Women...Turning to Sex Work to Escape Poverty

Under wraps, prostitution rife in Afghanistan
More women in north appear to be turning to sex work to escape poverty
Source(s):MSNBC/Reuters

*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:

MAZAR-I-SHARIF, Afghanistan - When 19-year-old Fatima returned to her home in northern Afghanistan after years as a refugee in Iran, she struggled desperately to earn a living.

She briefly found work with an NGO, before being let go, and then spent two months learning how to weave carpets, before the factory shut down and she was again out on the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif.

Determined to support her mother, two sisters and young brother, she turned to a profession that has long been practiced the world over but remains deeply suppressed in conservative Afghanistan -- prostitution.

"I had no other way but prostitution," says the pretty teenager, dressed in tight blue jeans with a black veil pulled loosely over her head.

"I get up early in the morning and wander around the city," she said, at first reluctant to discuss her work. "My customers stop me and give me a lift and then we talk about the price," she explains, her face coated in make-up.

Sometimes charging $50 a time, her work is illegal and would bring shame on her family if discovered, but it provides a lifeline she otherwise could not have imagined.

And there is anecdotal evidence, supported by doctors concerned about the potential for the spread of HIV and AIDS, that more and more young women across northern regions of Afghanistan are turning to sex work to escape grinding poverty.

"Because of poverty, women are doing this," she said. "It is all because of poverty."

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TEXT: Poverty And The Social Context Of Sex Workers In Addis Ababa (Book Review)

Source:Forum For Social Studies (FSS)
Author: Bethlehem Tekola

*The following is the Book Review provided by FSS:

Unlike the situation a few decades ago, commercial sex in Addis Ababa has increasingly become an occupation of women born and brought up in the city, a study reveals. The new study, “Poverty and the Social Context of Sex Work in Addis Ababa’, by Bethelehem Tekola*, indicates that more than 50% of the women who are engaged in the commercial sex are born and grew up in the city.

The expansion of urban poverty over the last three decades and the further socio-economic complications are the main reasons that the majority of the sex workers are indigenous to the city, says the author in her monograph published by the Forum for Social Studies (FSS). The study conducted in the city’s major sex trade centers of Mercato, Piazza, Arat Kilo, Kasanchis, Cherkos, Meshualekia and Kolfe involved a sample of 100 sex workers. It has revealed that the majority, 73%, of the women started commercial sex as teenagers. Even though the women cited various push factors that contributed to engage to commercial sex, the major factor that forced 63% of them was escaping economic hardship.

The study criticises the very common castigation attached to sex workers as being social misfits who pose dangers to society. The study proposes a humane approach towards them and their dependents. This should begin by making a clear distinction between the institution of commercial sex and women who practice it, the author suggests. Almost all of the participants covered in the study maintain social ties and carry obligations as heads of families or bread winners and other tasks that society values.

The study has identified seven distinct types of sex work practiced in the city based on venues and conditions of work; Street or Asphalt, Small drinking houses, Bar, Hotel/Club, Yetewosene Akafay - those who work on the bed owned by others who work for fixed payment to the owner, Ikul Akafay- Equal Share, those who give 50% - and on the Bed- Be-alga. Women in all the various forms of sex work are exposed to greater exploitation by those who have direct or indirect control over residential or venue space, the study reveals.

According to the researcher this implies that strategies for dealing with sex trade should focus more on curbing the many problems associated with it. Though the degree as well as the forms of vulnerability of the sex workers to HIV depends, among other things on the type of sex work that the women involve in, the author argues that they become more vulnerable in their non-paying relation with the men which they call ‘lovers’, ‘husbands’, or, ‘friends’ than their paying or commercial customers. The women reported that they are engaged in unrestricted and almost unprotected sexual relationships with these partners.

The study suggests that affirmative action should focus more on poor women who suffer from severe economic and social marginalization rather than on understanding its general sense of expanding opportunities for women in general.

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TEXT: Poverty And The Social Context Of Sex Workers In Addis Ababa

Source:Forum For Social Studies (FSS)
Author: Bethlehem Tekola

*The following is the Abstract provided by FSS:

Abstract
This book explores the social context of sex work in the city of Addis Ababa. It focuses on the social ties between sex workers and a variety of other categories of people, from their family members to their relatives, from their roommates to their neighbors, from their coworkers to their clients. It explores which of these social ties are affirmed and reinforced, which come under strain and which are cultivated and built by the women as a result of their engagement in sex work. It argues that these things depend on the women’s background, on the conditions under which they turn to sex work, on the specific types and conditions of sex work that they do and on the places and conditions of their residence. The main thesis of the work is that sex workers share the same social milieu and value system with non-sex workers and that, despite severe constraints put on them by poverty and very difficult working conditions, they struggle on a daily basis to have social life and social relevance. The work critiques the very common castigation of sex workers as social misfits who pose dangers to society and proposes a humane approach towards them and their dependents, an approach that should begin by making a clear distinction between the institution of commercial sex and the women who practice it.

The work employs both qualitative and quantitative methodology. It combines detailed one-to-one interviewing with focus group discussions and personal observation to bring out the perspectives of the women themselves. The quantitative data is composed of responses to a structured questionnaire by 100 sex workers.

The book begins with a critical review of existing literature on commercial sex work. The review establishes that in the West, in Africa, as well as in Ethiopia, sex workers have often been conflated with sex work itself; that they have been described either as sick and immoral people or as victims of male domination and abuse; and that they are described as such in categorical terms, without any attempt at internally differentiating among them.

The book then suggests a scheme for a classification of the sex workers of Addis Ababa. The scheme is based on those variables that determine the terms and conditions of social interaction between the women and wider society. They include the women’s backgrounds, the circumstances of their entry into sex work, the terms and conditions of work, the terms and conditions of residence and the degree and forms of dependent relationships in which they are involved. The analysis of sex work in Addis Ababa on the basis of these variables suggests significant shifts in the social background of the women who engage in it as well as in the organization of the work. The fourth chapter of the book employs this scheme and works out a classification of the sex worker population in the city. Seven distinct types of sex work are identified. The organization of work and residence in each of the types is discussed, followed by descriptions of the general profile of the women who operate in each type. Finally, the implication of this classification for the social behavior of the women is discussed.

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SEX-WORKERS AND THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF SEX WORK IN ADDIS ABABA

NEGOTIATING SOCIAL SPACE: SEX-WORKERS AND THE SOCIAL CONTEXT OF SEX WORK IN ADDIS ABABA
Source: Bethlehem Tekola
Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Addis Ababa University

ABSTRACT This paper explores the social life of sex workers in Addis Ababa, the capital of Ethiopia. It focuses on the social ties between sex workers and a variety of other people, such as their family members, relatives, roommates, neighbors, coworkers, and clients. It explores these social ties in terms of the way they are (1) affirmed and reinforced, (2) strained and broken, and (3) initiated and cultivated by the women as a result of their engagement in sex work. The main thesis of the work is that sex workers share the same social milieu and value system with non-sex workers and that, despite severe constraints put on them by poverty and very difficult working conditions, they struggle on a daily basis to have a social life and social relevance. The work critiques the very common castigation of sex workers as social misfits who pose dangers to society and proposes a humane approach towards them and their dependents, an approach that should begin by making a clear distinction between the institu-
tion of commercial sex and the women who practice it.

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AFGHANISTAN: Children work in brick factories to pay off family debts

Source: IRIN
Photo: Gulam Rasol Hasas/IRIN
ARTICLE: AFGHANISTAN: Children work in brick factories to pay off family debts

*The following is an excerpt from the aformentioned article:

More than 2,200 children are working for long hours in dozens of brick-making factories in Nangarhar Province, in eastern Afghanistan, to pay-off their families’ debts, a survey of Child Action Protection Network (CAPN) has found. Up to 90 percent of 2,298 children – boys and girls – who work in 38 brick-making factories in Sorkhrod District of Nangarhar Province do not go to school and are deprived from other means of education, said the survey which was conducted by a local non-government organisation (NGO), Wadan Afghanistan. IRIN’s Ghulam Rasool Hasas has prepared this report which starts some child workers voices…

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AFRICA: Soaring food and fuel prices may hurt growth

Source:IRINews
Photo: Tesfalem Waldyes/IRIN
Article: AFRICA: Soaring food and fuel prices may hurt growth

*The following are excerpts from the aforementioned article:

~"I cannot afford to buy wheat from the market," Tayech, a single mother of five, told IRIN. "It is too expensive."

~Ethiopian officials say the grain-subsidy programme was a response to the hardships faced by low-income urban dwellers because of escalating inflation rates - which they blame on the rising costs of oil and other commodities, including grain.

~Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said: "While our current economic development is encouraging, worsening inflation has created a difficult situation for the low-income urban dwellers."

~The number of food-insecure people, it noted, could rise worldwide by more than 16 million for every percentage increase in the real prices of staple foods, meaning 1.2billion people could be chronically hungry by 2050. That is 600 million more than previously predicted.

~Market-related factors and decreased production would render an estimated eight million Ethiopians food-insecure this year, while 2.4 million acutely food-insecure people would require food and cash assistance.

~Of these, 825,000 Ethiopian urban dwellers, including Tayech, already rely on wheat supplied through the government's distribution centres.

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*Note the abovementioned excerpts are direct quotes from the article and thus all credit and references should be afforded to the authors/sources.