"I have written this book for other sex workers. I wanted to talk about it to
remove the stigma," Jameela told Reuters through a translator over the phone
from her home state of Kerala.
"People think we are bad because we have sex for money. Nobody understands our
grief."
Jameela was forced into prostitution 25 years ago when her first husband died,
leaving her with a child to support. Sex work paid more than she was earning as
a factory worker. She charges her clients between 500-1,000 rupees ($11-$22)
per visit.
Her first customer was a policeman. When she came out of the room the next
morning, she was beaten up by police on orders of another policeman she had
turned down.
"I felt humiliated, but I had no option but to continue."
Jameela estimates she has had sex with more than 1,000 men since then -- she
took some time off after her later marriages -- and feels her work is an
important social service.
"If there is no sex work, it would lead to a situation comparable to a pressure
cooker with its safety valve locked on. The truth is that sex workers are doing
a great service," she says in her book in the southern language of Malayalam.
It's a view that angers some feminists.
Sex Talk Taboo
"Prostitution is considered as work" in the book, said K. Ajitha, president of
Anweshi, a Kerala women's group. "I don't accept that. Women in prostitution
have only the right to sell their bodies, they don't have the right to choose."
Written with I. Gopinath, an activist who works with sex workers, the book has
sold more than 10,000 copies in less than six months in a market where 5,000 in
a year is a best seller.
Jameela has so far earned 84,000 rupees ($1,830) from book sales.
But in India, public displays of affection are frowned upon and talking about
sex publicly is still taboo.
One popular south Indian actress has been pelted with sandals, tomatoes and
rotten eggs and hauled before a court for suggesting women might have sex
before marriage and telling men not to expect their brides to be virgins
anymore.
Protests over her comments lasted more than a month.
Prostitution is outlawed, but India has more than two million sex workers
living on the fringes of society. They have few rights and abuse by both
customers and the police is common.
Commercial sex is one of the main drivers of the spread of HIV/AIDS and India
has more than 5 million reported cases of people living with the virus,
rivalling South Africa as the worst hit nation.
The US Central Intelligence Agency estimates more than 20 million people could
be infected with HIV in India by 2010 and economists warn it could undermine
India's rise to economic superpower status.
Alarmed by the rising numbers, the government's Planning Commission has
recommended prostitution be legalised to help fight AIDS.
Many prostitutes are pushed into the trade by traffickers and by poverty and
some, including thousands of girls smuggled in from Nepal each year, are held
as sex slaves for a decade or more.
Against this backdrop, some women activists accuse Gopinath of interpreting
Jameela's words in a way that glorifies prostitution.
"They cannot imagine that a woman on the street can say such things. I cannot
imagine all this. These are Jameela's ideas, not mine," Gopinath says.
Says V.C. Harris, a professor at Kerala's MG University: "This is not a
victim's book. One of the most striking things about the book is the confidence
and inner strength that exudes from it."
Like many women in India, Jameela's education is minimal. She finished school
after third grade, which is roughly about 7 years old. Over the years, she
married three times and has two grown daughters, now both housewives.
Autobiography of a Sex Worker has brought a degree of fame, money and respect.
Jameela's 24-year-old daughter Seena, married and pregnant with her first
child, is happy with her mother's fame.
"Earlier, people used to say that because my mother is a prostitute, I must
also be one. But now when they call me Nalini Jameela's daughter I feel very
good," Seena says.
Neither Seena, nor her sister Latha, have followed their mother's footsteps,
although Jameela says that she would not have stopped them from becoming
prostitutes if they had wanted to.
"It is not just my daughters. I will tell other women also about the hardships
of sex work and then if they want to get into it, I won't stop them," Jameela
says.
For her part, Jameela intends to continue with sex work as long as she stays
healthy, saying she has had more freedom as a sex worker than she has ever had
as a wife.
"Looking back, I find life as a sex worker more enjoyable. As a wife one has to
listen, to always be dominated by someone," Jameela said.
"I like being a sex worker. Some become lawyers, doctors. It was my choice to
become to a sex worker."
Reuters
