How I Became an Advocate for Sex Workers' Rights

African feminist and writer Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah discusses the evolution of her views on sex work. Although she grew up in a patriarchal society, she began to question efforts to control women’s choices around their bodies and sexualities. Yet she still assumed that sex workers "had no choice but to do sex work."

While attending an international AIDS conference in 2010, she asked: “Why would anyone choose to do sex work?” The response of panelists and others to her question began her journey of learning more about sex work. Through engaging resources, attending events, and listening to the stories of sex workers, she came to understand that sex work can be "a logical choice.”

Because sex work is criminalized, sex workers often face violence at the hands of police. Stigma, including that from feminists, contributes to the violence and criminalization. This is why we must fight for sex workers’ rights and the decriminalization of sex work.

Rather than judge, she invites feminists to educate ourselves and to see feminism and sex workers’ rights as intertwined.

Sadly, the issue of sex workers’ rights continues to be a point of tension for the global feminist movement, and there are too many feminists who today feel how I felt ten years ago. All I can encourage those feminists to do is to open their hearts and minds, and to listen to sex workers. It is way past the time for all feminists to recognise that advocating for sex workers’ rights is a fundamental contribution towards the battle to end violence against women and girls.

SOURCE: openDemocracy • AUTHOR: Nana Darkoa Sekyiamah • LAST UPDATED: January 4, 2021