She is her body

Nishi Malhotra Amsterdam

Not just the oldest profession but also one that is 'practised' by animals other than human – Bonobo chimpanzees trade sexual favours for food and penguins do the same for access to suitable stones for nesting – prostitution is probably the most stigmatised profession in our world. Banned altogether at various times in history or allowed to flourish as a 'necessary evil', its clientele has ranged from kings and generals to homeless drunks and rag-pickers. But the women who provide the 'service' have always lived at the fringes of 'civilised' societies, at best tolerated and at worst destined for fates that no human being wants – reviled, beaten, stoned, stalked by serial killers or just put to unglorious death.

It is unlikely, one would think, to find women who would want to be or like being prostitutes, women who are not forced into the profession by pimps or other traffickers. This is what first fired my curiosity when I read about a walking tour called 'Dark Amsterdam' while standing in line at a tourist information centre in the Netherlands. It promised a chance to meet and talk with a former prostitute before touring the famed 'windows' of the red-light area of Amsterdam. Prostitution is not only legal in the country but is also taxed  and unionised.

The tour group met at 8 pm on a January weekend in the new year at 32 Damraak, a street close to the Central Station in Amsterdam. For a late winter evening, complete with chilly gusts of fine drizzle, the number was surprisingly large and interestingly, had several more women than men. Up the street, 18 Damraak housed the Sex Museum, which I did not visit but read about later, a must-see according to the account, provided your companion has a good sense of humour.

Our guide was Fiza, a woman of Indian origin born and raised in the Netherlands. Articulate and an excellent source of information, Fiza was able to explain the complex situation surrounding the legal status of prostitution and the 'tolerance' of soft drugs by the government (drugs are not legal in the country as many people mistakenly believe). But first, she took us to a place called the Prostitute Information Center (PIC).

The PIC is run by a former prostitute; her assistant, who met us, was dressed in an impeccable corporate outfit — tailored jacket over modest blouse and skirt. Petra introduced herself as a worker in the "sex industry" who used to be a "domination professional, that is, worked with whips, bondage and other fetishes," before she came to the Netherlands from Canada. (Prostitution is legal in Canada but banned in the US. A sex-workers’ advocacy group called COYOTE – initials stand for Call Off Your Old Tired Ethics – has long been lobbying for decriminalisation and stopping discrimination against prostitutes in a country where the profession has been practised openly for years now).

Initially in the country to pursue a master's degree in anthropology, Petra soon switched to working with her present employer to run the PIC. Although she had voluntarily taken up prostitution as a profession, enjoyed her career and was not embarrassed or ashamed of her past, Petra admitted that many sex workers were in the profession for reasons different than hers. In fact, economic necessity is often a driving force for women taking up prostitution even in affluent western nations. 

If the intent of the Netherlands government in making prostitution legal is to remove exploitative elements like pimps and criminals and allow women choice over their bodies and earnings, the PIC's work centers around helping prostitutes take greater control of their lives. A semi-profit organisation, it charges tourists like us for the tour but provides different services – information on taxes, bookkeeping, rental agencies for windows, health, safety kits, etc., to prostitutes — free of charge. 

The Netherlands has free HIV and STD screening clinics for everyone – visitors, prostitutes and their clients.  However, sex workers are not required by law to be screened for AIDS and STDs in order to be issued a license – the apparent reason for this is that since clients are not screened, it would be discriminatory to mandate that prostitutes go through checks.

Legalising prostitution has led to unique problems with respect to taxation, some of which were enumerated by our guide. Brothel owners who employ prostitutes have to provide benefits like any other employer but in the matter of say accidental pregnancies, should these be treated as a job hazard for which the employees need to be compensated? Should they be given longer maternity leaves because they cannot work after the pregnancies begin to show? Such matters had to be sagely debated by the lawmakers of the country when determining how the profession should be regulated, licensed and taxed. The rule-book for sex workers addresses questions as diverse as the length of a prostitute's fingernails, to whether lingerie can be written off as a tax-deductible expense. We could have talked to Fiza and Petra for hours but there was a tour that was waiting...

The picture-postcard perfect De Wallen district, surprisingly not tacky or sleazy-looking compared with other red-light areas, is located in the oldest part of Amsterdam, near what used to be a harbour where the Dutch East Indies sailors landed. Prostitution has flourished here for obvious reasons since the 14th century. During the abolitionist movement in the first half of the last century, prostitutes could not prastice their trade freely and hid behind the drapes of apartment windows in the area, attracting attention by tapping on the panes. As liberal attitudes returned, the girls were able to open the drapes and would often sit in the windows waiting for customers — a tradition that continues to this day, albeit in skimpier clothes.

There are no hustlers, drug dealers and pimps on the streets of the modern-day red-light areas of Amsterdam (street prostitution and pimping are illegal). Instead, policemen (and police cameras) keep an eye on the high-spirited young European males negotiating with the prostitutes behind windows. If a deal is struck, the lady opens a connecting door to let in the customer and pulls a drape across the window, a temporary 'closed for business' signal, if you will.

In some of the narrowest alleys, only one metre wide where we walked single file, it was possible to make eye contact with the girls only a glass wall away, and observe the bare minimum furnishings beyond – usually a bed and sink placed on a tiled floor (carpeting is forbidden; unhygienic says the rule book).

The girls appeared to be uniformly young and beautiful, at least in the alleyways that we toured. I wondered if they had separate day jobs. Fiza confirmed that the windows are rented out in 8-hour shifts and the girls work independently (or like Petra would say, as 'self-employed professionals') as often and for as long as they want to, disappearing into their other private lives the rest of the time. There are about 450 such windows in the city, with rents ranging from 80 to 150 euros per shift. The owners of the windows are required by law to provide for the girls' safety (usually with a call button placed discreetly in the window, which a prostitute can press to summon help).

The tour ended in the shadow of an old church which stands guard over these ladies of the night, a sentinel. Did I get my answer as to who would want to work in this profession and why? Not really. But I was able to see another world and at least make an attempt to understand it — not as a circus or a freak show, not with pity for some poor  exploited women who need rescuing, but just as a different lifestyle of women who think differently.

 For now, this was enough. In the near distance, in a window, sat two plump black ladies, laughing merrily. A coffeeshop's neon lights blinked on and off, next to a rental agency closed for the day. Nothing looked sacrilegious. Everything just…coexisted.