So today i feel like addressing one of the big issues. The circus that is Malaysian politics can get you really caught up in what feels like a reality show or maybe something more akin to 'Meerkat Manor'.
Amidst talk of promiscuity propagated and in fact instigated by thin (not revealing in the conventional sense - just thin) school uniforms, [i still haven't let this one go. Refer to this blog entry if you want to read it] perhaps we are missing what is truly important.
Okay, this is just to lighten the mood a bit. Thanks to Seemikedraw. Found him on Google. i think i'm a fan now.
This headline grabbed my attention today.
Afghanistan: Food prices fuelling sex work in North?
While we can talk about school girls being corrupted into prostitution unworthy of our sympathy, does anybody question why (apart from that genius Malaysian who does it for the money and lifestyle), why do some people get involved in sex work?
What's your idea of prostitution? Google thinks its something like this.
Why do they let men (let's face it - the bulk of sex workers are women) invade their most intimate places and spaces?
How do they face complete strangers who have little if any respect for them and whom, you can almost guarantee, have only sex on their mind?
Why do they put themselves at risk of disease, pregnancy or - in the case of hardline Muslim countries such as Afghanistan - death?
How do they put up with the constant stigma that follows them and their families - they will truly be 'sons of bitches' and 'bastard childs'; 'whores', 'skanks' and 'harlots'?
No, sex isn't all about fun and games.
Quotes like this bring so much more insight into prostitution:
'I have no way of feeding my children other than by doing this disgusting job,’'I am a widow and I have to feed my five children. I am illiterate and no one will give me a job. I hate to be a prostitute but if I stop doing this job my children will starve to death,’
~ both unnamed sex workers in Afghanistan
In Afghanistan, most sex workers are illiterate widows who have nothing else to offer employers but themselves. The recent rise in food prices has meant that leaner times have fallen and, despite the self-loathing and the harm they potentially put themselves in the way of (who cares if a prositute is hurt, or beaten or even murdered? One less social ill in the world), there is no other way to support their families. However, in uber-conservative Afghanistan, this means that your neighbours shun you, women's affairs officers encourage security officers to arrest and punish you and that means the death penalty or imprisonment.
And at the end of the day, your children will still be hungry.
I wish this had a Hallmark card ending where social security, improved human rights' and adult education systems were in place to help these women out of their troubles.*Unfortunately, Hallmark is only in cards and movies. Real life makes you wonder why some people were born with silver spoons in their mouths while others are forced into corners with only very narrow ways out.
Ye of the silver spoon, i hope you appreciate enough to make a difference.
*There's only a little consolation that the National HIV/AIDS council is going to educate women about the disease and hand out free condoms.
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