Kafa launches its campaign against sex work

Kafa Violence and Exploitation launched yesterday its new campaign on sex work in Lebanon.  Kafa highlights that sex work is a form of violence and exploitation of women and a reflection of patriarchy and a blatant abuse of women’s rights and entitlement to personal safety and equality. The event kicked off with the presentation of a documentary entitled “the oldest form of violence” which highlights the social and economic vulnerability of girls and their exploitation by their pimps.  The documentary also looked at the demand side and interviewed buyers of sexual services.  The event then moved to the coordinator of the anti-exploitation and trafficking project in Kafa, Ghada Jabbur, who presented the findings of the study, entitled “Exploring the demand for prostitution; what male buyers say about their motives, practices and perceptions.”  The study sought to understand the behavior of sex clients in Lebanon and concluded that clients purchase sexual services to meet their desires and their expressions of masculinity which, in turns, highlights the uneven relation of power between clients and sex workers.
Lawyer Nizar Saghieh commented on the documentary and said that public authorities do not perform their role which should consist in combating such forms of exploitation and violence against women while the current law penalizes both sex workers and pimps.  He also added that although progress was made after ratifying the convention on trafficking in people, however the law has left the burden of proof on women to demonstrate that they have been exploited and trafficked.

Source: Al-Safir, Al-Akhbar 16 September 2014