On this episode, we’re travelling to Mainz, Germany, where the 3rd World Congress Against the Sexual Exploitation of Women and Girls took place early April 2019. It was hosted by CAP International, the Coalition for the Abolition of Prostitution. Ashani and Sophia, collective members at Vancouver Rape Relief, attended the congress and met with feminists from all around the world. They interviewed women from different abolitionist groups about prostitution laws in their country as well as their work for the abolition of prostitution.
This episode features : - Sarah Benson, Ruhama (Ireland) - Valerie Pelletier, La CLES (Canada) - Ghada Jabour, Kafa (Lebanon) - Esohe Aghatise, Iroko Onlus (Italy) - Claire Quidet, Mouvement du Nid (France) - Cherie Jimenez, Eva Center (United-States)
Prostituted sex is coerced sex by its nature. The cash is the coercive force. If we think about the scenario of a loaded gun pointed at somebody, we will have no problem identifying that gun as an instrument of coercion. Because of the capitalist structure of our world, which surrounds us with the reality of money in everything we see, do, and experience, we have a great deal more trouble identifying cash as a coercive force, but that is exactly what cash is.
A study done in 9 countries (including Canada) interviewed 854 people who were currently or recently in prostitution at the time, found that 71% were physically assaulted in prostitution, 63% were raped in prostitution, 89% wanted to escape prostitution but did not have other options for survival.
Dr. Ingeborg Kraus, psychologist and trauma expert based in Germany and Inspector Simon Häggström, head of Stockholm Police Prostitution Unit speak in Vancouver.
Prostitution, akin to the residential school system, is an institution that continues to have devastating impacts on the lives of aboriginal women and girls, who are disproportionately involved in street-level prostitution. Prostitution is an industry that relies on disparities in power to exist.
