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A new photo gallery called The Street is here. Sex work and buying sex are not alone in being under siege by moral regulators: More and more activities are subjected to rules if you want to do them in parks, in the street, at fairs, on staircases, in plazas, outside buildings, on buses and trains, along highways. Regulations seek to obliterate messiness and unpredictability in public spaces; civility is a middle-class concept in which walking directly from your house to wherever you are going to earn or spend money is the desired behaviour. Simply expressing oneself outdoors is problematic: hanging out, goofing around. Everything pictured in this gallery has been prohibited somewhere in recent memory and the collection is hardly complete. For blog posts relevant to street concerns see the urban space tag.

The Street photo gallery is one of three here: Sex Industry and Sex worker activism are the others. They are frequently updated, so if you have browsed before and want to see anything new, go to the last page of each gallery.

If you have any information to add about any of the pictures or want to contribute others or get credit, please get in touch with me. You can comment on pictures individually.

–Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

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Rerun because I am on the road and because this is a favourite. Do you know whether or not you are a prostitute is the question raised by a sign seen at Zapata’s Mexican Cantina in Shanghai. Most of the heat in conversations about commercial sex goes to the idea of prostitution – whether it can ever be a normalised profession called sex work or whether it is by definition violence against women. Some people think marriage is prostitution; others think all paid work is. For myself, I wonder how people imagine there to be a clear line between commercial and non-commercial sexual transactions, since all of life seems saturated with both.

My curiosity was piqued when I saw the above photo from Zapata’s, a middle-class bar-restaurant located in Tongren Lu, a popular Shanghai nightlife area. It’s not the kind of place where I expected to see a sign about prostitution. Trying to figure this one out led me into the expat world, where only insiders— most of the vocal ones men—  understand what’s going on. I hung around Internet forums where this sign made the rounds and explanations ranged from it was the bar manager’s private joke to the place is filthy with prostitutes; decent girls won’t go there.

There are discussions of the many types of predatory women loose in the city. ISpyShanghai mentions entertainers,Tiger girls, bar girls, butterflies, hostesses, chickens, and those girls on Tongren Lu who will literally jump into the taxi with you if you don’t shut the door quickly enough.

Discussants at forums like Shanghaiexpat say too many pros (professionals) get past bar bouncers and warn each other about falling into the clutches of girls who try to get you inside talk-talk bars, where they will only flirt and promote your buying of drinks.

Some call such bars fronts for prostitution. Others make a class distinction between talk-talk bars and hostess bars, the latter being more upscale. There are also warnings about ladyboys, transvestites and other non-real women, who are even said to form the majority of female-looking customers in some places.

Could Zapata’s managers be trying to keep single women out? Certainly not; Ladies’ Nights are common in Shanghai, where each time the door opens, hundreds of eyes fix on the arriving guests, hoping that they have breasts.

So, what have we got? A commercial bar scene where men with money want females to be available to them for picking up, flirting, and perhaps going somewhere to have sex. Those women may accept gifts of drinks, food, taxis and flowers without losing their shine. In another popular, mainstream, local example, KTV (karaoke television) venues invite men to come in groups and hire the services of women to drink and sing with them in small private rooms.

The taint comes when women do exactly the same things with the addition of asking for cash.

It’s subtle and confusing, isn’t it? When is it legitimate for women to take money or accept drinks? What about the customers— why is there no distinction amongst them? They take out their wallets in all kinds of situations— and that’s considered fine— except when they position themselves as victims of predators. On the other hand, they discuss which KTV place has the hottest/most fun girls.

Zapata’s managers and bouncers are male, so maybe it makes sense that they would put up such a blunt, sexist sign telling prostitutes to keep out. But what does it mean to say If you are unsure whether or not you’re a prostitute, please ask one of our friendly security guards to sort it out for you?

Presumably a professional knows that the sign refers to her or him-self and has no need to consult anyone about it. Which leaves whom?

What if I go to Shanghai alone, get dressed up, and appear alone at Zapata’s bar? Is it okay as long as I don’t talk to any men or am seen to be paying for my own drinks? What happens if the barman brings me a parasol-decorated margarita on behalf of the guy across the bar, who’s already paid for it? Should I now feel worried about being bounced? In case anyone thinks this is unlikely, one of the expat discussions involved a woman who was asked to leave Zapata’s although she was there with girlfriends.

She was said to be Taiwanese. Some of the participants in expat forums specify that they are Chinese. Bouncers might or might not understand different kinds of regional Chinese languages. Someone said prostitutes don’t have to look Asian. Since ho-style is in fashion, clothes aren’t the key to this conundrum. I think I’m better off not going out, or sticking to an old-fashioned hotel bar where I’m allowed to accept a drink from a stranger— or offer one to someone else.

Originally published at Susie Bright’s Journal .

– Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

 

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With all the End Demand rhetoric around, it’s hard to remember that the word demand actually means many things. Hunt Alternatives Fund and people like Melissa Farley have put most of their eggs into a basket that makes men who pay money for any kind of sex the single important cause for all injustices and unhappinesses associated with sex work, child prostitution and sexual exploitation.

The issue of young people on the street who have a home somewhere they don’t want to live in – runaways – is always charged because of a widespread refusal to accept that everyone has a sexuality – babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, old people. In a recent discussion about End Demand campaigns in the United States, Johannah Westmacott made an interesting comment about the whole idea of demand. I first met Johannah when we were interviewed for an NPR show in Nevada last year on the topic of child sex trafficking. She is Coordinator for Trafficked Minors at Safe Horizon Streetwork Project in New York.

There are real demands out there that are forcing people (of all ages and genders) into the sex trade and if these demands weren’t there the people would be free to make other choices, and studies show that many people in the commercial sex trade say that if not for these demands they would leave the sex trade tomorrow. The three biggest demands that coerce people unwillingly into trading sex are the demand for safe shelters, affordable housing, and living wage jobs. Also low-threshold and supportive substance abuse treatment, but I’m not aware of that one being included in studies. Almost everyone I know who has participated in any way in the commercial sex trade has listed at least one of these things as the force that pressured them into the sex trade. The whole men demanding sex thing seems like a red herring to me. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen, but it certainly doesn’t happen at the same rate as poverty and homelessness. Why aren’t we trying to impact those demands since they have a much larger influence?

In example, in NYC there are approximately 4,000 unaccompanied homeless youth every single night. The city funds approximately 200 youth shelter beds. We are providing safe, age-appropriate shelter to less than 10% of the youth in our city who need it. When these young people have no safe way of sleeping indoors, and when they have already experienced violence from being on the streets, or when the weather outside is nasty, what choice do we give them for taking care of themselves and sleeping indoors? Maybe the young person is making a choice to go home with someone for the night, but until we actually offer them another option, we can’t judge them for making a forced choice. Decisions are really only as empowered as the options available.

If there were safe, low-threshold, voluntary youth shelters available on demand in NYC to everyone who requested them, without a waiting list involved, it would absolutely impact the number of youth involved in the commercial sex trade. I’m not saying that funding youth shelters would 100% eliminate youth involved in the commercial sex trade, but I am saying that it would be a game-changer. It would probably also be the most cost-effective and efficient way to impact the most number of youth either at-risk for coercion into the sex trade or who are already in the sex trade and want to exit or even take a break. Funding shelters would not only provide an alternative for youth currently in the commercial sex trade, it would also prevent a huge number of youth from feeling pressured to be involved in the first place. Again, I’m not saying 100%, but I really would guess that this impacts the majority of young people trading sex in NYC right now.

It may be noted also that a recent study in Massachusetts found a trend towards greater numbers of homeless among lgbtq youth. One sort of marginalised sexuality can contribute to another, unfortunately. Doesn’t the suggestion that shelters would make a huge difference make sense?

–Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

 

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A German sex box: passenger side provides space for escape

They are not really boxes at all but parking spaces with walls on all sides, to screen the sight of people having sex in cars. Already in use in several German cities, they are the latest proposal on the municipal table of Zurich, Switzerland’s biggest city (still small at 380,500 or nearly 2 million inhabitants, depending on what area you count). Selling sex is recognised as a legal economic activity in Switzerland, but, as everywhere, a lot of people don’t want to think about it, and seeing it means thinking about it. Thus in Zurich, where people have been complaining that street sex work is increasing, the city council is considering such boxes. The increase refers to migrants soliciting in the streets and straying outside the areas they are supposed to stay inside. And presumably a lot of these migrants don’t have the right to work in Switzerland at all.

Note on the legality of selling sex in Switzerland: The official line is that only  completely independent sex work is permitted (windows that look like this on ordinary houses are common). There are, of course, scads of businesses providing workplaces for workers, but the owners call the workers sub-contractors, which supposedly means the owners are not employers and thus not capable of ‘exploiting’ anyone. Typical city-father lunacy/hypocrisy where commercial sex is concerned.

Other oddities creep into a story about the boxes, which I note in bold. What does one motorist’s ‘pity’ have to do with anything?

Zurich ponders use of ‘sex boxes’ to control prostitution

by Marta Falconi, 3 September 2010, Swisster

After encouraging results in Germany, Zurich city officials are considering the installation of “sex boxes”, fenced parking areas, where prostitutes and their clients can conduct business away from the public eye. In a city where prostitution is on the rise, the measure could help protect residents and prostitutes alike. The drive-in “sex boxes” resemble makeshift parking spaces, surrounded by three tall metal fences to provide more privacy for prostitutes and their clients.

Already in use in some German cities, such as Cologne and Essen, the “sex boxes” are the latest idea suggested by Zurich city authorities after receiving thousands of complaints over the hordes of scantily clad prostitutes (and their actions) who patrol the main financial hub of Switzerland’s largest city.

Prostitution in Zurich increased by some 20 percent last year, according to some reports, which said that police had recorded more than 3,700 sex workers, mostly operating in the former red-light district in Zurich West, around Langstrasse, known as a busy multicultural melting pot and for occasional petty crime.

The women generally gather on the artery of Sihlquai – a busy road along the river, behind Zurich’s main station – and wait in small groups for drivers to stop at pretty much any time of the day. The district is heavily populated and the area around the Sihlquai is also a common meeting point for students and families.

Reto Casanova, a spokesman for the Zurich police, told Swisster that the situation was “tolerable, but not as we want it”. He said the sex boxes have proved successful in Germany and could be an option for Zurich as well. “We are looking for an acceptable solution for everybody, with the goal of maintaining people’s safety and dignity,” he explained.

Casanova said the ultimate decision on whether to adopt the boxes remains with the city council. However, he added, a police delegation is planning to travel to Germany in the fall to gather more first-hand details about the practice.

In Cologne, social workers have reported encouraging results from the installation of the boxes. “In the past, the street girls were often chased by police. Now the officers are even protecting this legal street sex activity,” Sabine Reichard told Deutsche Press.

Further protection for sex workers is also built into the boxes’ design, which provides a handy alarm for the passenger within easy reach, while the parking set-up allows the prostitute an easy escape but blocks the driver’s door. So far it’s unclear whether using the enclosures will require a “parking” fee .

The rise of prostitution, with most women coming from Eastern European countries, is a worrisome problem for the city and its authorities who try to control the trafficking of women behind it, especially when individuals of 16 can legally sell their services in some parts of the country.

Politician Luc Barthassat has called for the legal age to be raised to 18 and told Swissinfo recently that “Switzerland risks becoming a major sex tourism destination.” Zurich resident, Giuseppe Spina told Swisster he did not understand how big the phenomenon was until he found himself driving along the Sihlquai one recent night.

“It is a different world, somehow connected to ours, but still hidden in obscurity,” he said. “I had a problem with the car and had to stop one metre away from two prostitutes who were waiting there. I couldn’t help but pity them.”

The sex industry in Switzerland is reckoned to rake in almost three billion francs every year.

– Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

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I vividly remember my visit to the Bonifica del Tronto road. It happened during a brief gig I had evaluating projects funded by the European Commission’s Daphne Programme (to combat violence against women); I was visiting a helping project on the coast nearby, accompanying people called cultural mediators in their outreach trips to see people selling sex along this road. We parked, got out of the van and approached a tall black woman who said, before the mediator could even speak: I don’t want to go to any house. Don’t talk to me about going to any house.

In this area of Italy a well-known roman catholic priest, Don Benzi, used to come to talk to prostitutes and take them to one of his safe houses. An obituary from 2007 says:

Above all, he was known for his confrontation with pimps and the prostitutes who can be seen touting for custom at Italy’s roadsides. Benzi was no liberal — he regarded homosexuality as deviancy — but he was a passionate crusader against prostitution, which he regarded as a form of violence against women perpetrated by their clients. If there was no demand, he would say, there would be no supply.

The second sentence is strange – surely it should read he was no liberal AND was a passionate crusader against prostitution? Anyway, note that he was an early propagator of the simplistic idea of supply and demand in prostitution markets: take away one and the other disappears. In 2001 Don Benzi claimed to have saved 3000 girls over a ten-year period. I don’t want to make fun of someone who dedicated his life to helping others, specially unhappy teenagers. I only point out that not everyone wants to be saved his way, and a lot of people in Rescue jobs cannot understand that.

In the story below, ecological activists are outraged because local authorities plan to chop down hundreds of trees along this same road, in another simplistic formula: take away the trees and the sex workers disappear. Maybe, but where’s the next bunch of trees?

Italy to combat prostitution by cutting trees

John Hooper, guardian.co.uk, 12 October 2010

. . . For decades, local law enforcement and politicians have struggled to police the Bonifica del Tronto road, a haven for the sex trade that runs inland for more than 10 miles from the Adriatic coast alongside the river Tronto. Over the years, cameras have been installed, raids mounted, 24-hour patrols implemented and the mayors of towns near the road have signed bylaws imposing fines on prostitutes’ clients. All to no avail.

At the end of last month, the regional government’s public works chief . . . said he had agreed with provincial and municipal representatives to cut down all the vegetation “around and along the banks [of the river Tronto]“, in which the prostitutes ply their trade. . .

A census this month by an NGO found almost 600 prostitutes at work on the Bonifica del Tronto. Most were Nigerians, but they included Romanians, Brazilians, Albanians and Chinese. . .

– Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

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There are other images to show to illustrate news about striptease than stereotypical posed bodies on poles, or even bodies at all, including lap dancer solidarity (above) and efforts to unionise (below).

Here’s a clear-cut example with which to illustrate the concept of hypocrisy, if anyone needs one:

Judge Criminalizes Strip Club, Patronizes Stripper, by Dr Marty Klein

A 67-year-old guy is arrested by the FBI for illegally using marijuana, cocaine, and prescription painkillers with a stripper over many months. In addition to purchasing lap dances and sex with her at a strip club, he had a sexual relationship with her outside lasting many months. Nothing unusual about this. A lot of victimless crimes, but crimes nevertheless. It turns out that the guy is a longtime federal judge, appointed by Ronald Reagan. . .

And here are a few strip clubs located in interesting urban buildings.

Auckland
Montreal
Leeds
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I collect images of the sex industry, as part of a project to educate myself and others about the diversity actually involved, rather than staying with an oversimplified, unilluminating idea about prostitution. A lot of my picture collection can be seen here. The silent video below from Satoshi shows streets in a Yokohama red-light district with rows of small shops or cubicles used for sex work. Similar arrangements of sheds or ‘cribs’ were called chon-no-ma, and, until fairly recently, were open and staffed by non-Japanese women. Chon-no-ma were the target of anti-trafficking drives from about five years ago.

A few things strike me about this display. First, the silent, steady, slow movement of the camera. Second, the similarity of the windows and doors we’re taken past, like suburban shopping strips developers impose a style on. Third, the absence of humans, who would ordinarily be the object of our attention (perhaps the video was made in the early dawn). The result is mesmerising.

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He estado comentando la ola de ordenanzas en España e Italia que especifican cada vez más cuales son las actividades y comportamientos indeseables (desde el punto de vista de los ayuntamientos compuestos de personas de la clase media). Publiqué una serie de fotos que para mí demuestran lo lindo del espacio público: gente que duerme, besa, lava y hasta molesta los demás, pero que vive. Recién fui totalmente escandalizada por la ordenanza en Bilbao que prohibe prácticas sexuales incívicas, incluyendo sexo pública y notoria su realización, de forma que resulte imposible no advertirlo o evitarlo por parte de la generalidad de la ciudadanía. Un comentario sobre la ordenanza granadina cita las actividades específicamente nombradas como prohibidas.

La ordenanza de la ‘convivencia’ de Granada, octubre 2009, Alifa.org

. . .más de 150 artículos decididos a burocratizar la convivencia entre personas, a controlar toda relación social en la ciudad de Granada y evitar que no haya actividad que se realice fuera de lo establecido (y por ende, controlado) por el Ayuntamiento.

Lo peor de esta Ordenanza no es que asuma que los granadinos no somos capaces de relacionarnos correctamente si no nos imponen cómo. Ni que obtusas mentes crean que una normativa que prohíbe y castiga pueda ser educativa. Tampoco es lo peor saber que ya se compara con leyes como la de vagos y maleantes de la II República y el franquismo. Podría ser lo peor que la policía local tenga la potestad de decir qué relaciones entran dentro de una “correcta convivencia”, pero no, lo peor es su contenido:

- Prohibida toda manifestación de arte espontáneo: mimos, pintores, malabaristas, payasos cantantes, guitarristas y músicos y artistas tienen negado su derecho a ejercer como tales en la vía pública sin un permiso del ayuntamiento y una licencia, bajo riesgo de multa y requisación de instrumentos, material y ganancias. No, perdonen, no es sólo eso, también significa que yo no podré irme con un amigo a un parque a tocar la guitarra, porque sería ilegal y me podrían multar por ello.
- Prohibido cualquier trabajo o relación monetaria en la vía pública. Es decir, no está permitido ningún trabajo, venta o transacción… Si tu gata ha dado a luz, ten cuidado con ofrecer los cachorros en la calle, puede que te salga caro.
- Prohíben dormir en la calle, petición de limosna y, en definitiva, toda actividad que se asocie a pobreza y mendicidad, por supuesto, con multas asociadas. Nadie se plantea que quizás (solo quizás) si duermen en la calle, si tienen que pedir limosna, no es con gusto y disfrute. Y si lo es, creo que no hay duda de que una multa y requisación de lo ganado hasta el momento no solucionará nada.
- Se regula desde ahora dónde cómo y de que forma pueden los niños correr y jugar a la pelota, prohibiéndose en otros casos. Los niños molestan y no son rentables. No dan dinero, así que mejor quitarlos de nuestra vista (o al menos de la de los turistas, que son los que realmente importan).
- Prohibido sacudir mantas, regar macetas o colgar ropa en los balcones y ventanas. Sí.
-Prohibida toda muestra de actividad sexual (da igual si no hay dinero de por medio), dejando la valoración de qué es “actividad sexual” al Policía Local. Tengan cuidado con qué hacen con sus parejas porque pueden enfrentarse a multas importantes.
- Prohibido comer y beber en la calle. Da igual si es un bocadillo, un shawarma, un botellín de agua, o un refresco. Os podéis llevar una multa si la policía os ve.
- Prohibido el trabajo del sexo si éste es visible. La prostitución sólo será considerada falta muy grave si ésta se ejerce en el centro de la ciudad o cerca de centros educativos. Si están alejadas y no molestan, si no se ven, entonces sólo serán faltas leves…. Los trabajadores del sexo no nos importan, tan solo nos preocupa que la gente vea que existe en nuestra ciudad.
- Prohibido repartir panfletos o documentos de cualquier tipo en la calle, así como pegar carteles. Para culminar.

La ordenanza se puede bajar, ver página 42-artículo 72: Normas de conducta

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Pero bueno, ¿existe algún límite? Parece que ahora ni vamos a poder reirnos en público.
Esta vez la prohibición va dirigida a prácticas sexuales incívicas, supuestamente para que quede claro que las autoridades no están discriminando al trabajo sexual sino incluyendo todo lo que no guste a – sí, ¿a quién exactamente? al Ayuntamiento, a personas que tienen ideas sobre lo que debería pasar y no en ese gran espacio que se denomina la calle. Recién publiqué muchos ejemplos de prohibiciones españolas e italianas: por ejemplo, el ultrajante problema de comer bocadillos en público. Comenté que con ese tipo de enfoque – lo que se está llamando el incivismo – se cuela el intercambio de sexo-dinero fácilmente. Ahora, lo que Bilbao propone aquí va más allá, hasta un concepto hiper-vago (prácticas sexuales) con el añadido de incívicas. Noto también que se refiere a multas de hasta 750 euros como leves  – extraño cuando se piensa en la gente que puede quedar multada por hacer algo incívico al aire libre. No compensa que los fondos van a parar a proyectos de rescate a las prostitutas y otra gente que ofenda.

Photo Rui Palha
Photo Rui Palha

Ponen condiciones vagas también sobre prácticas como andar en bici, volar cometas, y tocar música – que quiere decir que la policía se sentirá libre a interpretar esos comportamientos como les da la gana. Para mí, es todo escandaloso. 

Las multas por servicios sexuales revertirán en las prostitutas

Sonsoles Zubeldia, 1 abril 2010, El País

El equipo de gobierno del Ayuntamiento de Bilbao ha dado luz verde a una nueva ordenanza del Espacio Público que reúne en un sólo texto de 134 artículos diversos aspectos normativos relacionados con el uso de la vía pública, hasta ahora dispersos en distintos apartados reguladores. La norma “supera el vacío legal” existente hasta el momento en tres actividades diferenciadas. De un lado, se pronuncia sobre las los actos de ofrecimiento y de demanda de servicios sexuales que tengan por objeto concertar servicios sexuales retribuidos, incluyendo la negociación y realización de los mismos en un espacio público. Estas prácticas quedan prohibidas, pero ello no implica el veto expreso a que las prostitutas sigan estando en la calle ni que los servicios no puedan ser prestados en pisos o locales. Fuentes municipales señalaron que el foco principal va a ponerse en los clientes y no tanto en las prostitutas. Y es que la portavoz de EB en el consistorio, Julia Madrazo, recalcó ayer que la regulación de la prostitución es tarea del Gobierno central, que no debe pasar esa “patata caliente a los Ayuntamientos”.

Las prácticas sexuales en la vía pública se prohíben a toda la población

La ordenanza también se refiere a las “prácticas sexuales incívicas“, que quedan prohibidas. Este concepto incluye los actos en los que el sexo sea explícito y sea “pública y notoria su realización, de forma que resulte imposible no advertirlo o evitarlo por parte de la generalidad de la ciudadanía”. Este punto no se refiere sólo a los servicios sexuales retribuidos, sino también a los que pudieran practicar las parejas en la calle o en un coche.

Las sanciones por incumplir alguna de estas normas serán por regla general leves (multas de hasta 750 euros). Ahora bien, si los hechos tienen lugar en lugares donde sea frecuente la afluencia de menores, existan centros escolares cerca o bien la actividad implique un deterioro del mobiliario urbano se considerarán graves y las multas podrían alcanzar hasta 1.500 euros.

Con el fin de demostrar que esta ordenanza no persigue un “afán recaudatorio”, el director de la Oficina de Uso Público, Tomas del Hierro, señaló que el importe de las sanciones que se impongan en materia de ofrecimiento y demanda de servicios sexuales irá destinado a la financiación de programas municipales o a la subvención de entidades que tengan por objeto la ayuda o colaboración con el colectivo de personas que ejercen la prostitución en la calle. Además, la recaudación de las multas que se impongan por la práctica del botellón, que sigue prohibido, irán a parar a la financiación de programas de ocio para jóvenes.

Otra novedad incluida en la ordenanza, que entrará en vigor en el tercer trimestre de este año, es el fin de la prohibición de actuaciones artísticas y musicales en la vía pública. Así, podrán cantar o tocar algún instrumento libremente quienes no molesten el tránsito peatonal, no se ubiquen en zonas de terrazas de hostelería y no requieran de forma activa la aportación de donativos, aunque sí pueden colocar un recipiente para ello. Eso sí, no podrán permanecer más de 45 minutos seguidos en un mismo punto. Pasado ese tiempo deberán trasladarse al menos a 200 metros. También tendrán horario -de 10.00 a 15.00 y de 17.00 a 22.00-.

La nueva norma regula también el tránsito por aceras y espacios peatonales. Queda prohibido andar en bicicleta salvo que la concurrencia de personas lo permita, tanto en el caso de adultos como de menores. No se puede zigzaguear y adelantar a personas con menos de dos metros de distancia. También queda prohibido volar cometas, aviones teledirigidos, boomerangs y similares. La ordenanza también simplifica los trámites para obtener licencias y regula la venta ambulante y la celebración de eventos.Inspectores vigilarán que se cumpla

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Those concerned about justice for sex workers focus on the law. If you’re interested in culture, however, you find that the sex industry looks and acts quite similar no matter which prostitution law is in place: the scene – the milieux – tend to be similar everywhere, with stylistic local differences. The health problems, the economics, the labour issues also are remarkably alike across cultures and borders, so that what workers experience in Ghana resembles what they experience in Thailand or France, and so on. Not so long ago I published a vague but suggestive story about the diversification of the sex industry in Pakistan,  Now here’s another story from there about how that old favourite ‘street prostitution’ has changed with the times, so that mobile phones play a big role. The reporter’s tone is pleasantly neutral, and note that he ends with my point about the law: ‘In a country where commercial sex is officially prohibited, it is usually available just a few minutes’ drive away.’ Note: 100 pkr = 0.89 euro

Business as usual for street prostitutes

Amar Guriro, 16 April 2010, Daily Times

Karachi, Pakistan: In the simmering heat of the afternoon, two ladies, one in her early 20s wearing shalwar kameez and other in a burqa, stood on the pavement under the shadow of a tree. Several cars and motorcycles queued up beside them. A young man on a motorcycle talked to the ladies, the one in shalwar kameez shook her head in refusal and the man left.

Then a man in a car came by, rolled down the window, and spoke to the women. However, he left as well. Then another motorcyclist spoke to them for a while and the girl in the shalwar kameez went with him on his bike. The lady in the burqa stayed back. The queue was over and all of them went their way. This was a typical scene out of the many that take place daily outside the nation’s founder Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s mausoleum, where dozens of street prostitutes stand and wait for customers. Many of them have their own places where they can take their customers to provide their services.

Gone are the days when the famous Napier Road in the downtown area of the city was supposed to be the centre of commercial sex. One can find street prostitutes waiting for customers at different spots while driving around the Mazar-e-Quaid, near the Do Talwar roundabout, on Shahrah-e-Faisal, MA Jinnah Road, Tipu Sultan Road, Main Korangi Road, etc. Their presence also becomes a nuisance for the other ladies taking a walk or waiting for buses, since the people ‘on a hunt’ often mistake them for sex workers and bug them. In recent years, Karachi has become a major market for prostitutes and attracts sex workers from other provinces since they can fetch higher rates for their services in the city.

One can find sex workers of different ages and ethnicity in Karachi. From a 15-year-old girl to a woman as old as 50, they could be of any ethnicity or even foreigners such as Russians and Burmese. The rates start from around Rs 400 and could go up 10 times this amount depending on the time, service, age and features of the sex worker. According to a sex worker, more than 150 street prostitutes roam inside the premises of Mazar-e-Quaid during the day. They usually sit on a bench in the lawn of the mausoleum so their customers can single them out easily.

Usually, they have regular customers, who know which spot they prefer and the sex worker then takes her customer to her home. “It is a risk to go with just anyone, so usually we rent a home and when we find a customer, we take him to our place. We charge extra amount for this service,” a sex worker told this scribe. She said the employees of the mausoleum know about their presence. “Sometimes we find two or three customers in a day, while on some days there are none.”

Convincing a street prostitute to let this scribe visit her house and speak about her business was not an easy job. However, when one finally agreed to it with the help of a politician who is her customer, this scribe drove towards the place thinking that the place would be something out of the movies, situated in a narrow lane, have a long row of rooms and sex workers turning up in odd make-ups, etc. But surprisingly, it was nothing like that and in fact, it was situated in a double-storied building in the Lighthouse area, where a young lady, who only told this scribe her nickname ‘Bindia’, lives with two of her colleagues. Bindia said cell phones had made their business much easier and the role of the ‘middlemen’ was almost finished now. She said that usually they manage to evade police, but if caught, they are asked for bhatta, which is provided in the form of a free-of-cost service. “most of the girls in this business are unaware about sexual diseases,” she said.

In a country where commercial sex is officially prohibited, it is usually available just a few minutes’ drive away.

– Laura Agustín, the Naked Anthropologist

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