[Music]
hi I don't foresee a situation where
there will be no sex workers in clean
young in Africa in the world because
there is demand for it sex is a human
right whether it's worth three or four
money to a cultivation says banana
monkey who is the executive director of
pH ESP a sex worker organization pinky
on the other side I extract a quote from
an article by Melissa Farley who has a
clinical psychologist and researcher and
Rachel Morin who is an activist and
survivor from in which they say there is
a huge great deal of difference between
coercing someone to make you a sandwich
and coercing them to bend over and turn
erase unwanted I thought finally is it
sex work or sexual exploitation should
we advocate to legalize it or to abolish
it
well let's delve into that together it
always started in 2015 I was on a school
bus saw a woman on the streets and then
heard everyone on the bus laugh at that
moment I didn't understand what was
happening
few years later I realized that this
woman was in prostitution not only that
but that she charged by
I repeat the numbers x-5000 Japanese
pumps that doesn't even buy you a
sandwich at that moment I had only one
question why would a woman do that to
herself
but I got no answers up until I got a
chance to get a job and the full-time
caseworker with women in prostitution
and I started doing my masters in trauma
psychology with a focus on prostitution
then I started getting some pencils have
a scope an agency that studies 15 black
markets and activities in the world
study the sex industry in 2008 they
found out that prostitution is the
second most profitable black industry in
the world with almost 186 million
dollars sent on its ear and I repeat the
number its 186 billion dollars another
number that caught my attention was 14
million
there were 14 million women and
prostitution work and I need to point
out that says this is just an estimate
because a lot of this happens under
another aspect that I wanted to look at
is the background of this woman
Trigon violence as a common factor it
comes in the form of early marriage in
Lebanon a woman once was I used to wait
for my husband to go to work to go
outside and play on the swing she told
me that with tears in her heart in her
eyes after more than 15 years of this
event happening and I wanted to imagine
she used to wait for her husband
a 15 year old girl waiting for her
husband to leave the work to go outside
and play on the street and that was not
an exception early marriage was common
another common factor but the refugee
status yes the Syrian crisis this thing
creates the number of Syrian woman in
the sixth linda's extinguish and that's
because insta-fix unions war to convince
women to vote they convince them that
prostitution
Constitution will take them out of the
misery war left them in and that's why a
woman told me she said I accepted the
awareness of prostitution because of the
ugliness of my life
another challenge that lots of women
share whether the one I met or the one I
read testimonies about was that they got
to meet strangers and what woman
expressed to me she said what scares me
the most are the five minutes prior to
the buyers arrival well in my room
waiting for a man I know nothing about
not even the age but that he's coming to
my room asking me for sexual favors and
this was repeated very common I need to
point out that these men are generally
in a relationship and they go to these
women to vent anger and to prove men
what I was told about weird and harmful
practices requested I was told about
sessions of meeting torture and in the
nation when you tell me you cannot
generalize and I'll tell you in a study
by Melissa Farley 37 percent of women in
a sample of 854 women across 40 across
nine countries mentioned being upset for
having men ask them what they have seen
in the pornography today knowing not I
want interested to know what's in these
meetings well looking at the most used
websites and going to the most viewed
videos I realize that these videos
contain lots of abusive discriminator
and extreme scenes pornography together
with prostitution aims at objectifying
women and this the objectifying the
objectification of women was common and
lots of scenarios I've heard what
difference between pornography and
prostitution is that infernal graffiti
women are felt and here comes what
scares woman the most they are scared to
be remembered in the sex industry here
comes sting here comes the fear of
losing people they care about the fear
of losing their connections and that's
what a woman told she said what scares
me the most is to end up alone she was
silent for a few seconds and then she
said but in fact I did and
she cried she cried helping and crying
was coming
another common factor was mental
disorders and this was also common in
countries that legalized prostitution in
one study 60% of women in German and
prostitution showed having
post-traumatic stress disorder what are
we offering to women by legalizing
prostitution women rather need our
support they need our support to exit
the cycle of the views they need our
support to leave this industry and it
gets worse in Lebanon where women are
criminalized and they get this
conviction on their legal record for
years and this stop them stop them from
getting drug opportunities outside the
sex English I work with a woman with
only struggling was to find a job
outside the sex industry and she told me
by words this law wants us to go to the
sex industry this law takes us
forcefully to prostitution now going
back to the quotes I started with I
totally agree
humans have the right to have sex but
humans do not have the right to hurt
others to fulfill their own and why am I
telling you that they are hurt well
because also as I mentioned before
try to imagine someone forcing you to
make them a sandwich and then having
someone forced you to have a sexual
relationship
that I really wants you to imagine these
cool pictures imagine yourself at home
in bed sick and then have your partner
asked you to make you to make that
sandwich and you don't be like then you
got your partner ask you for a sexual
relationship and you don't feel like or
like and now try to imagine a stranger
asking for that woman needs our support
no matter how feminist we try to make
this world it is a world that gives
power to then over water it is a world
ruled by the triage we need to support
this movement we need to see what's
behind prostitution we need to listen to
survivors and they need the support
because they do not want the sex they
they want the money and unwanted sex
this way
[Applause]