CORRUPTION

Interview with Ms. Taina Bien-Aimé
International Affairs Forum
the whole sex trade. These are the actors
on which we must focus; follow the financial
structures of exploitation.
Could you expand on the link between sex
trafficking and gender-based violence?
For example, does a history of prior sexual
violence, including domestic abuse, increase
an individual’s susceptibility to becoming a
sex trafficking victim?
The links between sex trafficking and genderbased
violence are clear. The majority of
prostituted individuals are women and the
majority of sex buyers are men. The same
applies for prostituted men and transgender
people—the sex buyers are 99.9% men, so the
premises of gender-based discrimination, power
and control remain the same.
We must also look at the medical implications
of prostitution. Studies show the traumatic
impact and stress disorders caused by a single
incidence of sexual assault on women. That
psychiatric and psychological damage of sexual
assault is compounded in cases where the victim
has a history of experiencing repeated sexual
violence by one perpetrator, such as would
be the case in incest situations. The damage
is further compounded by repeated and serial
sexual invasion by multiple strangers. The
physical and psychological trauma prostituted
women endure is significant and lifelong.
Unfortunately, because prostitution is examined
as an equal exchange of sexual acts for money,
that money is seen as consent for the sexual
invasion, inherent violence, and dehumanization.
In addition, the majority of women sold in the
sex trade are controlled by a pimp or trafficker,
and sometimes that pimp is the woman’s
intimate partner, family member or the father of
her children. The parallels between domestic
violence and prostitution are numerous.
Troublingly, some psychiatrists have found that
when women are sexually and psychologically
traumatized, they start to lose certain essential
characteristics, like self-esteem and imagination.
A lack of imagination is what may keep people
in their current situation, because they cannot
imagine themselves outside of the condition
in which they live on a daily basis. Without the
ability to imagine a different existence, it is
very difficult for a woman to exit the sex trade
or a domestic violence situation unless she
gets intensive support by local direct service
providers. Trauma experts and other medical
professionals report that prostituted women
typically experience suicidal ideation, psychosis,
depression, and food disorders. We don’t even
know how many don’t survive the ordeals of the
sex trade
We currently face an ideological war on whether
to classify prostitution as exploitative or as job
like any other job. Sometimes, I think: how
long is this question of classification going to
last? In many cases, some organizations that
promote prostitution as a form of work are so
set in their ways that they are not willing to look
beyond the edge of their noses to ask any further
questions. They may say the same about us. For
example, I was recently in Geneva and talking
to a “sex worker” direct service provider whose
organization focuses solely on harm reduction;
her organization believes that prostitution is
legitimate work and just like any other job.
When I asked about the harmful aspects of
the “work” her clients engage in, she basically
stated that her clients needed to work in order
to pay off their debts, so I asked to whom were
they indebted? She said she didn’t know, didn’t
ask and it was really the clients’ business. In a
small country like Switzerland that has among
the most stringent immigration laws in the world,
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