The impact of concealing language

For years, Speak to Inspire founder Huib Hudig has been annoyed that so little attention has been paid to the fact that many women and girls in the Netherlands work involuntarily in prostitution. And that in a time when there is (rightly) so much attention to the subordinate position of women.

It is a very complicated field, the legal and illegal prostitution that takes place in many forms. There is a group of women who do sex work voluntarily. I have no judgment on that. It is important that they can do their work safely and under the most pleasant conditions possible.

But the reality is that there is also a large group of women who do not do this work voluntarily. How many exactly we don't know. There are estimates that range from 10% to 90%, but it is impossible to come up with objective figures, simply because most of these women do not dare to speak out, or - perhaps even sadder - are so manipulated that they think they are doing this work voluntarily.

There are plenty of figures showing that something is structurally wrong. For example, between 2010 and 2014, the National Rapporteur on Human Trafficking registered 7,000 victims of human trafficking, 68 percent of them in the sex industry.
The human trafficking case against Saban B. showed that he and his gang forced dozens of women into legal prostitution with brute force. This is not an incident, but the tip of the iceberg. I find it hard to swallow that we as a society close our eyes to this and maintain a romantic image of prostitution.

Politicians contribute to this by concealing or covering it up. Mayor Halsema says she wants to open an "erotic center. 'A place where sexuality, eroticism, diversity and inclusiveness are welcomed and celebrated.' While, of course, some of the women at that erotic center will do the work involuntarily. That portrayal does not do justice to the suffering of these women who live under our noses every day as modern-day slaves.

Of course the voluntary sex workers should be able to do their work, but the girls and women who end up involuntarily in prostitution deserve much more support and recognition than they currently receive.

Huib wrote an opinion article about it in Trouw.