Prostitutes in Italy who have been ordered to stop wearing skimpy clothing while they tout for business in broad daylight plan to dress as nuns instead.
By Nick Squires In Rome 18 September 2008
By donning nuns’ black and white habits street walkers hope to make the tough new legislation so confusing that it becomes unworkable.
Thousands of women, many of them from Eastern Europe and South America, sell themselves for sex on the side of major roads leading in and out of Italy’s main cities, where brothels and red light districts are banned.
But they face a crackdown from the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi, as well as individual city councils such as Rome, Milan and Florence.
The mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, unveiled a decree this week which will ban the capital’s thousands of street prostitutes from wearing “unseemly and indecent clothing”, saying the sight of barely clothed young women distracted male motorists and caused accidents.
Even the way in which sex workers stand is under scrutiny - the decree bans the women from “adopting poses or behaviour or wearing clothing that unequivocally manifest the intention to solicit or practise the activity of prostitution”.
Sex worker welfare groups have called the decree absurd and have pledged to challenge it in any way they can.
“We’ll dress as nuns so that the police will arrest scantily dressed girls outside discos or other women with their cleavage on show,” said Pia Covre, of the Committee for the Rights of Prostitutes.
“The idea of wearing gowns or habits down to the feet is to confront the decrees which limit even the freedom of what you can wear,” she told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
“In Florence, for example, the mayor has forbidden girls from walking up and down and we are thinking of going around on bicycles instead.” Meanwhile police in Rome have issued more than 100 prostitutes and 40 of their clients with spot fines of 200 euros (£158) since the new decree was introduced on Tuesday.
The sex workers were mostly from Romania, Colombia and Brazil. Many of the women have refused to pay the fines, which the mayor has said could increase to 500 euros by next month.
1 comment:
Italian prostitutes to dress as nuns
Prostitutes in Italy who have been ordered to stop wearing skimpy clothing while they tout for business in broad daylight plan to dress as nuns instead.
By Nick Squires In Rome
18 September 2008
By donning nuns’ black and white habits street walkers hope to make the tough new legislation so confusing that it becomes unworkable.
Thousands of women, many of them from Eastern Europe and South America, sell themselves for sex on the side of major roads leading in and out of Italy’s main cities, where brothels and red light districts are banned.
But they face a crackdown from the centre-right government of Silvio Berlusconi, as well as individual city councils such as Rome, Milan and Florence.
The mayor of Rome, Gianni Alemanno, unveiled a decree this week which will ban the capital’s thousands of street prostitutes from wearing “unseemly and indecent clothing”, saying the sight of barely clothed young women distracted male motorists and caused accidents.
Even the way in which sex workers stand is under scrutiny - the decree bans the women from “adopting poses or behaviour or wearing clothing that unequivocally manifest the intention to solicit or practise the activity of prostitution”.
Sex worker welfare groups have called the decree absurd and have pledged to challenge it in any way they can.
“We’ll dress as nuns so that the police will arrest scantily dressed girls outside discos or other women with their cleavage on show,” said Pia Covre, of the Committee for the Rights of Prostitutes.
“The idea of wearing gowns or habits down to the feet is to confront the decrees which limit even the freedom of what you can wear,” she told the Corriere della Sera newspaper.
“In Florence, for example, the mayor has forbidden girls from walking up and down and we are thinking of going around on bicycles instead.” Meanwhile police in Rome have issued more than 100 prostitutes and 40 of their clients with spot fines of 200 euros (£158) since the new decree was introduced on Tuesday.
The sex workers were mostly from Romania, Colombia and Brazil. Many of the women have refused to pay the fines, which the mayor has said could increase to 500 euros by next month.
Post a Comment