation of greater awareness in the public sphere on sex workers’ rights through creative media such as film clips, print media and interactive websites.

The one-of-a-kind dialogue in Bangkok opened the door for greater understanding and collaboration between sex workers’ and violence against women’s movements. Geetanjali Misra of CREA says: ‘The dialogue was transformative for some, productive in terms of moving forward to work together across movements, insightful and an opportunity to learn. It was also challenging for many.’ Women’s movements may find it novel to embrace sex workers, but true freedom for all women will only be achieved when all marginalised groups are free.