Instead of Relying on Police, We Must Help Ourselves, Women Say
Yau Chui-yan 18 January 2009
Those who work in Hong Kong’s “one-woman brothels” know they risk their lives every day, yet they do not necessarily agree that changing laws will make their jobs any safer. Yau Chui-yan hears their stories
It was the sixth time Cathy had offered sex services to the man. She did not know his name, and did not need to know either.
But this man nearly choked her to death. “He locked his arm around my neck and tried to choke me to death when it was time to pay. I was unconscious for more than two hours,” recalled Cathy, 29, who has been running her one-woman brothel for three years.
“Later, it was discovered that the man had taken his condom out of the rubbish bin. I think he thought he had killed me. When I woke up, I went to hospital. After I reported what had happened to the police, their first question was: ‘Did you volunteer to get hurt like this?’”
Her nightmare was humiliating and Cathy says there was not much she could have done to protect herself. “We [sex workers] have to help ourselves, like using some sort of alarm,” she said.
While Cathy is always worried about her safety, she prefers the profession to others because she can feed her two children and parents without social security assistance.
“I just don’t want my kids to be labelled lazy social security assistance recipients,” said Cathy, who earns less than HK$10,000 per month.
Rather than relying on police, she believes the keys to better safety lie in co-operation among sex workers and building neighbourhood ties.
“Police discriminate against us; they always humiliate us rather than help us when we are attacked,” said Cathy.
But she said frequent patrols to buildings where sex workers were based only harms their business.
Cathy, who works in Aberdeen, does not believe that having a legal red light district is a solution to the threats they face.
“More sex workers together in the same building would only increase the risk of them being robbed because there is more money.”
“The rent will be much higher in a red light district and it would force those older workers, who have weaker bargaining power, out of the business or onto the street because they cannot afford the rent.”
Another sex worker, Hor-yee, started working in her one-woman brothel four months ago. The 31-year-old is based in Tsuen Wan, where a woman was murdered last Sunday. She is, of course, worried.
Hor-yee, from Hunan province, was married to a Hong Kong man for 10 years but they separated.
She knows her work is dangerous because anyone who reads on a website about the services she offers can approach her.
She thinks it might be safer if two sex workers were allowed to operate together, “but I don’t think a red light district is a good idea because customers do not want to be seen”.
In Kowloon, a Ms. Lee has been renting flats to sex workers with multiple-entry visas from the mainland for the past six years. She said these women, who do not hold work visas, were more vulnerable to attack because it was hard for them to report crimes to police.
Ms. Lee said that even if she knew someone was attacked she would not report the crime because renting a flat to a sex worker was illegal.
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Instead of Relying on Police, We Must Help Ourselves, Women Say
Yau Chui-yan
18 January 2009
Those who work in Hong Kong’s “one-woman brothels” know they risk their lives every day, yet they do not necessarily agree that changing laws will make their jobs any safer. Yau Chui-yan hears their stories
It was the sixth time Cathy had offered sex services to the man. She did not know his name, and did not need to know either.
But this man nearly choked her to death. “He locked his arm around my neck and tried to choke me to death when it was time to pay. I was unconscious for more than two hours,” recalled Cathy, 29, who has been running her one-woman brothel for three years.
“Later, it was discovered that the man had taken his condom out of the rubbish bin. I think he thought he had killed me. When I woke up, I went to hospital. After I reported what had happened to the police, their first question was: ‘Did you volunteer to get hurt like this?’”
Her nightmare was humiliating and Cathy says there was not much she could have done to protect herself. “We [sex workers] have to help ourselves, like using some sort of alarm,” she said.
While Cathy is always worried about her safety, she prefers the profession to others because she can feed her two children and parents without social security assistance.
“I just don’t want my kids to be labelled lazy social security assistance recipients,” said Cathy, who earns less than HK$10,000 per month.
Rather than relying on police, she believes the keys to better safety lie in co-operation among sex workers and building neighbourhood ties.
“Police discriminate against us; they always humiliate us rather than help us when we are attacked,” said Cathy.
But she said frequent patrols to buildings where sex workers were based only harms their business.
Cathy, who works in Aberdeen, does not believe that having a legal red light district is a solution to the threats they face.
“More sex workers together in the same building would only increase the risk of them being robbed because there is more money.”
“The rent will be much higher in a red light district and it would force those older workers, who have weaker bargaining power, out of the business or onto the street because they cannot afford the rent.”
Another sex worker, Hor-yee, started working in her one-woman brothel four months ago. The 31-year-old is based in Tsuen Wan, where a woman was murdered last Sunday. She is, of course, worried.
Hor-yee, from Hunan province, was married to a Hong Kong man for 10 years but they separated.
She knows her work is dangerous because anyone who reads on a website about the services she offers can approach her.
She thinks it might be safer if two sex workers were allowed to operate together, “but I don’t think a red light district is a good idea because customers do not want to be seen”.
In Kowloon, a Ms. Lee has been renting flats to sex workers with multiple-entry visas from the mainland for the past six years. She said these women, who do not hold work visas, were more vulnerable to attack because it was hard for them to report crimes to police.
Ms. Lee said that even if she knew someone was attacked she would not report the crime because renting a flat to a sex worker was illegal.
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