Reuters AlertNet - Sex workers in east Africa rise against violence and prejudice

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Sex workers in east Africa rise against violence and prejudice

13 Apr 2010 14:25:00 GMT

Written by: Natasha Elkington

Kyomya Macklean (L) and (R) Daisy Nakato, founders of Women's Organization Network for Human Rights Advocacy (WONETHA) Handout/WONETHA

Sex workers launch rights campaign after recent murders;

New book gives unprecedented voice to marginalised group;

New technology in the works to protect sex workers

LONDON (AlertNet) - From dingy street corners in Uganda's capital to the United Nations' gleaming headquarters in New York, east African sex workers are standing up for their rights by challenging the political and social systems that discriminate against them.

Although prostitution is illegal in most of Africa, women in the trade are forming powerful movements, seeking protection through the courts and defying the law to make themselves heard.

One such woman is Kyoma Macklean, who over the past few years has found herself in courtrooms, in the Ugandan parliament and at a United Nations conference on women's rights. She is now heading a campaign to stop violence against sex workers after a prostitute was raped and brutally murdered in a town near Kampala last month.

"This girl was found stripped naked, raped and slaughtered like a chicken," Macklean told AlertNet by telephone from Kampala.

In rural areas in particular, sex workers are susceptible to discrimination, violence and sexually transmitted diseases because of the lack of education and greater intolerance, she says.

"If they find out a woman is a sex worker, they hang you like a cross, insert glass in your vagina and burn your heart to ash because they believe we symbolise immorality and are an abomination to mankind," said Macklean, who heads Women's Organization Network for Human Rights Advocacy (WONETHA).

By putting up posters with graphic images of the murdered sex worker around Kampala, Macklean's team aims to expose human rights violations by police and others - for example doctors reluctant to treat prostitutes - and ultimately decriminalise sex work.

Macklean says criminalisation of sex work is fuelling the HIV pandemic because it drives sex workers underground, creating an environment where clients can easily refuse to use condoms, rape and infect them.

Sub-Saharan Africa accounts for 72 percent of AIDS-related deaths globally, with 1.4 million killed by the disease in 2008.

"AIDS education is extremely low because even those who are educated are scared and feel powerless to negotiate for safer sex," Macklean said.

In Kenya, prejudice against sex workers was highlighted after the murders of eight such women in the town of Thika near Nairobi made headlines in February. No suspect has yet been caught, according to local media. However, the sex workers who reported the murders were arrested for submitting false information and spreading rumours, activists say.

The prostitutes have challenged the charges with the help of the Center for Rights Education and Awareness (CREAW), which documented sexual and other violence against women after 2007 elections in Kenya. A court hearing has been postponed for now but the organisation hopes it will be a landmark case revealing the discrimination, exploitation and violence suffered by prostitutes.

Sex workers before their first court appearance facing charges of submitting false information and spreading rumours, Thika, Kenya, March 17, 2010. Taken by Zawadi Nyong'o

"Instead of the state taking responsibility, it starts covering up for its failures and turns on the victims, accusing them of all manner of issues," said Ann Njogu, the founder of CREAW and the recipient of the 2010 International Women of Courage Award presented by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and first lady Michelle Obama.

"Our laws are very discriminatory against sex workers, we have a law that criminalises supply but does not criminalise demand," she told Alertnet by telephone from Nairobi. "If we cannot pass laws that are fair, that will ensure justice, then we should legalise sex work so that everyone can carry on working in a safe, free environment."

BREAKING THE SILENCE

Sex workers in East Africa are also making their voices heard via the first book in the region that contains first-hand accounts of sex workers' experiences. Macklean's is the first story featured in the postcard-sized book released last month.

"The aim is to open people's eyes to see beyond the stereotype, to react to sex workers as human beings with complexities like everybody else," said Zawadi Nyong'o, a feminist activist and the author of the book entitled "When I dare to be powerful".

She said everyone should have the right to do what they want with their own bodies as sex work is a contract between two consenting adults, and should therefore be treated as any other business transaction.

While activists like Nyong'o and Macklean work to change attitudes towards prostitutes, a new website, due to go live by the end of the year, will also provide them with practical help.

Among its many services, the website called Tujilinde - meaning protecting or defending ourselves in Swahili - will allow sex workers to alert designated coordinators by SMS in case of arrest or human rights abuses and list recommended health centres and legal aid providers.

"In a case like (in) Thika, when there is a death or when you know for instance there is a bar where some guy hangs out all the time and he is known to be raping women, that also can be tracked and mapped and other sex workers (will) know to avoid that area," said Hakima Abbas, deputy director of Fahamu, a pan-African social justice organisation and collaborator on the project.

Activists hope that all these efforts will finally secure the human rights of sex workers who, as Nyong'o notes, are entitled to them "because they are human beings".

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2 responses to “Sex workers in east Africa rise against violence and prejudice”

Please note that comments should not be regarded as the views of Reuters.

Simon Collery says:
15 Apr 2010 08:21:47 GMT
Congratulations to these women for organising themselves against the prejudice they get from hypocrites and bigots. If people hate injustice they should fight the persecution of people who are faced with few alternatives for making a living. They should fight against laws that protect the perpetrators of violent and discriminatory behaviour but punish the victims. Anyone who thinks the money made from sex work all goes to sex workers should think again. Police, security, bars, clubs and many other people are profiting from sex work through extortion and bribery. For every sex worker in Kenya there are many people exploiting each one and there are many clients for each one. Go after them, if you are so opposed to injustice or even criminal behaviour. And if you want to go further, support laws that protect sex workers from the sorts of inhumane treatment they receive every day. To all those sex workers who have united, keep it up!
Choungkyu RYU says:
15 Apr 2010 14:06:45 GMT
Women's sex labor issue is one of the hardest subject to discuss because of its implied power relation in patriarchy between demander, mostly men and provider, women. If women had same power and social status, we wouldn't need to debate about the complicated power relation. But mostly women go to sex industry because the job market is mostly occupied by men and rarely they can find a job in the real world. So until we could achieve the equal job chance regardless of its gender, sex workers should be treated same as just other larourers. In this sense, congratulation on the wild and brave women and send my best regards!!

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Written by Natasha Elkington

Natasha Elkington is an AlertNet journalist based in London. She has previously worked as a TV producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) and as an online editor and reporter for Reuters in Toronto. She has also done freelance photography for various publications. Originally from Kenya, she speaks multiple languages and has a passion for the arts and humanitarian issues.

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