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' You sleep with us, you vote against us '
A message to French politicians everywhere from the hundreds of French prostitutes demonstrating outside the Senate this week in Paris.
As exponents of street politcs, at least some of France's scarlet women have a way with words, but do they have a case?
Possibly so, given their argument that they are honest taxpayers meeting a proven market demand. Their target is new legislation being proposed to Parliament by the Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy. The scope of the proposed law is wide enough for one human-rights organisation to declare itself "Terrified". It says that beggars could be jailed, for example, and the parents of persistent school truants could be heavily fined.
What worries the prostitutes is that "passive soliciting" will be a crime punishable by six months' prison and a fine of €7,500 ($7,490). Moreover, there will no longer be a distinction between "passive" and "active" soliciting. Any woman with a mini-skirt, high heels and bright lipstick who stands for too long on a street corner could fall foul of the law - even if she has said nothing to suggest she has sex to sell.
That, of course, is not how the Government sees it. The aim, it says, is two-fold:
- to stop the nightly (and daily) nuisance caused by prostitutes and their clients in otherwise respectable areas,
- to hit on the criminal gangs who traffic in women from Eastern Europe, Africa and now China.
The police estimate that foreigners, often illegal immigrants, now account for more than 60% of France's prostitutes, whose number is set at anywhere between 15,000 and 30,000 "professionals" (95% of them controlled by 15,000 pimps) plus 60,000 "occasionals" in Paris alone.
Those figures are open to question. But one thing is clear: neither demand nor supply will go away.
Less clear is whether a crackdown on soliciting in the street would make life better or safer for the prostitutes. Quite possibly they are more at risk when working as call-girls or in massage-parlours, and so on.
Hence the view of a few brave politicians, such as Francoise de Panafieu (a centre-right member of Parliament and Mayor of Paris' 17th arrondissement) that it would be better to have special areas for prostitution or, indeed, to have legal, regulated, medically inspected brothels known as maisons closes.
The political rub is that this would set the clock back: the last of some 1,400 of the 'maisons' were closed in 1946 after a campaign led by ex-prostitute and First World War spy Marthe Richard. The politicians might also note another difficulty:
The prostitutes say they will "OUT" any politician/client who votes the wrong way.
"
The Economist, November 9th, 2002
I posted this article because it struck me as something no-one can abstain from having an opinion on.
I personally believe; however reprehensible or morally distasteful one feels prostitution to be, you cannot deny that there is DEMAND for the service, and therefore, will always be supply. Knowing that, rather than trying to stamp it out and turn a blind eye, I agree with Francoise de Panafieu. It should be legalised (with strict codes and boundaries, that, if infringed carry heavy penalties), regulated and medically inspected.
If this law is passed, it will only serve to lengthen the shadows cast around what is a dangerous business that requires funding from illegal sources because of its underground nature. If policed, it could protect some of the trafficking in human commodities and save the dis-enfranchised members of our community... the illegal immigrants nobody seems to want.
' You sleep with us, you vote against us '
A message to French politicians everywhere from the hundreds of French prostitutes demonstrating outside the Senate this week in Paris.
As exponents of street politcs, at least some of France's scarlet women have a way with words, but do they have a case?
Possibly so, given their argument that they are honest taxpayers meeting a proven market demand. Their target is new legislation being proposed to Parliament by the Interior Minister, Nicolas Sarkozy. The scope of the proposed law is wide enough for one human-rights organisation to declare itself "Terrified". It says that beggars could be jailed, for example, and the parents of persistent school truants could be heavily fined.
What worries the prostitutes is that "passive soliciting" will be a crime punishable by six months' prison and a fine of €7,500 ($7,490). Moreover, there will no longer be a distinction between "passive" and "active" soliciting. Any woman with a mini-skirt, high heels and bright lipstick who stands for too long on a street corner could fall foul of the law - even if she has said nothing to suggest she has sex to sell.
That, of course, is not how the Government sees it. The aim, it says, is two-fold:
- to stop the nightly (and daily) nuisance caused by prostitutes and their clients in otherwise respectable areas,
- to hit on the criminal gangs who traffic in women from Eastern Europe, Africa and now China.
The police estimate that foreigners, often illegal immigrants, now account for more than 60% of France's prostitutes, whose number is set at anywhere between 15,000 and 30,000 "professionals" (95% of them controlled by 15,000 pimps) plus 60,000 "occasionals" in Paris alone.
Those figures are open to question. But one thing is clear: neither demand nor supply will go away.
Less clear is whether a crackdown on soliciting in the street would make life better or safer for the prostitutes. Quite possibly they are more at risk when working as call-girls or in massage-parlours, and so on.
Hence the view of a few brave politicians, such as Francoise de Panafieu (a centre-right member of Parliament and Mayor of Paris' 17th arrondissement) that it would be better to have special areas for prostitution or, indeed, to have legal, regulated, medically inspected brothels known as maisons closes.
The political rub is that this would set the clock back: the last of some 1,400 of the 'maisons' were closed in 1946 after a campaign led by ex-prostitute and First World War spy Marthe Richard. The politicians might also note another difficulty:
The prostitutes say they will "OUT" any politician/client who votes the wrong way.
"
The Economist, November 9th, 2002
I posted this article because it struck me as something no-one can abstain from having an opinion on.
I personally believe; however reprehensible or morally distasteful one feels prostitution to be, you cannot deny that there is DEMAND for the service, and therefore, will always be supply. Knowing that, rather than trying to stamp it out and turn a blind eye, I agree with Francoise de Panafieu. It should be legalised (with strict codes and boundaries, that, if infringed carry heavy penalties), regulated and medically inspected.
If this law is passed, it will only serve to lengthen the shadows cast around what is a dangerous business that requires funding from illegal sources because of its underground nature. If policed, it could protect some of the trafficking in human commodities and save the dis-enfranchised members of our community... the illegal immigrants nobody seems to want.
