When Rose was small, she wanted to be an astronaut or a princess. But Rose comes from Hungary and grew up in poverty. Many people still believe women who work in prostitution do so voluntarily. Rose, a former prostitute (not her real name), told her tragic life story recently in an interview with radio station Schweizer Rundfunk. Just as with many other women, it was poverty and desperation that drove her into “sex work”.
No money for deodorant
Once, Rose remembers, she asked her mother to buy her a deodorant. She had noticed that she smelt bad, and didn’t want to go to school that way. Everyone there already knew her family was poor. Some winters, there was no heating, and she couldn’t afford bread to eat.
One day, Rose got an offer from a man in the Hungarian village where grew up: to perform oral sex in exchange for money. Since this was all over quickly, she accepted the offer. She was 16 years old at the time, and the act was illegal, but she didn’t know that. What she wasn’t aware of at the time was she was being abused by the man.
A high-end club in Vienna
Hoping to earn decent money, Rose went to Vienna when she turned 18, where she began working as a prostitute in a high-end nightclub. She actually earned thousands of euros there, the club was clean, there were strict rules for clients and she was the “favourite” of the club owner. Despite this, Rose was unhappy, as it wasn’t the life she had been wishing for.
A new start in Switzerland?
She went back to Hungary, where she met a childhood friend. He promised her a job in Zurich, as a cleaning lady or a similar position. She went to Zurich with him, where he demanded that she work as a prostitute. When she refused to do so, he threatened to tell her family how she had been earning her living in recent years. In an effort to stop him doing so, she did as he wanted. Rose describes the living conditions at Langstraße in Zurich as dirty and degrading.
The childhood friend, who by now had become her pimp, put her under huge pressure to earn a certain amount every night. When she was unable to do so, he became violent. One night, in fear of his attacks, Rose took in two dubious men, who went on to rape her and do things to which she did not consent. When Rose defended herself and told the men to get out, however, her pimp abused her rather than helping her.
Rescued from Langstraße
Rose’s uncle went looking for her, and eventually found her where was living on Langstraße. This street, still known as Zurich’s red light district just a few years ago, is now a buzzing party mile packed with clubs and bars and young people. There are still plenty of brothels there, and although procuring sex on the street is officially forbidden, the practice still goes on.
Her uncle immediately took her to the city’s FIZ (Fachstelle Frauenhandel und Frauenmigration, or Advocacy and Support for Migrant Women and Victims of Trafficking) and to the police, where, despite initially hesitating, she eventually lodged a complaint against her pimp.
“Just going” is not as easy as it sounds
The pimp was found guilty in the second instance, and expelled from the country for five years. In this way, then, Rose did experience at least some justice. She went public with her story because she wants to give other women the strength to do so. She would never have succeeded in “just going” herself.
She wants to make one thing clear: human trafficking isn’t just about kidnapping. Yes, she left home of her own free will, because she was promised a better life. No, she wasn’t incarcerated, and she still stayed. She stayed because she had been manipulated so strongly that she saw no way out of her situation. She didn’t know that women like her can be helped. Rose’s greatest wish is not to be defined by her past, but to be viewed as a person instead.
Groups like Hope for the Future support women like Rose in escaping prostitution and starting a new life.
Translated by Tim Lywood
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