Menu
English Collective of Prostitutes
  • About us
    • About us
    • International
    • History
    • Archive
    • Contact us
    • Press enquiries
  • Latest news
  • Campaigns
    • Decriminalise sex work – safety first!
    • Migrant Sex Workers Fight Police Illegality & Racism
  • Resources
    • Rights
    • Fact sheets
    • Sex workers speak out
    • Bulletins
    • Reports
    • Books & zines
  • Law & Policy
    • Laws
    • Legal cases
    • Submissions and policy briefings
  • Support us
    • Covid-19 action alert
    • Donate
    • Sign our petition
    • Volunteer
  • Get help
Close Menu
1st August 2013

Video: Jasmine and Dora 4-Ever

English Collective of Prostitutes International, Latest News, Videos & Podcasts LGBTQ, Sweden, Trans, Violence

 

Jasmine and Dora 4-Ever from Carol Leigh on Vimeo.

In 2012 during the International AIDS Conference in Washington, DC, I met and interviewed Petite Jasmine with Pye Jakobsson from Rose Alliance of Sweden. Petite Jasmine was murdered one year later, a victim of the stigmatisation and legal discrimination that sex workers face. She was an amazing, beautiful, warm and inspiring person. Her observations were profound and her hopeful tone is haunting.

When Jasmine was murdered, a friend of our community, Dora Özer in Turkey, was also murdered, also because of stigma and criminalisation, and in a rash of escalating transphobia in Turkey.

This video chronicles the efforts of our communities to memorialize Dora and Jasmine. We are launching this video on the eve of a debate and vote by the European Union on whether to support criminilisation of clients of sex workers and the buying of sexual services. This system is known as the Swedish Model. According to most researchers, this strategy is greatly responsible for increased violence and discrimination against sex workers in Sweden. But Petite Jasmine will not be that statistic!

Dora Özer was murdered in a wave of attacks against transgender people and especially transgender sex workers. Again, made vulnerable as a result of laws that limit sex workers so severely that vulnerable members of our community are pushed out to the streets with no support. Sex workers around the world are rising up to challenge the prejudice, the violence and all the injustices.

Some might recognise this title from a famous movie in Sweden, Lilja 4-Ever, which invoked a specific experience of sex work. Those who condemn sex workers used that film to proselytise, claiming that represented all prostitution and promoting their anti-prostitution ideology. But our title expresses a new hope. Yes, we are victimized. But the solutions have evolved from stigma and punishment to rights and risk reduction. No longer will we be victims to prejudice and violence. We will have a voice and will participate in policy that impacts us. Sex workers are standing up and speaking out. The whore-as-victim, is not the 4-ever prostitute. Our friends Jasmine and Dora live 4-ever in our hearts and inspire our resistance, courage and honesty. Only rights can stop the wrongs.

Please visit these pages below for further information:
“End Violence Against Sex Workers: Full Decriminalisation Now
in memoriam of Jasmine and Dora. International Day of Protest 19th July 2013″
jasmineanddora.wordpress.com/

The Swedish Model Criminalising the Purchase of Sex Is Dangerous: The European Parliament Should Have Rejected It at huffingtonpost.co.uk/ruth-jacobs/prostitution-laws_b_4851224.html?&ir=UK

Statement: Not guilty of breaching an Anti-social Behaviour Order Justice for Dora and Jasmine!

Related Posts

Latest News, Media coverage

Independent: High Court legal fight over criminal records

Action alerts, Latest News

Action Alert: Ask your MP to oppose Diana Johnson’s Sexual Exploitation Bill

Latest News, Media coverage

Independent: Growing numbers of women turning to sex work as Covid crisis pushes them into ‘desperate poverty’

Categories

  • Action alerts
  • Bulletins
  • Events
  • International
  • Latest News
  • Legal cases
  • Media coverage
  • Press releases
  • Sex workers speak out
  • Statements
  • Submissions and policy briefings
  • Videos & Podcasts

Archives

Join our mailing list


Browse by key word

#MakeAllWomenSafe #NoBadWomen Advertising Coronavirus Crackdowns on street workers Criminalisation of clients Decriminalisation Decriminalisation vs. legalisation Deportations ECP History Feminist France Global Women's Strike Home Affairs Committee International Women's Strike Ipswich LGBTQ Migrant Morality Mothers New Zealand Olympics Parliamentary Police illegality and racism Policing and Crime Act Pop-up brothels Poverty Private prosecution for rape Proceeds of Crime Act Raids arrests and prosecutions Safety First Coalition Soho Strippers Students Survival Sex Sweden Trade Unions Trafficking Trans United States Universal Credit and benefit cuts US PROStitutes Collective Violence Wages For Housework Women Against Rape
Back To Top
English Collective of Prostitutes

About us

  • Contact us
  • History

Press

  • Latest news
  • Press enquiries

Follow us

© 2019 English Collective of Prostitutes