Photo by Philippee Leroyer http://www.swedishwire.com/politics/ 14354-swedish-prostitutes-win-right-to-paid-sick-leave
Anti-Anti-Prostitution Protests in Paris
Hundreds of people, including sex workers, protested in Paris against
plans to make soliciting prostitution illegal France’s minister for women’s rights, Najat Vallaud-Balkacem, started the controversy when she said she would work to eliminate prostitution by punishing those who pay for sex rather than the prostitute.
Sex workers’ unions argued that punishing the client would ruin business for prostitutes and hurt their financial support for living.
At Place Pigalle in Paris’ red-light district, sex workers waved signs that read “Penalised clients=murdered prostitutes” and “Sex work is work too.”
There is also the argument that a ban would increase criminal activity due to gangs organizing secret setups between sex workers and customers.
Vallaud-Balkacem seems to be living in an ivory palace of academic feminism divorced from the realities of life. Prostitution is not going away. The “women’s rights” at stake here are the rights of prostitutes to be treated with fairness and laws that protect their safety. Speaking of radical feminism, Sweden, the country that has men trying to breast feed their children, has provided a new labor protection law for prostitutes:
Tax-Paying Prostitutes in Sweden Get Paid Sick Leave
Swedish prostitutes won the right to claim benefits, including sick days and parental leave, of about 80 per cent of an annual income of a maximum of 330,000 kronor (US$47,460), according to the Swedish Social Agency.
The benefit will run for as much as a year for any illness lasting at least 14 days. For self-employed prostitutes the first seven days are unpaid.
Prostitutes in Sweden can register to pay taxes using euphemisms, which qualify them for benefits.
The Stockholm-based organization extended the benefit to prostitutes in June and stated that “very few taxpayers have registered as sex workers.”
Still, buying sex is illegal and Swedish Justice Minister Beatrice Ask is preparing a proposal for parliament that may include increasing the maximum time of imprisonment to one year.
In Sweden, unlike France, it is already illegal for customers to purchase sex, but not illegal for prostitutes to sell sex. Prostitutes feel so protected by this Swedish law that very few register as actual sex workers.
Here is a different radical feminist solution: Legalize prostitution. Treat the profession as any other unlicensed service profession. Prostitutes should be able to claim the same legal benefits lawfully as a sex worker as any other independent contractor or employee.
