by Siriporn Skrobanek

Siriporn Skrobanek is the director of the Women's Information Center in Bangkok, Thailand, which since 1984 has provided information and advice to women who want to go abroad to work or marry; the center helps them avoid being lured into prostitution. In 1985, the center set up a women's shelter to provide refuge and counselling to battered women, and to conduct public education programs on family violence.

The following article is reprinted from the Thai Development Newsletter, vol. 4, no. 1. Second Quarter 1986.

Introduction

Prostitution is certainly not women's oldest profession, but it is a mode of reproduction in a male-dominated society, in which women's sexuality is controlled and utilized for male sexual pleasure. To consider prostitution as women's oldest profession neglects the role and participation of women in economic activities — in every mode of production since human history is recorded. Most of work done by women in production and reproductive tasks like housework and childcare has been overlooked and its economic value hardly been recorded in any official statistics.

In former times, women were mostly paid only when they sold their body (and in many cases their labor) for male sexual pleasure. But they were then considered as "fallen women" and deserved only negative moral and social sanctions.

Nowadays, as in the past, laws and programs tackling prostitution are based on this bias against women. Instead of helping or protecting women in prostitution, these measures, especially the laws, tend to "protect" the men from "bad" women in prostitution. "Rehabilitation" programs are another example of this prejudice against women in prostitution. Their hidden significance is to rehabilitate "fallen women" to become again "decent women" in a society, where male domination remains unchanged.

In general, most people do not distinguish between the women as individual human beings and prostitution which is an institution. Based on this lack of distinction, the suppression of the institution "prostitution" is therefore synonymous with arresting and penalizing women who are prostitutes. Such an approach neglects other elements and factors in prostitution, for instance the syndicates involved in the trafficking of women as well as the socio-economic and political transformation in more recent times which are often strongly influenced by multinational companies and agencies.

In the meantime, the institution "prostitution" is not limited any more to one national boundary, but it has expanded into "happiness without barriers" (as advertised by one marriage agency in the Federal Republic of Germany), in other words "sexploitation without barriers." To work in this field requires, therefore, national and international cooperation.

Main Factors Contributing to Mass Prostitution

In order to understand the institution "prostitution," some principal factors have to-be taken into consideration: first, the ideology of a male-dominated society; and second, the socio-economic transformation and its consequences for employment opportunities for women.

The ideology of male-dominated society

One element of the patriarchal ideology is the demand that a woman should not let more than one man have access to her body. This ideology lowers the self-esteem of those women who were not able to fulfill this socially determined requirement. As a result, most women consider themselves as "worthless" after having lost their virginity and after being separated from or abandoned by their husband or lover. Their "worthless" body is then transformed into an instrument to earn a living. This attitude is the general rule in a male-dominated society and the outcome of the double standard with regard to sexuality. Only through this form of degradation, some women can become economically independent from male "protectors." 

While women's sexuality is considered an object and controlled by this ideology, men are treated as human beings with natural sexual needs. Whereas virginity is imposed as the most important value of a "decent" woman, sexual promiscuity is accepted for and practiced by men without any negative social sanction.

Socio-economic transformation

The development strategy of Thailand, since 1957 aimed at economic growth by the integration of her economy into the world economic system, resulted in the. increasing landlessness of peasants and in urban migration. Peasants were transformed into wage earners, whose income has been insufficient to feed the whole family. Increasingly, peasant women are also forced by impoverishment to migrate into towns and to find jobs. However, their employment opportunities are very limited and based on "feminine" characteristics. Women are mostly required in the service sector, for instance as domestic, servants, maids or waitresses in bars and restaurants, which often leads prostitution.

Those women who find employment in factories receive lower wages and encounter hierarchical relations with male workers due to their being unskilled. Since women are considered workers of "secondary status" in market-oriented production, they are in the position of "last to hire, first to fire." Their wages are only considered supplementary to men's. For women who are the main or only breadwinners of their families, supplementary income becomes, therefore, compulsory. In many cases women take prostitution as additional part time job.

Due to the increasing number of migrants form rural areas, the urban economy of the country is less and less able to provide sufficient jobs for both male and female migrants. The unequal sexual division of labor makes it also more difficult for women to get permanent employment outside the country. Whereas male skilled labor from Asia is highly demanded on the new labor market in Arab countries, only a small number of women, considered workers of "secondary status," can get access to jobs on the labor market in a few neighboring countries. The biggest demand for women from Thailand and from other Third World countries comes from the international sex business.

Forms of Prostitution

Prostitution can be broadly divided into two categories: forced prostitution and "free" prostitution.

It is mostly innocent, uneducated young girls from rural areas who are lured into forced prostitution. The conditions of work are extremely exploitative. For this type of prostitution, legal measurements which already exist should be enforced to help those young girls out of their deplorable situation, but penalize only procurers and other agents.

For "free" prostitution, legal protection is also required. According to interviews with women in this category, none of them wants to stay long in this "profession." They see prostitution as a short term solution for their survival. Therefore, solutions like registration of prostitutes would stigmatize them and make it more difficult for them to leave this institution.

Critique of "Rehabilitation" Schemes

The term "rehabilitation" expresses strong prejudices against women in prostitution and reflects at least a paternalistic top-down approach. Prostitutes arc considered as "fallen women." Therefore, they have to be "upgraded" after having been rescued from this institution and to be prepared for being again normal members in society. Of course, the same rule does not apply to any of their male customers.

Due to misconceived understanding, the present rehabilitation schemes function as punishment for women, because they are forced to live in centers after having been rescued from prostitution. Consequently, prostitutes are very afraid of going through this scheme, which they understand as a kind of detention for a period of at least one year until they are allowed to return home.

Therefore, procurers and brothel keepers successfully threaten prostitutes under their control with the feared conditions of life in the rehabilitation center. Instead of requesting the intervention and assistance from the authorities, prostitutes again fall victims of the procurer's arguments by claiming during police investigations — often contrary to the truth — that they are not forced into prostitution, but engage in this trade by their own will. This answer to the authorities will largely minimize the danger of their being placed into a rehabilitation center. However, the authorities cannot take drastic legal actions against these traders.

Also the skills training programs provided for women in rehabilitation centers are not very helpful, because most of them reinforce the traditional "feminine" duties and aim at skills that are not demanded on the labor market. According to one officer in the north, seven out of ten women who passed through the rehabilitation scheme and finally were sent home went back into prostitution because no jobs were available in their communities.

Toward a New Strategy

Since prostitution is an institution reflecting inequality between sexes (gender) and classes, the ultimate goal of course should be the complete eradication of this institution. However, under the present conditions, this may require much more than a lifetime until success is near. Therefore, strategies also for short term goals are required.

When working on this issue, it is very important to distinguish between women/ prostitutes and prostitution. Otherwise, any solution will worsen the already vulnerable situation of women. The new strategy should include three levels of cooperation: local, national and global. Moreover, women in prostitution should actively take part.

Experiences of Action Groups

There are many projects operated by government agencies to help women in prostitution, such as health service, rehabilitation schemes and vocational training. But very little has been done to prevent women and young girls from being lured into prostitution. The phenomenal increase of mass prostitution which was caused by two major factors, the previous U.S. bases and tourism to Thailand, has lead some government agencies and politicians to plan measures, if not to stop, at least to "contain" prostitution. The measures included registration of prostitutes, organization of state-run brothels, etc., in order to control and earn through taxes from prostitutes. These new control mechanisms of the state, on the national as well as the international level, force women to depend even more on brothel keepers and procurers as their "protectors."

In contradiction to state run programs, private action groups have placed more emphasis on raising public awareness on the problem of prostitution and the traffic in women and young girls and have campaigned for legal amendments on the prostitution law which would only punish the procurers and brothel keepers, but not the prostitutes.

Public awareness

In January 1984. five young women burnt to death in a brothel fire in Phuket, an important tourist spot in the south of Thailand. This serious incident coincided with the plans for a week-long campaign against traffic in women and against prostitution scheduled on the occasion of March 8. 1984. Finally, a two-day seminar was organized by various women's ;ind human rights groups and few considerable attention from the government and the general public. A set of posters on exploitation in prostitution was produced and distributed nationwide, in order to draw also the attention of people at the local level. Another two-day seminar with the same topic was organized in June l')N.s for local authorities, community leaders and development workers from eight provinces in the north, where the problem is most acute. Many concrete plans were proposed by the participants to fight against traffic in women and girls.

Aid to women

Besides building up public awareness, action groups also provide assistance to women and young girls such as:

• Temporary shelter for women and girls, for instance the Emergency Home run by the Promotion of Status of Women Association.

• Legal aid to women and girls including their families in order to take legal action against procurers and brothel keepers. There are many groups providing this service as for instance the Women's Lawyers Association. Friends of Women Group. Center for the Protection of Children's Right, etc..

• Financial assistance and accompaniment for women and girls freed from brothels to return home.

• Information services for women who want to work abroad and/or to marry foreigners, in order to prevent them from being lured into prostitution, victims of the "mail order bride" system and other exploitation overseas. This is for instance done by the Women's Information Center, which was set up in 1984, originally supported with a small fund from the Dutch Embassy. The Center tries to work with women who have experienced a hard life in prostitution in foreign countries, and to motivate them to speak out.

Action groups have also developed the following local and national strategies:

• Stop newcomers into this institution.
• Disseminating information through various forms of media.
• Building up awareness and drawing participation from local authorities, community leaders and extension workers to get involved in this issue.
• Organizing courses on the exploitation in prostitution for sixth grade children in primary schools.
• Production of materials and teaching modules for local teachers and concerned authorities, which should be used ti) raise awareness among local people.
• Enforcement of laws against the exploitation of prostitutes.
• Changing attitudes with regard to sexuality based on patriarchal ideology.
• Provision of more development projects for women, in which appropriate skills training is provided and women are drawn into the mainstream of socioeconomic development.

With regard to the help for women freed from exploitative and forced prostitution, the following measures are proposed:

• Rehabilitation schemes should not be obligatory for every woman, but participation should rather depend on her own free decision.
• Government agencies should take a more positive attitude toward private action groups and help in their efforts.
• Skills training should respond to demand on the labor market.
• Teaching courses should be provided for prostitutes to understand the structure and exploitative forms of prostitution instead of internalizing the patriarchal ideology with its schizophrenia of the "good" and the "bad" women.
• Persons responsible for "rehabilitation" should have a better understanding of prostitution and a more appropriate approach to women in prostitution. 

We also encourage the following strategies of international cooperation:

• Building solidarity networks with private women's and human rights groups and state agencies in other countries, in order to fight against the exploitation of women in prostitution.
• Enforcing legal protection for migrant women.
• Relief aid to foreign women in prostitution.
• Solidarity action against all forms of sexploitation, such as prostitution, mail order bride systems and pornography.

For more information, contact the Women's Information Center, P.O. Box 7-47, Bangkok 10700, Thailand