Prostitution+in+Rwanda

=Introduction= This page is a brief discussion of the cultural phenomenon of sex work in Rwanda, including the reasons it is so prevalent, the risks of being a prostitute in Rwanda, the culture surrounding it, current ways that the Rwandan government is addressing it, and how to create more effective and sustainable interventions based on the theory of structural violence (Farmer, 2004).

Prostitution in Rwanda is largely driven by poverty. > //The social vulnerability that can force women into sex work is compounded by patterns of gender bias in access to formal education. These patterns leave many young women with poor levels of education and skills, making it harder for them to find legal employment.22 Girls’ exclusion from education is often traceable to family poverty, which makes it difficult for families to pay school fees or buy uniforms and other materials.// (Binagwaho, 2010, p. 91)
 * 60% of the population lives beneath the poverty line (Santi, 2014)
 * 80% of prostitutes do it because of poverty (Santi, 2014)


 * Their clientele are mostly soldiers, students, and others with money, met in camps, on campus, and on the street.

Video: Prostitution in Rwanda

Risks of the job include: > //…sex workers face specific forms of social exclusion and specific work-related exposures that greatly heighten their health risks, beyond those common to most members of low-income communities. Sex workers face underlying structural vulnerabilities due to their social and economic position, coupled with additional risks at the level of what some analysts have called ‘intermediate’ health determinants, that is, more proximal factors that grow out of structural socioeconomic roots. One such intermediate health determinant is the health care system itself, and the differential access and quality of care it provides people based on their social, economic, and gender status.// (Binagwaho, 2010, p. 92)
 * Client violence and refusal to pay or use protection (Binagwaho, 2010; Santi, 2014)
 * Violence and exploitation by the police (Umuvugizi Staff, n.d.)

//Extreme poverty itself is associated with numerous negative health impacts, as a large body of literature has made clear.24 In addition, sex workers face specific forms of social exclusion and specific work-related exposures that greatly heighten their health risks, beyond those common to most members of low-income communities. Sex workers face underlying structural vulnerabilities due to their social and economic position, coupled with additional risks at the level of what some analysts have called “intermediate” health determinants, that is, more proximal factors that grow out of structural socioeconomic roots. One such intermediate health determinant is the health care system itself, and the differential access and quality of care it provides people based on their social, economic, and gender status.// (Binagwaho, 2010, p. 92)

=Cultural Response to Prostitution= Culturally, prostitutes in Rwanda are stigmatized and “not valued as human beings” (Binagwaho, 2010, p. 92). They therefore lose the social support system of both their loved ones and institutions that are meant to protect Rwandans (such as healthcare facilities).

//Indaya”, which means prostitute, is used as an insult to strip a woman of her “agaciro” (self-dignity or worth)...// //What I can add is that authorities reject us just because we’re prostitutes. Even when you’re right in your complaint, they don’t consider it; they’re more likely to stick you in prison.// (Binagwaho, 2010, p. 92)

=Leaving and Returning to Sex Work in Rwanda= Why Leave? Why Return? > //The social vulnerability that can force women into sex work is compounded by patterns of gender bias in access to formal education. These patterns leave many young women with poor levels of education and skills, making it harder for them to find legal employment.// (Binagwaho, 2010, p. 91)
 * Motivations to leave sex work include frightening experiences, peer pressure, and concerns about dependent children. (Ingabire, 2012, p. 1037)
 * Motivations to return to sex work include financial crisis or because they found their new life too hard. Therefore, programs assisting prostitutes need to include solid financial safety nets. (Ingabire, 2012, p. 1037)

=Interventions and Policies= Efficacy of Current Interventions > Current Policies > //In many countries, the traditional response to prostitution is almost wholly punitive, involving arrest and incarceration. This strategy is based on the assumption that if women are punished harshly enough for participation in sex work, they will be persuaded to leave it and adopt alternative ways of providing for themselves and their children. Interviews with sex workers and former sex workers in Rwanda point to the fundamental flaws in this strategy, which ignores the economic and social constraints that determine many poor women’s “choices” about sex work.// //In general, temporary detention only interrupts sex work activities for a short time, without providing sex workers with sustainable solutions to leave prostitution. Once out of prison, women may have to pay back the debts accrued while incarcerated, such as those involving the needs of their children. Ironically, then, instead of facilitating women’s departure from sex work, repressive incarceration policies may actually lock women more rigidly into the cycle of selling sex for economic survival.// (Binagwaho, 2010, p. 93)
 * Grassroots and governmental “rescue missions” are often ineffective. Women are promised money and a way to leave prostitution, but there’s rarely follow-through, especially in the form of loans. (Santi, 2014)
 * The Rwandan government is now debating how to address sex work.
 * The state of prostitutes in Rwanda is highly disappointing considering the fact that it has the highest proportion of female members in parliament, and yet female prostitutes are persecuted rather than protected. (Santi, 2014)
 * Many African governments are currently trying to implement harsher penalties, without putting safety nets into place. This results in the perpetuation of prostitution, rather than lowering the prevalence. (Santi, 2014)

=Recommendations for Improved Interventions and Policies= Prostitution in Rwanda should be met with policies and interventions aimed at improving health, lowering HIV rates, and helping sex workers find sustainable alternative employment. For this to happen, policies and interventions need to be culturally attuned.

//Interviews with sex workers and former sex workers in Rwanda point to the fundamental flaws in this strategy [of implementing harsher penalties], which ignores the economic and social constraints that determine many poor women’s “choices” about sex work//. (Binagwaho, 2010, p. 93)

//These professional prostitutes are asking to get help from Rwanda government; instead, they got reprisal. “We don’t do this, on our own will”, they said. They also said, “We do this because we have been denied basic public help from our government; we are poor and we have kids; we do this job, because it is the only way we can feed our family.”// (Umuvugizi Staff, n.d.)

> //Structural violence is violence exerted systematically—that is, indirectly—by everyone who belongs to a certain social order: hence the discomfort these ideas provoke in a moral economy still geared to pinning praise or blame on individual actors. In short, the concept of structural violence is intended to inform the study of the social machinery of oppression. Oppression is a result of many conditions, not the least of which reside in consciousness.// (Farmer, 2004, p. 307)
 * Structural violence is a cultural theory developed by the anthropologist Dr. Paul Farmer. It addresses the structural barriers and hardships that are ingrained within a culture that prevent marginalized groups from accessing needed resources to improve their lives. In Farmer’s words -

> > > References
 * It would be important to consider the structural violence that Rwandan women have experienced historically and throughout their individual lifetimes that has contributed to the “choice” to enter into prostitution. This would allow interventions to assist women in leaving prostitution in ways that can be truly helpful in the short-term //and// sustainable in the long term.
 * To make interventions culturally attuned in such a way that they address these barriers, they should be informed by participatory action research ( Green & Haines, 2012, p. 86 ) that includes the voices of the prostitutes themselves and examines their felt needs. Without a bottom-up approach, interventions and policies will continue to fall short of helping to solve the larger problems that cause prostitution in Rwanda.

Binagwaho, A., Agbonyitor, M., Mwananawe, A., Mugwaneza, P., Irwin, A., and Karema, C. (2010). Developing human rights-based strategies to improve health among female sex workers in Rwanda. //Health and Human Rights in Practice, 12//(2), 89-100.

Farmer, P. (2004). An anthropology of structural violence. //Current Anthropology, 45//(3), 305-317.

Green, G.P., and Haines, A. (2012). //Asset Building & Community Development// (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.

Inagbire, M.C., Mitchell, K., Veldhuijzen, N., Umulisa, M.M., Nyinawabega, J., Kestelyn, E., …, Pool, R. (2012). Joining and leaving sex work: Experiences of women in Kigali, Rwanda. //Culture, Health, & Sexuality, 14//(9), 1037-1047.

Prostitution in Rwanda [Video file]. Retrieved from https://vimeo.com/12057013

Santi, Z. (2014). //Sex workers speak out about Rwanda’s silent tragedy.// Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/360/sex-workers-speak-out-about-rwanda's-silent-tragedy/5351866

Umuvugizi Staff. (n.d.). //Prostitutes are crying foul in Rwanda.// Umuvugizi: The Voice of Rwanda. Retrieved from http://www.umuvugizi.com/?p=6475&lang=en