Sex Workers

SWEAT interviewed 17 sex workers, eight of whom worked indoors in an agency and nine who worked outdoors soliciting clients on the street, through newspaper adverts and cellular phones. In some cases those working outdoors spoke of previous experiences when working in the indoor industry. Three themes emerged out of our discussions with participants relating to their experiences of stigma and isolation, discrimination, and violence. The study highlights these women's experiences and makes recommendations to address the stigma and discrimination.

Criminalising the sex work industry does not eradicate it, but simply makes it impossible to control or regulate. This in turn means that sex workers are vulnerable to violence and exploitation and cannot rely on the law or the police to protect them. Constant harassment and arrests cause much harm to sex workers, the majority being women who are economically dependent on this work.

A man in a bar gets progressively more drunk and disorderly, his speech growing more slurred and his sexual advances to a waitress becoming more aggressive as he tries to get her to go home with him.

The scene is from a sketch at the second national bar hostesses' conference in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where bar staff told the gathering they often had to deal with sexual violence and harassment.

"People don't respect you as a bar worker; they treat you badly and expect that you are an easy target for sex because of your job," Catherine Wacira, a bar hostess in Nairobi, told the conference on 27 October.

"Our managers rarely take our side when we are being harassed because the customers are paying a lot of money; they prefer to keep them happy rather than defend us."

Participants at the conference on preventing HIV and sexual violence among bar hostesses said their working conditions sometimes made it difficult for them to refuse punters' sexual advances.

We've been down this road before but it's a road we shall travel constantly until we get to a more understanding and equal environment. A group of people branding others evil and their acts illegal because they are having sex differently is quickly becoming a broken record.