HONDURAS-WOMEN: Sex Workers Demand Rights

By Thelma Mejía Reprint | | Print |

Thelma Mejia

TEGUCIGALPA, Jan 14 1997 (IPS) - Female sex workers in Honduras want their work legalised and to be made eligible for social benefits such as vacation, loans and access to health facilities.

And they want to be called “substitutes”, not “prostitutes” — showing recognition of the fact that they are substituting for the functions of a wife.

The demands, contained in a petition presented to the government by a group of prostitutes from Tegucigalpa and the southern region of the country, surprised conservative sectors of Honduran society who cite it as lack of morality and reflective of loss of values in this Central American country.

Representatives of the government and of religious organizations argue that prostitution cannot be legalized.

Minister of Public Health, Enrique Samayoa, said he admired the “audacity” of the sex workers but to legalize their situation would be “to authorize and degenerate the moral value of women”.

“We cannot, through legislation, raise prostitution to the level of a profession, when it is considered to be accident in the life of a woman,” said the minister. d They said their work suffers social discrimination for reasons that have to do with morality with brothel owners denying them access to loans and paid vacations. d “As women, we want a series of social benefits; this is hard work, and we do it out of necessity and so that we won’t starve,” says Rosa, 35 years old, a prostitute who works on the streets of Tegucigalpa.

Rosa told the press that they are the constant targets of abuses on the part of the men who seek their services.

“Many of them beat us and force us to things they do not do with their wives. That is why we say that instead of prostitutes, we are substitutes for the home”, she said.

Although Honduras does not have reliable data, it is estimated that women who practice prostitution charge between three and five dollars for 10 minutes of service.

The amount varies according to whether they work on the street, in a brothel or a “date house”. Rosa says that she sees about 30 clients a day.

Honduran prostitutes hope that their claims will help them in the prevention of AIDS. Health officials estimate that there are more than 3,000 cases of AIDS — Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome — and 50,000 people carrying the HIV virus that causes the disease.

Maria Antonia Martinez of the Center for Women’s Rights said he prostitutes’ petition regarding health services is “reasonable because if someone gives them AIDS, they are practically unprotected”.

“These women are human beings and deserve respect. If they contract AIDS, who will give them medicine, food, and other things for their children?”, asked Martinez.

In this sense, she said, prostitutes have rights. In other countries they at least have guaranteed health services, she added.