I’ve been a victim of sexual abuse and domestic violence and believe every woman should be protected. I come from a poor rural area of Brazil. At age 12, I was forced to work as a domestic servant to help support my family. I was repeatedly sexually assaulted by two sons in the family.I came […]
I am an immigrant lesbian woman and I work as a prostitute. I have written this because I can’t speak publicly as a prostitute. I am fed up with living a double life.I decided to go on the game because I didn’t want to be dependent on men anymore. But to be independent from men, […]
“When I first came to this country I was forced to come, forced to be a sex-worker. I suffered violence every day, and drugs and alcohol. I was being watched 24 hours. I was begging police officers to come to ask me if I was OK — they never did, it never happened.After a year […]
With the freedom to work, organise and fight, sex workers will end coercion in the trade. BY MARGARET CORVID I am lucky to have taken up my work as a dominatrix amid a revolution in our thinking about sex work. Writers like Laura Agustín and Melissa Gira Grant have taken apart our sexualised, othered image, and sex workers and […]
*Paragraph that was edited out included in bold. Criminalising prostitution puts women at great riskRacism and xenophobia are also a problem for sex workers The article “Mariana Popa was killed working as a prostitute. Are the police to blame?”, News) is a turning point in getting senior officers such as Chris Armitt to admit that […]
WHAT THE VICTIMS OF THE POLICE RAIDS HAVE REPORTED TO THE ENGLISH COLLECTIVE OF PROSTITUTES AND LEGAL ACTION FOR WOMEN “Forty officers came into our building, approximately 20 went upstairs and 20 came into our flat. They were dressed in full riot gear, with dogs — everything but guns. They broke down our door even […]
Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Paula Nicol from the English Collective of Prostitutes, which campaigns for the abolition of the prostitution laws which criminalise sex workers and their families, and for economic alternatives and higher benefits and wages.I have worked as a sex worker in at least ten different flats in Soho […]
ANOTHER PRECIOUS LIFE LOST A 24-year-old woman was murdered on Monday night in Ilford Lane, Ilford. This tragic killing comes in the wake of Operation Clearlight a major police crackdown on street prostitution in this area which began in September. Over 200 women have received “prostitute cautions” and many have been arrested for loitering and […]
My name is Paulina, I am a sex-worker. When I first came to this country I was forced to come here, forced to be a sex-worker. I suffered violence every day and drugs and alcohol. I was being watched 24 hours. I was begging a police officer to come to ask me if I was […]
Legal Action for WomenCrossroads Women’s Centre PO Box 287 London NW6 5QUTel: 020 7482 2496 minicom/voice Fax: 020 7209 4761E-mail: law@allwomencount.netBernard Hogan-HoweMetropolitan Police Commissioner,New Scotland Yard, 8-10 Broadway,London, SW1H 0BG 18 September 2012Dear Commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe,On 5 September, police officers from West End Central Vice Unit and ORB Safer Spaces Neighbourhood Team raided a […]