Unlocking sex trade dilemma

Alice Ishimwe, 30, is a married woman, a mother of three and a former commercial sex worker.She quit the world’s oldest profession five years ago after a drawn out period of struggle with law enforcers coupled with harsh conditions she used to operate under when she was in her early 20s. This was the same period when many of her age-mates were already pursuing higher education. She normally traded her body from Gatsata, a suburb of Kigali City where illicit alcohol, commercial sex workers and auto mechanics mix freely.Ishimwe says that when she was young and charming, most of the auto mechanics in the area wanted to have a piece of her.“I had quality time with the mechanics,” she told The New Times in a recent interview at a vigil of two prostitutes who had been murdered under mysterious circumstances. She wore a remorseful face throughout the interview, not because of the death of her former colleagues, but the profession that remains unlawful in the country.“Every single time I meet a Gatsata mechanic, it evokes memories of my nasty past,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks.“I am reformed. I am a human being; I feel ashamed. I have a family to provide love to,” she narrates.She says she decided to join the trade as she was an orphan but later quit after realising that it was risky. “I feared for my life. My husband vends fresh food in Nyabugogo market and I am a house wife. Life is meaningful,” she says.At the time, The New Times reported that a record number of 18 commercial sex workers had puzzlingly been killed.When police established the motives behind the killings; some ranged from allegations of transmission of HIV to theft and married men who killed the commercial sex workers to mask their wayward habits.The nature of the motives somewhat condemns the commercial sex workers into a life of vulnerability.Two weeks ago, MPs recommended that commercial sex workers be protected from assault or any other kind of mistreatment.The legislators further advised government to closely examine and tackle issues that force the young women into the profession.The meeting had been called by members of the Chamber of Deputies who advocated for a needs assessment for prostitutes and discuss strategies to accelerate the fight against HIV/Aids pandemic.But civil activists argue the MPs fell short of looking at the root causes of vulnerability of the prostitutes.“Criminalisation of prostitution makes those involved vulnerable to any sort of assault; they live in a state of fear,” Aimable Mwananawe of AIMR Ihorere Munyarwanda, a non-profit organisation, commented during an interview with The New Times on Tuesday.The Penal Code, particularly in its articles; 204 and 205, makes it a criminal act for one to indulge in prostitution.“Passion killers target prostitutes – a prostitute cannot report the death of a fellow prostitute to police because that is the last place she can go at will,” said a city lawyer who preferred anonymity.He argues that there is no precedence in the history of criminal justice, where attorneys successfully won a case pitting a prostitute, adding that criminalisation of the act serves no purpose but it makes those involved vulnerable.He asserts that governments can curb prostitution by encouraging family bonds and instilling of moral values among children as well as providing robust social protection programmes to vulnerable groups.“It is not easy to enforce the provisions [penal code provisions on prostitution],”Police spokesperson, Superintendent Theos Badege, said during a telephone interview with The New Times.“We need to empower them economically and arrest the vice by emphasising the essence of moral values to our daughters,” MP Pelagie Mukantaganzwa told The New Times yesterday.Authorities believe there are about 15,000 commercial sex workers in Rwanda. Most claim they practise the vice due to lack of alternative sources of income.

National

Unlocking sex trade dilemma