Sat Mar 25 21:13:11 2023 ‘The Hidden Culture of a Red Light Area (Oxford, 2001). Group 1 (for discussion): Elizabeth Bernstein, Militarised Humanism meets Carceral Feminism: The Politics of Sex, Rights and Freedom in Contemporary Anti-Trafficking Campaigns, Theory and Society (2010). Essi Thesslund and Sam Okyere, "The False promise of the Nordic Model of Sex Work," Open Democracy, (17 April 2018) https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-tra fficking-andslavery/false-promise-of-nordic-model-of-sex-work/ Taking sex work as an example, the class discussion will analyse different approaches, theories and understandings that help understand it. Prompt: How can one enhance the agency and freedom of women who find themselves in sex work? Flizabeth Bernstein Militarized Humanitarianism Meets Carceral Feminism: The Politics of Sex, Rights, and Freedom in Contemporary Antitrafficking Campaigns D New York City winter in the final weeks of 2008, two very different cinematic events focused on the politics of gender, sexuality, and human rights stood out for their symmetry. Over the past decade, mounting public and political attention has been directed toward the “traffic in women’ as a dangerous manifestation of global gender inequalities. Media accounts have similarly rehearsed stories uring a blustery I would like to thank Jennifer Nina, Meryl Lodge, and Suzanna Dennison for their research assistance on this project, as well as the three anonymous reviewers of this piece who shared their insightful commentary. Lam especially grateful to the antitrafficking activists who shared their perspectives with me, including those with whom I disagree. 0097-9740/2010/3601-0003$10.00 This content downloaded from 130.132.173.163 on March 28, 2017 12: '8 PM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www-journals.uchicago.edujt-and-c). 46 Bernstein of the abduction, transport, and forced sexual labor of women and girls whose poverty and desperation render them amenable to casy victimization in first- and third-world cities (see, e.g., Kristof 2004; Landesman 2004; Lopez 2006). Although the discourse of trafficking is transnational in both genesis and scope, the present essay focuses on the contemporary antitrafficking movement in the United States. © http:/www.summarizebot.comAs such, I employ the common U.S. distinction between “conservatives” and “liberals,” where the latter is understood to represent the center-left range of the political spectrum. 2 See, most recently, the William Wilberforce Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization Act (TVPRA) of 2008 (HR 7311); see also the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (IVPA) of 2000 (Public Law 106-386) and the United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (resolution 55/25, November 15, 2000). 3 Sex workers’ rights organizations have objected to the prevailing rubric of “sex trafficking,” arguing against the analytic separation of trafficking for prostitution from trafficking for other forms of labor. Between 2005 and 2009, I attended seventy-two events with feminist and/or conservative Christian antitrafficking activists and conducted twenty-cight in-depth, face-to-face interviews with antitrafficking movement leaders. This research is also informed by a decade of ethnographic investigation with sex workers (Bernstein 2007b), which demonstrated that the rubric of trafficking is inadequate to describe sex workers’ highly diverse experiences under conditions of late capitalism, consistent with a growing body of anthropological and sociological inquiry (see, e.g., Kempadoo 2005; Agustin 2007; Cheng 2010). 48 Bernstein A genealogy of sex trafficking I arrive late and breathless to the Call and Response screening, where I am struck by the crowd of several hundred that has spilled out onto the strects-the number of people is remarkable considering that this is an evangelical Christian human rights event in the heart of New York City, that it's 10 p.m. on a Tuesday night, and that the film has already been showing for several weeks. The film begins with sinister and grainy footage of young girls in Cambodian brothels, footage that the film leaves unattributed but which I recognize from a previous TV special. Following a clip of several school-aged children negotiating with a white Western dent to exchange money for sex, the film cuts abruptly to performance footage of a Christian rock band whose members strum their guitars intently in urgent lament. The film moves back and forth impressionistically between images of black bodies being whipped and close-ups of the faces of white Christian rock musicians whose eyes tear up when they recount the ravages of sexual slavery that they have heard about from others or in some cases witnessed. While this earlier wave of concern engaged a similar coalition of “new abolitionist” feminists and evangelical Christians, prior to the Progressive Era © http:/www.summarizebot.comthe goal of eradicating prostitution had not seemed particularly urgent to either group. Ifin the carly 1990s most evangelicals had little to do with the human rights field, by 1996 a greater reliance on NGOs by the United Nations, coupled with an awareness of the increasingly global spread of evangelical Christianity, would encourage many newly formed evangelical NGOs to enter the international political fray. Doris Buss and Didi Herman (2003) attribute this to the proliferation of UN-hosted conferences in the 1990s, which facilitated the expansion 7 The 1910 Mann Act (chap. 395, 36 Stat. 825) prohibited the interstate traffic in women for "immoral purposes.” It later became notorious for its use in prosecuting instances of interracial sex (Langum 1994). Weitzer demonstrates that although the campaigns’ empirical claims about the extent of sex trafficking into the United States and its more general relationship to prostitution are flawed, they have nonetheless been successfully institutionalized in a growing number of NGOs and in official state policy (Weitzer 2007). While Weitzer's argument is an important one and dovetails with various critical feminist perspectives on the issue (see, e.g., Saunders 2005; Berman 2006), his account stops short of looking at other sociologically significant links between the two unlikely new-abolitionist constituencies-specifically, that which has united the two groups around a punitive and far from historically inevitable paradigm of state engagement, both domestically and internationally. I begin by tracing the contours of what I term “carceral feminism,” providing a closer examination of those sectors of the contemporary feminist movement that have embraced the antitrafficking cause. 52 Bernstein The sexual politics of carceral feminism I've spent about 17 years working on this issue-most of that time I was on the losing side, as those who supported "sex worker" rights won almost every political battle. Now the truth about prostitution/sex trafficking is emerging and agencies are responding as never before. Ithink more pimps and traffickers have been arrested in the last year than in the whole previous decade. As the all-white array of panelists spoke to the audience about the urgent need to root out inner-city strect pimps and "pimp culture,” to stigmatize the patrons of prostitutes, and to promote “healthy families" domestically and globally, the audience, comprising representatives from assorted right-wing organizations including the Heritage Foundation, the American Enterprise Institute, and © http:/www.summarizebot.comFeminists for Life, erupted into frequent applause. As Judith Walkowitz (1983) and Wendy Brown (1995) have previously observed, the feminist embrace of state-anchored sexual moralism is particularly apt to resurface during periods of right-wing ascendancy like the Reagan and Bush years, when opportunities for more substantive political and economic change are elusive. Given her recent narration of her conversion to evangelical Christianity (Courtney 2008), as well as her staunch advocacy of Bush Administration policies, it seems unlikely that she would still choose to identify in left-liberal terms. Both Hughes and Chesler were participants in the 2007 right-wing, anti-Islam campaign on USS. college campuses called “Islamofacism awareness week.” 12 The bill passed with broad support from New York feminist organizations on June 6, 2007. At this meeting dedicated to problematizing men's demand for the services of sex workers, the panelists used the occasion to showcase how the carceral state could be effectively harnessed to achieve amatively coupled, heterosexual, nuclear families. The opening speaker from the Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW) explicitly hailed the five white, middle-class men in the room as exemplars of a new model of enlightened masculinity and urged the audience members to “to bring their husbands, sons, and brothers’ to future meetings. Nor did they demonstrate much awareness of the political-economic underpinnings of the singular form of heterofamilial intimacy that they advocated (see, e.g. Bernstein 2007b; Padilla ct al. 2007). 45 Laura Marla Agustin (2007) has described the anxicties that circulate around trafficking in terms of displaced concerns about women leaving home for sex. Ina chapter of her recent book, tellingly titled "The Pretty Woman Myth" (thus making plain that the only form of trafficking that concerns her is heterosexual prostitution; Maloney 2008), two things are particularly noteworthy. Asecond key clement in Maloney's book is the extent to which carceral politics and gender politics are mutually implied. Sec also Marie Gottschalk (2006), who traces the evolution of the antirape and battered women's movements in the United States in terms of the shift from the Fordist welfare state to the neoliberal carceral state as the enforcement apparatus for feminist goals. Most recently, with gathering feminist attention to “domestic” forms of trafficking (which films like Very Young Girls have sought to ignite), it has © http:/www.summarizebot.combecome clear that the shift from local forms of sexual violence to the international ficld back to a concern with policing US. inner cities (this time, under the guise of protecting women’s human rights) has provided critical circuitry for the carceral feminist agenda. According to U.S. Attorney Pamela Chen (2007), a full half of federal trafficking cases currently concern underage women in inner-city street prostitution.18 Enforcement-wise, this has resulted in an unprecedented police crackdown on people of color who are involved in the street-based sexual economy- including pimps, dents, and sex workers alike (Bernstein 2007a). Since the passage of the 2000 TVPA, the government has downgraded its estimates of U.S. transborder victims, from 50,000 to 14,500-17,000 people per year (U.S. GAO 2006). In cases of domestic trafficking, the force requirement is waived if the women in question are underage. At one screening of the film that I attended at a white-shoe law firm in New York, following the film some audience members called for the pimps not only to be locked away indefinitely but to be physically assaulted. “Our God of [criminal] Justice”: Militarizing humanitarianism in new evangelical antitrafficking campaigns Citychurch [a pseudonym] is a Christian megachurch in Manhattan that I have attended occasionally since beginning this project, a church that several young evangelicals in the antitrafficking movement have recommended to me highly. Tonight I am at an event sponsored by the women's ministry, a discussion with faith-based movement leaders that is dedicated to the issue of sex trafficking. Our meeting takes place at the church's midtown headquarters, where some cighty-five young women have gathered. The session begins with a brief collective prayer led by a young white woman who addresses her entreaty to “our God of Justice” as we bow our heads solemnly. She beckons Him to allow His spirit to move tonight's speakers in sharing what He is doing “to bring This content downloaded from 130.132.173.163 on March 28, 2017 12:12:28 PM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www journals.uchicago.cdu/t-and-c).. SIGNS Autumn 2010 59 about justice in the world.” The panel moderator approaches the podium next: she is an exuberant young woman who describes how she has dedicated her life to helping the broken and the hurting. She explains that her own activism around trafficking was initially inspired by © http:/www.summarizebot.comMaria's story, that of a virgin who left her hometown in Mexico only to find herself in a brothel. This allows them to work with people “they know have been trafficked” even if the women in question refuse to admit it. she explains that "by them pleading guilty, they're court mandated to receive services from us which at least gives us some opportunity to gain their trust.” [. She begins her presentation by declaring her joy at being a part of “this global transformation of the Church." She applauds the new work that churches are doing to fight injustice, urging those in the audience to reconsider Psalm 10. He catches the helpless and drags them off in his net.” (From my field notes, New ‘York, March 17, 2009) Among many left-leaning secular critics of contemporary antitrafficking campaigns, old stereotypes persist about the underlying cultural politics This content downloaded from 130.132.173.163 on March 28, 2017 12:12:28 PM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www journals.uchicago.cdujt-and-c).. Although avowedly Christian-right groups such as Concerned Women for America and the Salvation Army have also been active participants in the contemporary antitrafficking crusade, my research in “justice-oriented” churches such as Citychurch, at prayer gatherings for trafficking victims, and at evangelical antitrafficking conferences and film screenings suggests that such groups do not represent the preponderance of evangelical Christian grassroots activity. At a basic level, new evangelicals’ embrace of human trafficking as a focus of concern must be situated as a culturally modernizing project rather than a traditionalizing one. Under the guise of moral condemnation and prostitutes’ rescue, women in particular are granted new opportunities to participate in sexually explicit culture, international travel, and the previously forbidden corners of urban space. Their sexual politics do not range far beyond heteronormative liberal feminism, however. 21 Inderpal Grewal has used the term "military humanitarianism’ to describe the Bush Administration's policy of using women’s human rights to justify U.S. military interventions in Afghanistan and elsewhere (2005, 132). Haugen's muscular vision of social justice activism explicitly identifies human trafficking as an issue that can redirect lives accustomed to suburban safety toward action and adventure: “We fret over what might happen to our stuff, our reputation, our standing. © http:/www.summarizebot.comAlthough IJM’s operations have attracted some controversy, the undercover and mass-media-oriented model of activism that IJM propounds has become the emulated standard for evangelical Christian and secular feminist organizations alike.22 The liberal feminist organization Equality Now, for example, has recently enlisted male volunteers to go undercover to find traffickers and to work with local law enforcement to bring them to trial (Aita 2007). 23 Haugen's perspective is also in line with that of male secular liberals such as Nicholas Kristof (2004) and Siddharth Kara (2009) who have recently fashioned themselves as the rescuers and saviors of trafficked women. SIGNS Autumn 2010 63 causes of sex trafficking, a framework that helps them to define and reinforce their own perceived freedom and autonomy as Western women. In this regard, they follow what Inderpal Grewal (2005, 142) has identified as the contemporary feminist model of human rights activism, produced by subjects who imagine themselves more ethical and free than their “sisters” in the developing world. One twenty-three-year-old evangelical antitrafficking activist whom I encountered at the Call and Response screening bluntly reflected upon the Christian concern with trafficking in terms of the issue's “sexiness,” noting that "Nightline does specials on it. Arecent photograph from a special issue of the magazine Christianity Today on sex trafficking titled "The Business of Rescue’ makes this dynamic quite clear. Practices of humanitarian tourism reach their pinnacle in the social justice “reality tours’ that both evangelical and secular groups now sponsor, including a sex trafficking tour of Cambodian red-light districts that is jointly sponsored by the evangelical Not for Sale Campaign and the secular-progressive organization Global Exchange (sce http://www globalexchange.org/tours/974.html.pf ). The bar girls look forward to the twice-weeldy visits to speak to women who care about them." 2007, Jimi Allen Productions. Ultimately, business as mission can be scen as a global-capitalist refashioning of the nineteenth-century evangelical practice of "rescuing" women from prostitution by bringing them into domestic labor or teaching them to sew (see Agustin 2007). human rights policy can be used to justify military intervention. Thus, it becomes imperative to ask in both a local and global context-how do policies designed to “protect” women serve to reproduce violence? The appointment of former federal prosecutor Lou de Baca (who has promised to direct his prosecutorial eye toward labor trafficking as well as sex trafficking © http:/www.summarizebot.comcases) as U.S. Ambassador to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons was thus much heralded by the liberal wing of the antitrafficking movement. SIGNS Autumn 2010 67 ceral strategies that this article has described are also becoming common in countries where the religious right holds little influence but where the welfare state is under siege (see, e.g., Sudbury 2005; Ticktin 2008). ‘What may, however, be most significant to the contemporary political landscape around the issue of human trafficking are the possible transformations to neoliberalism itself during an era of economic crisis and the ensuing financial strains that are likely to be placed upon the carceral state (see, c.g., Peters 2009; Steinhauer 2009). One possibility is that as attention continues to shift to so-called domestic forms of trafficking, calls for incarceration may eventually give way to more cost-effective demands for reeducation programs for some offenders and compulsory services for trafficking victims (as feminist and evangelical “treatment” programs for former prostitutes demonstrate). The symbolic and material allegiances that these groups have with the state (via both carceral politics and funding) ensures that only those humanitarian issues that advance a larger set of geopolitical interests (be it border control, waging war, or policing the domestic underclass) are likely to gain traction in the broader public sphere. Globalizing Family Values: The Christian Right in International Politics. Downsizing Prisons: How to Reduce Crime and End Mass Incarceration. “The Pretty Woman Myth.” In Rumors of Our Progress Have Been Greatly Exaggerated: Why Women's Lives Aren't Getting Any Easier- and How We Can Make Real Progress for Ourselves and Our Daughters, 148-64. “Traffic Violations: Determining the Meaning of Violence in Sexual Trafficking versus Sex Work." Journal of Interpersonal Violence 20(3):343-60. "To Cut Costs, States Relax Prison Policies." New York Times, March 24. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/us/25prisons.html. “Deliver Us from Evil: Christian Freedom and Sexual Regulation in the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.” PhD dissertation, Hiff School of Theology and the University of Denver. Trading in sex was certainly not a phenomenon brought cast by British colonists, © http:/www.summarizebot.combut the effects of colonialism were often visible in new forms of commercial sex which arose directly from the material circumstances that colonialism imposed. In Africa, for example, the sharp demographic changes which moved working men out of their customary lifestyles and into single-sex labor barracks created a range of new sexual markets, and indeed practices, by which men made the harsh and isolated life common to the new African economy bearable. Colonial officials concurred with the casual assumption that, as one moved cast, so prostitution became an increasingly common phenomenon. Colonists saw colonial cultures as looser, attaching less stigma to prostitution than the industrialized west. Lucas at the Colonial Office knew that in China and thus in Britain's Chinese-populated colonics, “prostitution is more or less of a recognized character.”S In India, likewise, there were too many “phases and varicties of prostitution” to cnumerate.6 For the British colonial state, prostitution was a problem but it was also both a necessity and a convenient canvas on which to illuminate the greater evils or dangers of uncivilized peoples. Yet at the same time, colonial officials, both in the metropole © 2004 INDIANA UNIVERSITY PRESS, VOL. 15 NO. 4 (WINTER) 160 JOURNAL OF WOMEN'S HISTORY WINTER and in the colonics, recognized the preponderantly masculine forms in which their work was cast and argued strenuously that without prostitution, life in the colonies would be morally and physically dangerous. Like the crumbling civilizations or "primitive" social structures to which she was compared, the prostitute was a throwback, a reminder of why imperial expansion was a“civilizing mission." Modernity and rationality implied containing and channeling sexual instincts in ways that colonists claimed were beyond the reach of less advanced peoples. shame was allegedly absent in colonial cultures, normalizing prostitution in “degraded” societies. Prostitution became a symbol of considerable significance in the condemnation of societies regarded as immoral or amoral, unconcerned with brutalizing women. European women working in Indian brothels, for example, were classified first lass, as were brothels staffed by indigenous women but reserved for British soldiers stationed in India. They were seldom brought 2004 PHILIPPA LEVINE 161 under colonial surveillance on the principle that transmission of disease would have no effect on colonial populations. © http:/www.summarizebot.comThis classificatory scheme also frequently guaranteed women's outsider status from their birth communities. The domestic Contagious Diseases Acts of the 1860s stopped short of legalizing the brothel, fully aware that bourgeois Victorian sensibilities would not countenance such a policy in Britain. Colonial attention rested exclusively on the sexual clement of their occupation, and from the 1860s convictions for dedicating girl children to "temple harlotry’ under sections 372 and 373 of the Indian Penal Code became increasingly common. Their secular counterparts, the courtesans, entertained wealthy men and in pre-colonial India were often attached to the royal court.8 Variations on these traditions were geographically widespread, and although there were important distinctions between the religious and secular traditions as well as between regions, British commentators chose largely to ignore these. Abha Narain speaks of the degencration of art into “crass prostitution,” while BR. Since prostitution was acceptable in colonial socicties, little could be done to extirpate it, and western men could utilize its services without contributing to women's "downfall." Yet the very existence of prostitution indicated the urgent need for imperialism’s mission. The prostitute symbolized difference, and her occupation identified ‘lesser’ populations with sexual anarchy. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project, Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, youll have to check the laws of the country where you are located before using this ebook. A group of women of the British aristocracy have lifted their voices in advocacy of licensed vice; and their sycophants and admirers in England and America are cither re-echoing their plea or excusing their conduct. Iwish that every woman in the United Kingdom could read this little book. I thank God that the writers of this book have been raised up to plead the sacred cause of Justice and of Womanhood; and I rejoice to know that God has bestowed on them a measure of the fearless spirit of the faithful prophets and prophetesses of old, to rebuke national sin and to preach repentance to the people. Then, in 1893, I was a member of the Departmental Committee appointed to hear your evidence, when your clear testimony, which no cross-examination could shake, gave © http:/www.summarizebot.comabundant evidence of your close observation and the accuracy of your records. Some Anglo-Indian Moral Sentiments Appendices 86 99 113 THE [13] QUEEN'S DAUGHTERS IN INDIA. After that experience she sought opportunity to talk with high military officials concerning the necessity of protecting high-born ladies from such risks, by furnishing opportunities for sensual indulgence to the British soldiers, and the result was the claboration and extension of a system for the apportionment of native women to regiments." We have never been able to verify the exact truth of this incident, but it probably has a basisin fact. Yet it has had its counterpart in a recent movement among the aristocratic women of England to re-introduce the same wicked legislation. A Cantonment is a considerable section of land, sometimes comprising several square miles; and within these Cantonments much more arbitrary law prevails than the civil law by which the rest of the country is governed. But this last promise is altogether false, for statistics show that with all their efforts diseases increase with the increase of licentiousness, with small regard. to the military surgeons’ efforts to make it physically safe. ‘When a regiment came into a large Cantonment where there were barracks, there was gencrally a large Government brothel to which all the women were sent for residence, and a guard in uniform looked after them. In charge of the women was placed a superintendent or brothel-keeper, called the “mahaldarni.” She also was expected to procure women as desired; and we have ourselves read the official permits granted these women to go out to procure more women when needed. But during the course of the enquiry of the Departmental Committee of 1893, its real author was discovered to be Lord Roberts himself, not his QuartermasterGencral. The officer in command of the 2nd Battalion Cheshire Regiment sent the following application to the magistrate of Umballa Cantonment: "Requisition for extra attractive women for regimental bazaar, in accordance with Circular Memorandum, 21a." "These women’s fares," it continues, "by one-horse conveyances, from Umballa to Solon, will be paid by the Cheshire Regiment on arrival. But it was not until 1888 that a despatch was sent to India by the Secretary of State for India, whose duty itis to attend to such matters, declaring that the system was “indefensible, and must be condemned.” A copy of Lord Roberts’ “Infamous Memorandum’ fell into the hands of a Christian gentleman who sent it to England. © http:/www.summarizebot.comIt should be explained here that Abolitionists have always recognised that to establish the periodical examination is, in and of itself, to license prostitution; for there can be no possible excuse for the reiterated examination of healthy women, in anticipation of possible contagion, without recognising a certain right to practise prostitution, if the women be pronounced medically “fit’ for such a calling. [2] During this visit we frequently met and talked with Mrs. Josephine Butler, known and revered by lovers of purity throughout the world for her heroic service in the cause of the Abolition of State Regulation of Vice. She expressed a strong desire that while in India in the course of our journey we should make a careful investigation into the conditions prevailing there, and learn, if possible, whether the resolution of the House of Commons of June 5, 1888, was being obeyed. The British Committee of the Federation furnished us with all necessary official documents with which to make ourselves thoroughly conversant with the history of the C. D. Acts throughout the British dependencies in the Orient, and supplied us with a letter of introduction to a staunch friend of the cause in India, with whom we were expected to hold frequent consultations. Travelling northward we arrived at the station designated, and sought an interview with this gentleman. Previous to leaving England we had received information concerning this Cantonment and its Lock Hospital. After other and many futile efforts to reach the truth, we gave ourselves up wholly to prayer, remembering the promise, “They shall come with weeping, and with supplications will lead them. One Sunday we set apart for fasting and prayer-in the morning instructing the native servants at the Rest House where we were staying to leave us uninterrupted until the evening, asit was a sacred day with us, and we wished to be alone. We did not at first venture to ask the way to the Lock Hospital, taking it for granted that this term had long before fallen into disuse, as the existence of this hospital was officially denied. One of these rules made it possible at any time for us to be excluded, for it refers to "persons whom the Commanding Officer deems it expedient to exclude from the Cantonment, with or without assigning any reason for excluding them therefrom” (Cantonments Act, chap. 5, sec. 26, clause 23). Itwas necessary, therefore, that we should not attract attention to the fact that we were making investigations as to whether the resolution of the House of Commons © http:/www.summarizebot.comwas being obeyed or not by the military authorities. The winter season was over, and we were now in the month of March, with the heat of the advancing Indian summer daily increasing in terrible force, and becoming oppressive to our unaccustomed Anglo-Saxon constitutions. One pretty girl said she had been deceived by a bad woman, under promise of employment. Anative guard in uniform drew near to listen. They were grim and horrid reading; we will give but a single illustration: [34] [35] “Ameer has supplied the 2nd Derby Regiment with prostitutes for the past three years, and I recommend her to any other regiment requiring her for a similar capacity. Mahaldarni Rahiman, met in another Cantonment, told us a story closely resembling the methods described in a former chapter (page 20), by a Government official. There was a letter written to her by the Staff-Surgeon of the same regiment, afew days later, saying- "Mahaldarni, Seventh Lancers;You have not brought your women, from Meerut and Ferozepore. You will have to do it or the Colonel will think you have broken faith, as itis now fifteen days since you received your appointment." The Staff-Surgeon evidently thought it an easy task to buy or entrap twelve or fifteen girls in as many days. Katy said she had done so, and with streaming tears reiterated her desire to escape from a life of which she was so ashamed, and pleaded with us to take her. ‘We learned afterwards that Katy had made ineffectual attempts to come to us. Anticipating not the slightest difficulty in this matter, when we represented the case to the magistrate and became surety for the girl's future good conduct and maintenance by a responsible Mission, we decided that it was best to let her have her own way. This the girl herself desired, so we felt obliged to accede, and she gave the cabman the address in Hindustani. [39] [40] [41] A big, coarse woman (this was Katy's sister, but it must not be forgotten that we at this time did not know that her family were so disreputable) came out and sat down on the cot by the sick woman; but as soon as she heard enough of the girl's pleading to know that she was asking permission to escape from her wretched existence, she flew into a passion and struck Katy, and blow would have followed blow had we not interfered. © http:/www.summarizebot.comPoor Katy flung herself dejectedly into a chair, and could not summon up courage to follow us against all this opposition; then a British soldier came up and spoke to her and led her away, while two or three more British soldiers looked on in contemptuous amusement at the scene. The poor creature was too cowed in spirit, from constant bad usage, to resist the determination of officials and soldiers to keep possession of so attractive a slave. British, granddaughter of a former Governor-General, daughter of a General, wife of a Commissioner; eloped with a soldier, and when deserted entrapped by a Mohammedan and kept as a slave, to whom British soldiers resorted in troops, almost, because a white woman; they paid the price of shame to her native master; rescued when almost dead. ‘We ourselves rescued another British woman from the clutches of the same Mohammedan slave-holder. She had suffered horribly at the hands of the British soldiers admitted to her. Cabul girl of high birth who lost her father in the Afghan war. Her husband was beating her cruelly, at the age of fourteen, and she ran away; a policeman seized her and sent her to the Lock Hospital. The Lord appointed all our seasons for us during our Indian investigations. The women received us cordially, although with real astonishment at such unusual visitors. The mahaldarni was not a bad-meaning woman in many regards, and she told us, with great satisfaction, of a sister of hers who had been promoted from the rank of a common soldiers’ woman to be a mahaldarni, saying that she had left off her wickedness, prayed four times a day and read her Koran. She and the girls told of the heavy fines to which they would be liable if they did not go to the examinations, or attempted to leave the Lock Hospital when held there. Again we entered the enclosure surrounding the little tents, and reached the women without attracting the attention of the guard. We were not ordinary detectives, playing a part, but Christian women, and the difference was not to be lost sight of. If a burglar, who had broken into my house and stolen my goods, were to fall and be hurt, I would be glad to get him into a hospital and have him nursed and cured; © http:/www.summarizebot.combut I would not put a ladder up against my window at night and leave the windows open, in order that he might steal my goods without danger of breaking his neck.” But to return to the Lock Hospital mentioned. A policeman comes to your door and reads a warrant for your arrest as a common prostitute; you ask on what authority; you are informed that the name of the informant is not made public, because if a man can be induced to help trace out diseases-it being regarded as a “point of honour" to inform other men where danger lurks-his confession must not be made known, it would injure his reputation. By such a system of delivering over the bodies of women as public property, any [49] [50] [51] woman of humble circumstances upon whom any man of lecherous design casts his eyes, could be made to come to his terms of existence by the aid of the police force, if necessary, and magistrates of evil design could condemn any woman to alife of prostitution. Everywhere we went among the degraded women of India, we found children in the chaklas, these Governmentregulated brothels, with their ever-present guards, so that Englishmen knew perfectly that children were being trained under Government regulation for prostitution. The advocates of licensed prostitution for India are fond of insisting as an excuse for licensing the evil, that it docs no great harm because the recruits come from “the prostitute caste.” Repeatedly we made enquiries of Englishmen, native physicians, and in one case applied to the census office for some information concerning this special class. They are a wholly distinct class from the enslaved women who are sct apart to minister to the vices of the British soldiers. Among the latter we found Hindus of all castes, from high-caste Brahmins down; and we also found Mohammedans, Arabs, Egyptians, Afghans, Kashmiris Jewesses-recruits, in fact, from those among whom “caste” does not prevail. In the chakla we sang, "Where He leads me I will follow,” and its interpretation constituted our Gospel message. With tears in their eyes the girls assured us, with characteristic gesture, that we were “on their eyes and on their hearts"; in other words, had won their affections; and spoke feclingly of the honour it was to them that Englishwomen should come to see them, saying that usually Englishmen forbade their wives to even look at them. We deny it even in regard to the mahaldarnis placed over the women, whom avarice might blind, and the ordinary routine duties of their position might harden. We have felt the beating of their aching hearts against our own; we have heard © http:/www.summarizebot.comhistories that throbbed with the strong agony of betrayed innocence; we have seen a hopeless woe in cyes that will haunt us for ever. It scemed a grand object indeed on the part of Lord Roberts and his subordinates to aim at sending back their discharged soldiers to England free from physical disease, regardless of their manliness, their moral character, their respect for women, and decent habits of life! ‘We requested our cabman to drive us to the quarters of the Government women of the Cantonment. We both exclaimed regarding the remarkable personal appearance of the woman who had addressed us first. It means great hardship; we would starve.” Speaking of the hateful examinations, they said the Queen had forbidden these things, but the officers yet compelled them to go on. The woman at Mrs. Andrew's side told us the following: “Some time ago a lady in Calcutta saw a woman weeping as she was going to the Lock Hospital with other women. She spoke with wonderful power in behalf of the poor women of India. Then the poor old mother threw herself with her forchead on the ground, laying her hands on Mrs. Andrew's fect, and while Mrs. Andrew prayed over her, groaned and cried bitterly, saying, "I am a sinner, 1am a sinner. The advocates of State-regulated fornication contend that diseases duc to vice will be best checked by licensed prostitution, combined with medical care. Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell says: “We may as well expect to cure typhoid fever whilst allowing sewer gas to permeate the house; or cholera, whilst bad drinking water is being taken, as try to cure venereal disease whilst its cause remains unchecked.” Arecent official plea for licensed prostitution in the Cantonments of India declares: “The efforts to teach the soldiers habits of self-control” have “signally failed.” We wish for a moment to consider the efforts that have been used in the past. This report of the Army Health Association has printed on its cover such texts as, “Keep thyself pure,” "He that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption,” ctc.; giving the impression that itis a religious document. The introduction is signed by a Major-General, and the body of the report is written by an army chaplain, secretary to the Association, who has the title of Bachelor of Divinity. © http:/www.summarizebot.comThe language employed in the reportiis often very obscure, and needs close analysis to get at its real meaning. Interspersed with the quotations of Scripture texts, is abominable instruction to the effect that a young man who will confine his visits to the Government licensed brothel can trust the Lord to keep him from contracting disease. How many young soldiers may not have met their first temptation by having a superior officer point them to the Governmentregulated chakla! ‘The official figures of the Indian Army (included in the Report of the Departmental Committee of 1897, strongly advocating a return to licensed prostitution), lie before us. The Army Sanitary Commission testified in 1894 that “a compulsory Lock Hospital system in India has proved a failure." There could be no higher authority to quote; and the attempt to check diseases of this sort by the compulsory Lock Hospital system had then been carried on for the good part of a century in India. Certain women are, it seems, being deceived by the pretence that laws are to be passed which will compel men to attend the periodical examination. What is the use of women clamouring for such a law as long as men enact and enforce all our laws? Such talk is the merest nonsense until only men of good morals control military affairs, and if they did there would be small demand for Lock Hospitals in India. The argumentis, that since it brutalizes and degrades men to cause them to be examined, that they may not propagate discase in England, therefore the native women of India must be brutalized and degraded. ‘When men will not yield their dignity one jot, even for the sake of preserving the health of those women of England who are to become their future wives, what insolent hypocrisy for them to persuade deluded women to help them to bring women under practices so “degrading and brutalizing!" What infinite capacity of servility in the nature of women who will advocate such degrading, brutalizing treatment of women! Itwas suggested, in the first instance, by Sir George White, successor to Lord Roberts as Commander-in-Chief of the forces in India, and reincorporated in the despatch of the Secretary of State as to immediate steps to be taken to check venereal disease, that female medical assistants be employed to conduct the examinations. Itis our belief that respectable women-physicians wish to treat disease-not prostitution. © http:/www.summarizebot.comOne Eurasian woman brought a girl, evidently held as a slave to make money for her; she seemed reluctant to even trust her girl to go alone into the hospital, when her turn came; and as soon as she emerged again, seized her and led her away, the policemen shouting after her in derision, "Mem Sahib! About a hundred women were examined that morning, waiting their turn on the public strect, while the crowd gathered round to discuss the women kept by the Government for British soldiers. We have already referred to the practice of turning cases of secondary, or advanced, disease out of the Cantonment. In spite of holding a degrading position the verdict of the world is “A man's a man for a’ that"; but not so the woman who connects herself with an Eastern Lock Hospital-her dignity would never sustain the shock. It makes not the slightest difference [77] [78] whether the law is called the Health Act, as in Australia, Getz’s Projet de Loi, as in Norway, the Women’s and Girls’ Protection Ordinance, as at Singapore, the Cantonment Acts or the Cantonments Act, or what not-the test of the law, as to its identity with the old infamous C. D. Acts, is, whether women are obliged to submit to compulsory examination. ‘Thus the hospital becomes a Lock Hospital, and fines and imprisonments are imposed on delinquents. Let the banker sitting in his bank, or the merchant in his shop, consider what it would mean for him to be accosted in his own place of business, [80] taken off immediately to the Lock Hospital, examined, and if the doctor so ordered, sent immediately into exile in a hospital for libertines, with no chance to set his house in order or to defend his character from the charge of being a libertine! A Christian woman in Cape Colony heard of the arrest as a common prostitute of a virtuous girl of her acquaintance, and went to the court to secure her release. Practically such a law delivers the reputation of women wholly over to the power of the police. Not only docs correct reason testify to this, but also statistics uphold this statement. ‘We have now shown that the compulsory examination of women brings into existence, of necessity, every feature of what is commonly called the C. D. Acts; and that, as that compulsory examination is of itself a sin, so every feature of the enactments necessary to carry out that law is at cach step liable to fearful abuse, and the system as a whole is ruinous to the morals of any community. © http:/www.summarizebot.comA Departmental Committee was appointed by the Government to receive our evidence. Lord Roberts pronounced them "simply untrue,” and declared that he had recently made a tour of investigation through the Cantonments, and knew that our statements were false. Upon the receipt of our evidence in India there was a Special Commission appointed by the Indian Government, to collect evidence in refutation of our charges, two members of it being instructed to proceed to England therewith, and to give personal testimony in behalf of the Indian Government. The Special Commission did not come before the Committee until August, and we spent much of the interim in addressing public mectings throughout Great Britain, and arousing interest in the subject. Lord Roberts testified that, when the Resolution of 1888 was carried in the House of Commons not permitting the compulsory examination of women or the licensing of prostitution, he understood those measures to mean abolition, not modification, of measures for the regulation of prostitution, and proceeded accordingly. Having read the reports of Mr. Ibbetson’s Committee, in regard to the working of the Rules dealing with the abolition of Lock Hospitals, etc., in Cantonments in India, and also the reports of the officers commanding the seven stations which the Committee did not visit, I frankly admit that the statements of the two American missionary ladies, who made a tour through Upper India in the cold weather of 1891-92, for the purpose of inquiring into the matter, arc in the main correct. Thoped and believed that the orders issued to give effect to the Resolution of the House of Commons had been everywhere obeyed. I deeply regret this, and I feel that an apology is due from me to the ladies concerned. This letter was accompanied by a short note to the Chairman requesting him to annex the letter of apology to the official report of the proceedings of the Committee. The Surgeon-General was consulted; then the Circular was issued under the authority of the Commander-in-Chief. As this well illustrates the utter unreliability of many Anglo-Indian official assertions, we will copy a condensed and simplified extract from the proceedings of that session of the Committee at which we placed official document against official document, and pointed out irreconcilable differences. At the head of an oval polished table sat Mr. Russell, the chairman; to his left © http:/www.summarizebot.comsat General Newmarch, Sir Donald Stewart,and Sir James Peile. To the chairman's right sat the late Sir James Stansfeld, whose prerogative it was to conduct the examination; next to him were Mr. Casserley, Q.C., counsel for our side, and Henry J. Wilson, M.P. It is to be understood that Mr. Stansfeld asks the questions and we answer: Question-We will pass to the book of requisition for tickets. Q-Have you seen the Report of the Commanding Officer for the regiment dated 19th June, 1893, and docs it state that no tickets had been issued for the regiment since February, 1891? The statement of Captain Goff, commanding the Royal Artillery. That note says, "No registration of prostitutes or issue of tickets in any form whatever has ever been carried out by the Royal Artillery since the present battery came to the station, February, 1891." Q-What you find is that twenty tickets were issued? Acltis since February, 1891, according to this book some twenty tickets have been issued for the Royal Artillery. Q-Did I understand you to say that you found twenty tickets were issued to the women of the Artillery? The procedure under the rules you propose is as follows: The medical officer is informed by a soldier that a certain woman is discased. We have referred to the discrepancies between the statements of Lord Roberts and of General Chapman; between Lord Roberts’ first attempt to discredit our evidence and subsequent admission of its truth; between the records that had been kept at the Lock Hospitals which we visited in India and the statements sent home by the Special Commission. ‘The official figures of the very document which was meant to originate the alarm, the Report of the Departmental Committee of 1897 shall testify. England virtually owns a whole nation of slaves in her control of India, and the effect of this fact upon the morals of that country will depend wholly upon whether she rules to redeem her subjects or to enrich herself. And this form of villainy is always excusing itself by slandering the oppressed women. Most of these women are prostitutes by caste and can feel no desire to give it up,” says the Report of the Special Commission of 1893. © http:/www.summarizebot.comOne would imagine them gray-haired in the service of Satan, from these accounts, and yet General Viscount Frankfort states in the Report of the Special Commission of 1893: "Itis roughly estimated that 50 per cent. And will women physicians be induced to attempt the task of keeping these mere children in health under such conditions? Anglo-Indian sentiment would not long content itself with the loss of its highly prized C. D. Acts. And the Army Sanitary Commission, the highest British medical authority, had in 1894 pronounced this prolonged experiment with licensed vice a failure, in the following unequivocal language:- "The facts, so far as we can ascertain them, lead us to the conclusion that a compulsory Lock Hospital system in India has proved a failure, and that its re-institution cannot consequently be advocated on sanitary grounds. Now the Cantonments Act Amendment Act became a law in India, February 8, 1895, and how much time clapsed before this Amendment Act came into practical operation remains yet to be shown; yet an attempt is made to show that incalculable mischief has been done during these cleven months of the actual existence of the law which abolished licensed prostitution. No woman should be allowed to remain in this quarter unless periodically examined by properly qualified women doctors. The Government of India proceeded at once to repeal the Cantonments Act Amendment Act of 1895, in the Viceregal Council held at Simla July 8, which action had received the approval of Lord George Hamilton by telegram, July 6, 1897. Learning cannot take the place of the inspiration of faith; statistics can never teach morals as forcibly as "Thus saith the Lord.” More than this: statistics can never overturn the "Thou shalt not" of an Almighty God. Looking upon the vices of those about Him, and the inevitable crop of increasing vice, with its attendant misery, to which his people were tending, He cried: "It must needs be that offences come; but,” He added, “woe to that man by whom the offence cometh!" And shall we listen to proposals to sct aside the sentence of Divine Justice for the tradition of men, and embody in human legislation the teaching, “It must needs be that offences come; but peace to that man by whom the offence cometh"? Her father was Scotch, she said-her mother, Portuguese; she had been trained by Dr. c-. She went every day to the brothels and examined the women. © http:/www.summarizebot.com[10] Lady Henry Somerset addressed a letter to Lord George Hamilton, January 27th, 1898, withdrawing these propositions. such a tardy withdrawal cannot undo the mischief wrought to the native girls of India by the repeal of the Cantonment Acts Amendment Act of 1895 (see Appendix C). A. Fac-simile Reproduction of the Circular Memorandum issued by Lord Roberts. Appendix A. [114] [ranscriber's Note: The following text is the transcription of a page of a multi-part document. The photographic reduction of the following document was originally issued by the Friends’ Association for Abolishing the State Regulation of Vice. List of Senior Officers On the 4th and 7th Aug., 1893, Lord Roberts disclaimed knowledge of the contents of the Circular Memorandum of Junc 17th, 1886 (see pages 63 and 84 of Parliamentary Return [C. 7148], of 1893). On his return to headquarters he discussed the matter with the Surgeon-General and the Quartermaster-General. A copy was sent to the Military Department of the Government of India for their information, and the reccipt thercof acknowledged by them. CIRCULAR MEMORANDUM.--Addressed to General Officers Commanding Divisions and Districts Cantonment Lock Hospitals Office of Quartermaster General in India, Army Head Quarters, Simla, 17 June 1886. In former years His Excellency the Commander in Chief has frequently impressed on General and Commanding Officers the necessity for adopting Vide Précis of Circulars attached stringent measures to reduce the chances of venereal disease spreading more widely amongst the soldiers of the Army. Frequent medical inspections should be ordered, and every endeavour should be made to make the men realize their own responsibility in assisting their officers, by indicating the women from whom disease has been acquired. The medical inspection of all detachments before leaving or entering a cantonment should be enforced by General Officers. In conclusion, His Excellency desires me to impress upon all concerned the necessity for meeting the present difficulty by increased individual effort. RELATING TO CONTAGIOUS DISEASES (EAST INDIA) Précis of Circulars issued in the Quartermaster General's Department regarding the adoption of stringent Measures to reduce the chances of Venereal Disease spreading more widely amongst the Soldiers of the Army. © http:/www.summarizebot.comForwards copy of a communication from the Government of India No. 51, dated to that of Bombay, regarding the disposal of incurable women 23rd August 1872. attending Lock Hospitals, in which the former approves of a proposal to employ an incurable woman on small wages in the duties of the hospital at Mhow. Directs that the practice of levying registration fees from prostitutes be discontinued. Requests that it may be pointed out to regimental Commanders, and the Lock Hospital Sub-Committees, whose special duty it is to supervise the working of the Lock Hospital rules, how important it is that they should more actively exert themselves to check the prevalence of this disease. The kind treatment of the women and every reasonable inducement being held out to them to attend the Lock Hospital when suffering from discase. Commanding Officers of regiments and batteries are to report at once to the General Officer Commanding, when any increase of venereal disease occurs amongst their men. Such reports to show the supposed causes of the increase, and the measures adopted for its suppression, and after remark by the Deputy Surgeon General to be forwarded to the Quartermaster General's Office. The Lock Hospital Sub-Committee are to beassembled at least once a month, and their reports forwarded to General Officers Commanding. These medical examinations are of importance in detecting the existence and arresting the spread of venereal disease. Forwards for information and guidance an extract from a ruling of the Chief Court, Punjab, regarding the registration of women convicted of practising i prostitution. Soldiers who have been diseased by registered women, have been frequently known to attribute it to women met in their walks outside the bazaar, and the diseased ‘woman has thus been allowed to practise her trade in this state for sometime without detection. Requests that the attention of Officers Commanding Stations may be drawn to the desirability when constructing free quarters for registered women, of providing houses that will meet the wishes of the women. ‘The following is the full text of the letter of retractation which Lady Henry Somerset addressed to Lord George Hamilton, January 27, as it appeared in the London daily papers of February 8, 1898: Eastnor Castle, Ledbury, Jan. 27, 1898. © http:/www.summarizebot.comDear Lord George Hamilton Your lordship invited me ten months ago to give you my view of the dispatch that has been addressed to the Government of India on the health of the army, and in a letter in which I did so I ventured to suggest some methods, moral and disciplinary, which seemed to me the only ones likely to succeed, because they had at least the merit of being logical. It scems to have been the object of the Government to obtain the maximum of impunity, with the minimum of protest, from those who desire to see the State shape its actions according to Christian views of ethics. A public retractation is a hard and painful process, and we sympathize with Lady Henry in the mental strain which it must have cost her. Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without permission and without paying copyright royalties. special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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For forty years, he produced and distributed Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only aloose network of volunteer support. Q&A: POLICY TO PROTECT THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF SEX WORKERS 1. Why does Amnesty International need a policy to protect the human rights of sex workers? Sex workers are at risk of a whole host of human rights abuses including: Rape Violence Trafficking Extortion Arbitrary arrest and detention Forced eviction from their homes Harassment Discrimination Exclusion from health services Forced HIV testing Lack of legal redress We have recorded many instances where police - as well as clients, and other members of the general public- have inflicted abuses against sex workers with impunity. It does mean the removal of laws and policies criminalizing or penalizing sex work. Under this model there is better scope for sex workers’ rights to be protected-whether that be: access to health care; their ability to report, crimes to the authorities; their ability to organise and work together for increased safety; or the comfort of knowing that their family will not be charged for “living off the proceeds" of sex work. ‘Those who sell sex need protection, but why protect the "pimps"? Amnesty International believes the law should be used to tackle acts of exploitation, abuse and trafficking in sex work; but we do not believe that catch-all offences that make sex workers’ lives less safe are the most effective way to do this. Does Amnesty International believe that paying for sex work is a human right? © http:/www.summarizebot.comInstead of the removal of laws criminalizing sex workers, legalization means the introduction of laws and policies specific to sex work to formally regulate it. Amnesty is not opposed to legalization per se; but governments must make sure the system respects the human rights of sex workers. We note that there is still scope for criminalization and related human rights abuses under legalization as some sex workers can be left operating outside of the law in legalized systems. Tunisian sex workers working in licensed brothels who wish to leave their jobs must obtain authorization from the police and demonstrate they can carn a living through "honest" means. Doesn't decriminalizing sex work just encourage human trafficking? To be clear: decriminalizing sex work would not mean removing criminal penalties for trafficking. States must have laws in place which criminalize trafficking, and use them effectively to protect victims and bring traffickers to justice. But criminalization of sex work can hinder the fight against trafficking - for example, victims may be reluctant to come forward if they fear the police will take action against them for sclling sex. Where sex work is criminalized, sex workers are also excluded from workplace protections which could increase oversight and help identify and prevent trafficking. Several anti-trafficking organizations including Freedom Network USA, the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women and La Strada International believe that decriminalization of sex work would have a positive role to play in the fight against trafficking. Regardless of their intention, laws against buying sex and against the organisation of sex work can harm sex workers. They often mean that sex workers have to take more risks to protect buyers from detection by the police. Amnesty International neither supports nor condemns commercial sex. ‘We recognise that there are fundamental differences of opinion on the issue of decriminalization of sex work and we respect the views of those who arc not supportive of the position we have taken. © http:/www.summarizebot.com‘We want to have a respectful and open dialogue about the best ways to protect the human rights of sex workers. ‘We conducted detailed research first hand research in Argentina, Hong Kong, Norway and Papua New Guinea, and consulted more than 200 sex workers from around the world. Our offices around the world also contributed to the policy through extensive and open consultation with sex worker groups, groups representing survivors of prostitution, organizations promoting criminalization, feminist and other women's rights representatives, LGBIT activists, anti-trafficking agencies, HIV/AIDS activists and many others. Al index: POL 30/4173/2016 2/22/23, 7:06 PM Amnesty International publishes policy and research on protection of sex workers’ rights - Amnesty International Which language would you like to use this site in? ENGLISH ESPANOL FRANCAIS CLOSE1@AFP/Getty Images May 26, 2016 Amnesty International publishes policy and research on protection of sex workers’ rights “Ifa customer is bad you need to manage it yourself to the end. If you call the police, you lose everything.” -Sex worker in Norway Amnesty International is today publishing its policy on protecting sex workers from human rights violations and abuses, along with four research reports on these issues in Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong, Norway and Argentina. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/amnesty-international-publishes-pol icy-and-research-on-protection-of-sex-workers-rights/ 1/11 2/22/23, 7:06 PM Amnesty International publishes policy and research on protection of sex workers’ rights - Amnesty International "Sex workers are at heightened risk of a whole host of human rights abuses including rape, violence, extortion and discrimination. Far too often they receive no, or very little, protection from the law or means for redress,” said Tawanda Mutasah, Amnesty International's Senior Director for Law and Policy. Our research highlights their testimony and the daily issues they face.” Policy Amnesty International's policy is the culmination of extensive worldwide consultations, a considered review of substantive evidence and international human rights standards and firsthand research, carried out over more than two years. Its formal adoption and publication follows a democratic decision made by Amnesty International's global movement in August 2015, available here, which was reported widely at the time. The policy makes several calls on governments including for them to ensure protection from harm, exploitation and coercion; the participation of sex workers © http:/www.summarizebot.comin the development of laws that affect their lives and safety; an end to discrimination and access to education and employment options for all. This is based on evidence that these laws often make sex workers less safe and provide impunity for abusers with sex workers often too scared of being penalized to report crime to the police. Laws on sex work should focus on protecting people from exploitation and abuse, rather than trying to ban all sex work and penalize sex workers. ‘We want governments to make sure no oneis coerced to sell sex, or is unable to leave sex work if they choose to,” said Tawanda Mutasah. "Sex workers have told us how criminalization enables the police to harass them and not prioritise their complaints and safety,” said Tawanda Mutasah. Rather than focusing on protecting sex workers from violence and crime, law enforcement officials in many countries focus on prohibiting sex work through surveillance, harassment and raids. Amnesty International's research shows that sex workers often get no, or very little, protection from abuse or legal redress, even in countries where the act of sclling sex itself is legal. Papua New Guinea In Papua New Guinea, itis illegal to live off the earnings of sex work and to organize commercial sex. Homosexuality is also criminalized and is the primary basis for prosecuting male sex workers. Sex workers in Papua New Guinea suffer extreme levels of stigma, discrimination and violence, including rape and murder. A survey conducted by academic researchers in 2010 found that, within a six month period, 50% of sex workers in Papua New Guinea's capital Port Moresby had been raped by clients or by the police. Mona, a sex worker who is homeless, recounted to Amnesty International: "The police started to beat my friend [a client] and me... Six police officers did sex to me one by one. If Igo to the law, they cannot help me as sex work is against the law in PNG." The police in Papua New Guinea have used condoms as evidence against sex workers, who are often stigmatized and accused of being “spreaders” of disease. This discourages many sex workers from obtaining sexual and reproductive health information and services including on HIV/AIDS. © http:/www.summarizebot.comMary, a female sex worker, explained: “When the police catch us or hold us, if they find condoms on us they bash us up and say we are promoting sex or you are the ones spreading this sickness like HIV. Queen, a sex worker in Hong Kong Not only do sex workers in Hong Kong receive little protection from the police but they are sometimes deliberately targeted by them. Amnesty International's research shows that police officers often misuse their powers to set up and punish sex workers through entrapment, extortion and coercion. Undercover police officers are permitted to receive certain sexual services from sex workers in the course of their work to secure evidence. Norway In Norway, purchasing sex is illegal but the direct act of selling sex is not. https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/amnesty-international-publishes-p olicy-and-rescarch-on-protection-of-sex-workers-rights/ 5/11 2/22/23, 7:06 PM Amnesty International publishes policy and research on protection of sex workers’ rights - Amnesty International I went to the house of a man. I don’t want it on my records, Sex worker in Norway Amnesty International heard how some sex workers who have reported violence to the police in Norway have been evicted from their homes or deported as a result of engaging with the police. Under Norway's laws, sex workers are at risk of forced evictions as their landlords can be prosecuted for renting property to them if they sell sex there. Itis unlawful for the police and prosecutors in Buenos Aires to consider an individual's appearance, dress or manners when enforcing a law criminalizing communications around sex work in public. However, this type of profiling frequently occurs-with the police specifically targeting transgender sex workers in their operations. " We didn't have any real access to health care services because whenever we went to hospitals we were laughed at or the last ones to be attended to by doctors, Transgender former sex worker, Buenos Aires, Argentina “We didn't have any real access to health care services because whenever we went to hospitals we were laughed at or the last ones to be attended to by doctors,” one former sex worker who is transgender told Amnesty International. Governments must act to protect the human rights of all people, sex workers included. © http:/www.summarizebot.comhttps://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2016/05/amnesty-international-publishes-pol icy-and-research-on-protection-of-sex-workers-rights/ 8/11 2/22/23, 7:06 PM Amnesty International publishes policy and research on protection of sex workers’ rights - Amnesty International These include the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women; Global Commission on HIV and the Law; Human Rights Watch; UNAIDS; the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health; and World Health Organization. And what we have heard - we have had many Swedish advocates coming to show us how they implement their policy - is that they surveil sex workers to catch clients. It scems to be difficult to get the clients without harassing the sex workers. We have assisted individuals during the criminal proceedings against buyers of sex. Cases regarding ‘victims of trafficking for the purposes of sexual exploitation’ might also lead to two big criminal processes taking place. Furthermore, at a more structural level, we lobby for better and safer assistance for victims of trafficking and for more effective criminal investigation and proceedings concerning trafficking in human beings. The basic logic is to make it less likely for women to work under pimps or criminal gangs, I would assume, but what does this do to sex workers organising themselves into collectives? In principle all activities carried out by so-called third parties - anybody apart from the person selling sex and the person buying sex- are criminalised as pimping, or, when it comes to exploitation and violence, as trafficking in human beings. Even helping someone to advertise selling sexual services could be interpreted as pimping. So in practice, most people would fall under the category of people from whom you shouldn't buy sex. We also have a public order act that prohibits people from selling sex in public spaces, and buying sex from public spaces. For non-EU citizens, there is however a provision in the Finnish Aliens Act that makes suspicion that they will be selling sexual services grounds for refusing entry into the country. Sam Okyere (oD): In that sort of context, how do they identify victims of trafficking and differentiate them from something clse? © http:/www.summarizebot.comIn 2006 we got this partial criminalisation of buying sex, and apart from that laws and practices have developed to assist victims of trafficking. From the point of view of an NGO working with persons whose situation can be identified as human trafficking, it has proven hard to convince people that seeking help from authorities could be a safe option. Finland is quite a homogenous country, and the police carry out this type of ethnic profiling. Essi: I think it can be said that advocating both for sex workers’ rights and for the rights of victims of trafficking is considered controversial in the Nordic countries. I think this is possible because in Finland the atmosphere surrounding the debates about sex work and trafficking in human beings is nowadays less radical. I think that in Finland, the discussion no longer centres on claims that sex work (or prostitution/sexual exploitation in this discourse) endangers or negatively affects the rights and socictal positions of ‘all women’. Subscribe Privacy Do Not Sell My Data https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/beyond-traf ficking-and-slavery/false-promise-of-nordic-model-of-sex-work/ 9/11 2/22/23, 7:07 PM The false promise of the Nordic model of sex work | openDemocracy Related SEX WORKER RIGHTS BTS ON SEX WORK SEX WORK DECRIMINALIZATION EUROPE This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International licence. Aslam Khaki v SSP Rawalpindi (Supreme Court, 2009) Human Rights Watch, This Alien Legacy, (excerpts) https://www-icj.org/wpcontent/uploads/2012/07/Khaki-v.Rawalpind -Supreme-Court-ofPakistan.pdf, Criminal Tribes Act, 1871 Optional: John Woods, Quecring Criminology: Overview of the Ficld,” Handbook of LGBT Communities, Crime & Justice (Springer, 2014) The impact of colonial policies and Victorian values on the status of transgender persons today and the resulting moral panic. Does the Khaki decision and the Transgender Persons (Protection) Act, 2018, undo them? Consider elements of moral panic and subcultures studied in earlier classes. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://aboutjstor.org/terms Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Modern Asian Studies This content downloaded from 110.93.234.10 on Wed, 22 Feb 2023 14:17:14 UTC All use subject to https://aboutjstor.org/terms C Cambridge University Press 2017 Modern Asian Studies 51, 5 (2017) pp. 1283-1310. © http:/www.summarizebot.comI draw upon Partha Chatterjec’s notion of political socicty to situate this relationship. As such, I seck to strengthen prior discussions located in India and Pakistan. Further, this article challenges the problematic assumptions in mainstream queer politics that Muslim socicties are static and ahistorical assumptions that appear to assume progress and struggle for sexual rights to be a Western attribute. In so doing, I extend carlier critiques arguing for a more complex understanding of the rule of non-normative sexualities in Muslim societies and suggest that colonial policies that regulated and criminalized the more fluid forms of sexuality in Muslim societies were incorporated in the imperial project of civilizing nonEuropean cultures. The stability of colonial policies regarding sexuality was challenged in 2009 when the Pakistani state gave political recognition to trans communities, identifying them as citizens of a modern state. Introduction The harsh nature of punishment for homosexuality in Muslim socicties has strengthened the view that Muslims criminalize all desires that fall outside the heteronormative. Scholars have examined the lives of transgendered individuals as well as the unfolding of their sexuality in a varicty of Muslim contexts.2 This article, however, limits the investigation to pre-colonial and colonial India as well as contemporary Pakistan and examines the struggle for citizenship rights by individuals frequently referred by a myriad of names including khwaja sara and hijra. Neither men nor women, such folk have been considered members of a third sex in South Asia for the last 3,000 years.6 Further, they do not always sec individual expressions of desire as the sole defining features of their lives. Aimed at promoting unification among gender variant communities by placing focus on gender transgression over specific identity labels, genders, or bodies’. Trans helps to provide a similar umbrella term for the myriad articulations of trans individuals in Pakistan and India. This content downloaded from 110.93.234.10 on Wed, 22 Feb 2023 14:17:14 UTC All use subject to https://aboutjstor.org/terms 1286 SHAHNAZ KHAN Vanita11 notes that Khwaja sara were frequently powerful and wealthy noblemen who identified, dressed as, and were addressed as men. Despite having lower status than khwaja sara, hijra had also been awarded sanads (and deeds) and cash stipends by the various states in which they lived.15 © http:/www.summarizebot.comMoreover, they had a codified right to beg, which 11 R. Vanita, Gender, Sex and the City, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2012. 12 This content downloaded from 110.93.234.10 on Wed, 22 Feb 2023 14:17:14 UTC All use subject to https://about,jstor.org/terms THE STRUGGLE FOR RIGHTS IN PAKISTAN. 1287 was interpreted as money extortion by the British and disallowed by the colonial state. Another role for hijra has been that of badhai dance performers at celebrations marking the birth of a male child. Officials of the East India Company, and after 1857, the British colonial government in India, could not reconcile such ‘barbarous’ practices with acceptable European codes of morality and attempted to curtail them in the name of what they considered public decency. The colonial state declared ‘obscene acts and songs’ a crime16 and, in 1860, they inserted section 377 into the new Indian Penal Code, which criminalized sodomy and punished those who have carnal intercourse that the state considered against ‘the order of nature’. Further, in 1871, laws to regulate these folk were included in the Criminal Tribes Act by the British Governor General of India. Changes in inheritance laws meant that khwaja sara and hijra could not pass on sanads and hereditary stipends to their disciples. The very fact that these communities exist today is proof that the laws did not succeed in climinating their way of life. British victory over Indian rebels in 1857, Vanita19 notes, consolidated 16 Government of Punjab, India, Indian Penal Code Act No XLV of 1860, 1860, http://punjabrevenue.nic.in/crimet.htm [accessed 8 February 2017]. Many Indians, particularly those educated through British education, reimagined an Indian culture drawn from a remote pure past-one that was also influenced by their understandings of Victorian England. Saleem Kidwai21 found no evidence of discrimination among the Muslim empires of pre-colonial India and he notes that same-sex relations were often publicly celebrated. Yet comments made by other writers, including Sir Syed Ahmed Khan,22 the influential Muslim reformer Shah Waliullah,23 Aziz Ahmad,24 and Muhammad Faiz Buksh,25 identify attitudes also circulating about these individuals in Indian literature from the thirteenth century onwards that assign an ambiguous position to individuals who did not embrace heteronormativity. © http:/www.summarizebot.comColonial penal codes regulating trans communities were largely accepted by the post-colonial states of India and Pakistan. As [begin to examine recent struggles for rights by khwaja sara and hijra lives in Pakistan, I need to identify an important aspect of their lives: a blurring of boundaries between hijra and khwaja sara. Complicating the boundaries in Pakistan While the colonial rulers have left, the prejudice their policies contributed to continues in post-colonial South Asia, including in Pakistan, Although a few khwaja sara are born intersex, the vast majority who join khwaja sara communities do so as biological males who choose dress as females or who are in various stages of transition from male to female. Morcover, khwaja sara frequently chose to emphasize their difference through forms of dress and sexualized innuendos. Khwaja sara not only challenge established gender binaries; they also blur communal boundaries that social scientists and historians27 maintain are a legacy of the British divide and rule policy in colonial India. Further, they are also vulnerable to extortion, as well as physical and sexual violence, including forms of custodial violence and rape and violence from religious groups situating them among the most marginalized groups in socicty. In order to avoid situating them as such, I turn to Partha Chatterjec's32 notion of political society to situate interviews with khwaja sara conducted between January and April 2014 in Lahore and Karachi to appreciate their struggle for rights in Pakistan. Struggle for citizenship and sexual rights Chatterjee speaks of a political society in areas of the global south, including South Asia, which consists of rural peasants and the urban poor outside of the hegemonic civil society institutions controlled by the bourgeoisie. Itis within political society that Chatterjee locates traditional culture. Chatterjec’s comments help us locate the bulk of research on this community in Pakistan, which has largely focused on gathering data connected to health and AIDS prevention, positioning them as sick bodies that need to be cured, 33 Chatterjec34 argues that access to state institutions of modernity under colonial rule and later in post-colonial South Asia largely remains restricted to those who have the benefit of expensive European-style education. Such processes ensure that large numbers of individuals within the nation state have only a fragile connection to civil society and its institutions. © http:/www.summarizebot.comTheir limited education is connected to a common thread in their lives. In effect, we have a guru/chcla welfare system in which the chela finds acceptance in a community and helps support her guru who in turn provides support and protection to the chela. Khaki, an advocate specializing in Islamic law, was secking justice for the sexual and physical violation of khwaja sara performers by the police in Taxila on 23 January 2009.37 The case resulted in the following statement from Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, who identified knwaja sara as cunuchs, claiming that they ‘are also the citizens of 36 Ibid., p. 57. D. Walsh, ‘Harassed, intimidated, abused: but now Pakistan's hijra transgender minority finds it voice’, The Guardian, 29 January 2010, http://www guardian.co.uk/ world/2010/jan/29/hijra-pakistan-transgender-rights [accessed 8 February 2017]. 37 This content downloaded from 110.93.234.10 on Wed, 22 Feb 2023 14:17:14 UTC All use subject to https://aboutjstor.org/terms 1294 SHAHNAZ KHAN Pakistan and should be given fundamental rights guaranteed in the constitution. This ruling had profound implications for khwaja sara, as such a cardis a requirement for Pakistanis in all facets of their interaction with the state and its institutions, including opening a bank account, registering in a school, accessing health care, and obtaining a passport and a driving license. Qasim Iqbal39 of NAZ Male Health Alliance, a Lahore-based nongovernmental organization, claims that the term ‘Eunuch’, although it identifies a statistically insignificant intersex minority among khwaja sara, allows the state to politically recognize members of this community without challenging its own section 377, which renders sodomy illegal, or the Hadood Ordinance, which only gives legal validity to conjugal heterosexual sex through which a man's penis penetrates a woman's vagina. This ruling was challenged in 2011 when Khwaja sara in Karachi began the registration process and were asked to undergo medical tests to verify that they were indeed cunuchs and suffering ‘a gender disorder’. Why is our word not enough?’41 The activism in Karachi led to the Supreme Court's diffusing what could possibly be a volatile matter, as subsequent Supreme Court directives do not mention the hormonal-testing requirement. Although the Supreme Court's directives specifically targeted cunuchs, khwaja sara who are largely not eunuchs challenged the state through street protests and slipped through the cracks between the Supreme Court directives and its inability/unwillingness to implement them. © http:/www.summarizebot.comAs such, they gained political recognition for their communities as asexual citizens without submitting to invasive medical tests that might prove them to be otherwise. Nevertheless, each trans individual that I spoke to thanked Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, the chief justice of the Supreme Court at the time, for granting them political rights in Pakistan and prayed that Allah would answer all his prayers. The court's decision to accept the legal and civil presence of khwaja sara, according to an unpublished report by the lawyer Atar Minnuah,42 draws strongly on Islamic codes. Although they served as a milestone in the life of the khwaja sara communities in Pakistan, the Supreme Court's decisions did not happen in a vacuum. Suffering malnutrition, they would come home to cook and then sexually service their husbands at night. Working in rural communities made Rana and the other khwaja sara realize that they were more empowered than the women they were working with. The social work in Sindh strengthened Rana’s resolve to put through the paperwork and set up the Gender Interactive Alliance as a non-governmental organization in Karachi. The 2009 Supreme Court decision came through before the paperwork was approved by the Sindh government in 2010. Boby claimed that, before the 2009 decision, the situation for khwaja sara was quite bleak, as they did not exist in civil society. Boby44 noted that Pakistan Television, the only station at the time, was not allowed to use the term ‘khwaja sara’ on air. ‘We were grateful if the police only took our money and did beat us or lock us 43 44 Rana, ‘Interview’. It was like a jungle for us.45 Boby states that money was not an issue for her community at the time, as they got paid at functions. We could not even complain to the police as they would not register cases for issues we identified.’ Around 1997, Boby realized the unfairness of this behaviour towards her community and she, along with ‘Mamma Neelo, Mai Sadiko and Apa Shamim decided we need to do something. Unable to stand for election, Boby turned her attention to mobilizing her community and protesting police violence and brutality. © http:/www.summarizebot.comBy 2004, this number had grown to 150 when a group, led by Boby, walked up to a police station and retrieved Rs 50,000 that the police had stolen from khwaja sara at a function. The protest against the Taxila incident drew 500 khwaja sara on 26 January 2009, when Boby and the protesters attacked a thana and retrieved the Rs 260,000, which the police had stolen from them. At this moment, Aslam Khaki entered the scene, initiating a case against the police three weeks after the Taxila incident. Boby claims: ‘While we appreciate Khaki and what he has donc he did not consult any member of the khwaja sara community before filing the petition.'47 Boby faults him for this. Khaki, on the other hand, notes that there was no concerted movement for rights among the khwaja sara and they were struggling ‘in individual pockets’.48 He acknowledges that he did not seck input 45 Boby, ‘Interview’. Instead, Khaki locates his support for their rights in his own unease with the open abuse that khwaja sara had been experiencing in Pakistan. Perhaps the media are looking for sensational stories to generate audience interest and they invite khwaja sara to participate. Referring to media offerings featuring the trans communities, Rana notes: The news spread in the media as a new event to sensationalize-a new spectacle. ‘They would show this in press media and people would like it as it took mind away from bombings.52 49 An International Bar Association Human Rights report, ‘A long march to justice: a report on judicial independence and integrity in Pakistan’, 5 September 2009, p. 6, https://www.google.co.uk/#q=A+Long+March+to+Justice:+A+report+on+ judicial+independence+ and+integrity+in+Pakistan+ September+2009& [accessed 2 March 2017). This decision was overturned by the Supreme Court of India. In addition to dance performances and interviews, the media also feature khwaja sara demanding rights. Look I have documented police brutality towards our community. Boby’s comments remind us that changes in laws do not always translate into changes at the grassroots level. Recall that the Gender Interactive Alliance was founded by Bindiya Rana and her © http:/www.summarizebot.comcommunity of activists in Karachi in 2008. On its internet website, the Gender Interactive Alliance identifies itself as a non-governmental organization that is actively involved in providing services, lobbying, and demanding rights for transgender communities (a term they use interchangeably with khwaja sara). Among our foremost projects is lobbying with the government to recognize trans-gender people as equal citizens of Pakistan’'56 A video posted on the website shows Rana taking her demands to the doors of the National Data Base and Registration Authority, where she asks that officials comply with Supreme Court rulings and provide identity cards that recognize members of her community as khwaja 56 GIA, http://genderinteractivealliance.wordpress.com/ [accessed 8 February 2017]. If they do not issue such cards, she claims that ‘they are in contempt of SC rulings and we will challenge NADRA and our community will come and protest outside NADRA'. Rana insists that the state should implement its own regulations and be subject to its own penalties. By 2011, the National Data Base and Registration Authority and the Supreme Court had consulted with members of the khwaja sara communities and identified five gender categories on the ID form: male, female, male khwaja sara, female khwaja sara, and khunsi mushkil (intersex). The various categories identify interesting facets of Khwaja sara struggle. First, the state has moved its position and accepted that there are other khwaja sara beside the asexual eunuch. Members of these communities frequently desire to go for haj in Mecca-as female Khwaja sara, they will be subject to the same rules as females and will require a mahram.57 Further, khwaja sara are aware that inheritance claims by male khwaja sara and female khwaja sara parallel male and female inheritance rights under sharia law in Pakistan. Given this gender disparity in inheritance laws whereby a female inherits half of what her brother does, many khwaja sara are choosing the male khwaja sara option and, in so doing, staking their claim for a greater share of inheritance than those accorded to female Khwaja sara. These processes identify contradictions in their lives. Recall that the British colonial government had taken away their inheritance rights. © http:/www.summarizebot.com