It was not how she imagined a fresh start in Spain, but sex work has become a financial lifeline for Peruvian migrant Angela and relatives back home, helping to pay for her father’s cancer treatment and put her brother through medical school.
“You have projects, ideas for life, but life surprises you,” said the 32-year-old, who — like many Spanish sex workers — is angry and worried over ruling party plans to crack down on the sex trade in a bill that sets out to champion women’s rights.
The draft law being drawn up by the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party would make it a crime to buy sex, and introduce tougher penalties for pimping — seeking to effectively end prostitution and sex trafficking by tackling demand.
Photo: Reuters
Online sex work, such as video calls, and the production of pornographic photographs and videos fall within the scope of the proposed legislation. Another law already in force bans advertisements for prostitution.
A parliamentary vote on the proposals had been due early this month, but some lawmakers have agreed to talks with sex workers that could lead to amendments being made.
Part of a broader women’s rights push by the Socialists, the draft legislation treats sex workers as victims, rather than criminals as would be the case under a ban on prostitution.
Photo: Reuters
The changes would not penalize sex workers, said Andrea Fernandez, a Socialist lawmaker and coauthor of the bill who believes all sex work stems from exploitation that should be punishable by law.
Sex work has existed in a legal gray zone in Spain and is largely tolerated, although sexual exploitation and pimping, the act of controlling sex workers or taking a part of their earnings, are illegal.
Sex workers fear the proposed crackdown will not end prostitution and could instead increase the dangers for people selling sex.
“It will continue, but only in worse conditions,” said Angela, who asked not to give her full name to protect her identity, about the proposals, which have sparked street protests by sex workers.
At demonstrations, some held placards reading: “Sex work is work” and “Feminist whores,” while sex workers’ association Astras has threatened to name and shame politician clients in a bid to shoot down the new rules.
Rakel, 41, a sex worker who belongs to StopAbolition, a campaign group set up to fight the bill, said if passed it would drive sex work underground, raising the risk of HIV infections and violence due to unsafe conditions such as street work.
“The government that approves this law is going to throw us into the arms of the mafia,” she said, asking not to give her full name.
She said that only criminal networks would be willing to rent apartments to sex workers, as landlords would fear prosecution under the draft law’s broader definition of pimping.
Spain’s Socialist-majority government forged ahead with the legislation despite deep divisions over the text within the party and coalition partner, Podemos. Critics say the initiative is overly paternalistic and obscured by moral judgements about the sex trade.
The bill has also split the country’s women’s rights movement, pitting women against women in an acrimonious debate that lawmaker Mireia Vehi said was getting “out of hand.”
“It’s almost a debate about who can or cannot be called a feminist,” said Vehi, who rejects the government’s approach.
“It’s a model that only leads to the persecution of women, that does not end prostitution, or put an end to trafficking,” she said, calling for the consideration of alternatives such as decriminalization or even a universal basic income.
About 70,300 women work in Spain’s sex industry, according to the latest estimate published by the Joint UN Programme on HIV/AIDS.
That would make it one of the biggest markets for prostitution in Europe, a statistic Socialist politicians have used to strengthen arguments that a deregulation implemented in the mid-1990s has failed.
There has been support for the government’s plans among groups working with trafficked women forced into sex work.
However, many sex workers reject the argument that most women working as prostitutes are coerced into the trade, saying that the vast majority have freely chosen to do so.
“They exploited me more when I worked as a waitress,” said Angela, adding that she had rarely heard of women being forced into sex work.
The debate in Spain comes as the EU reviews its 2011 anti-trafficking directive, which could make buying sex a crime across the whole bloc.
European countries take varying approaches to the sex trade.
France and Sweden punish clients, while sex workers in Croatia and Romania face arrest and prosecution. In Greece and the Netherlands, sex work is legal and sex workers must apply for a license and follow rules on where and how they work.
Earlier this year, Belgium decriminalized sex work, with a labor law that supporters said would let sex workers set their own terms, and could reduce exploitation and violence.
For now, Spanish sex workers’ efforts are focused on securing amendments to the Socialists’ bill, including reversing the criminalization of buying sex and narrowing the definition of pimping to avoid landlords becoming liable.
“The amendments may give us a little hope, but I think it will not be much,” Astras head Susana Pastor said.
In Italy’s storied gold-making hubs, jewelers are reworking their designs to trim gold content as they race to blunt the effect of record prices and appeal to shoppers watching their budgets. Gold prices hit a record high on Thursday, surging near US$5,600 an ounce, more than double a year ago as geopolitical concerns and jitters over trade pushed investors toward the safe-haven asset. The rally is putting undue pressure on small artisans as they face mounting demands from customers, including international brands, to produce cheaper items, from signature pieces to wedding rings, according to interviews with four independent jewelers in Italy’s main
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has talked up the benefits of a weaker yen in a campaign speech, adopting a tone at odds with her finance ministry, which has refused to rule out any options to counter excessive foreign exchange volatility. Takaichi later softened her stance, saying she did not have a preference for the yen’s direction. “People say the weak yen is bad right now, but for export industries, it’s a major opportunity,” Takaichi said on Saturday at a rally for Liberal Democratic Party candidate Daishiro Yamagiwa in Kanagawa Prefecture ahead of a snap election on Sunday. “Whether it’s selling food or
CONCERNS: Tech companies investing in AI businesses that purchase their products have raised questions among investors that they are artificially propping up demand Nvidia Corp chief executive officer Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) on Saturday said that the company would be participating in OpenAI’s latest funding round, describing it as potentially “the largest investment we’ve ever made.” “We will invest a great deal of money,” Huang told reporters while visiting Taipei. “I believe in OpenAI. The work that they do is incredible. They’re one of the most consequential companies of our time.” Huang did not say exactly how much Nvidia might contribute, but described the investment as “huge.” “Let Sam announce how much he’s going to raise — it’s for him to decide,” Huang said, referring to OpenAI
The global server market is expected to grow 12.8 percent annually this year, with artificial intelligence (AI) servers projected to account for 16.5 percent, driven by continued investment in AI infrastructure by major cloud service providers (CSPs), market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. Global AI server shipments this year are expected to increase 28 percent year-on-year to more than 2.7 million units, driven by sustained demand from CSPs and government sovereign cloud projects, TrendForce analyst Frank Kung (龔明德) told the Taipei Times. Demand for GPU-based AI servers, including Nvidia Corp’s GB and Vera Rubin rack systems, is expected to remain high,
RSS