Tanja Rahms Speech at the International Abolitionist Congress, Paris 2014

After 3 years in prostitution, I almost jumped out a window – from the third floor. That was how prostitution made me feel, – that I had nothing to live for. I had been sexually violated so many times, that there was almost nothing left of me – neither inside, or outside. I was nothing. I was worth nothing. I felt completely useless. I was a machine for other people’s amusement, their sexual desires and their perverse exploitation.

I spent 9 years in therapy, to get where I am today. And even though I persist in telling about the violence experienced in prostitution I still live with the traumas and the re-traumatizing. But we, as survivors have to. We have to keep on telling about the violence, so no one will ever forget or be manipulated into thinking, that prostitution is even close to something you can define as sexwork.

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International congress for the abolition of prostitution

Stop Sexbuying: From 5th until 7th of December 2014 in munich

Women in prostitution experience the use of their bodies by unknown men between once and 20 to 30 times a day. Together with Sweden we view this reality as violence against women. An event offering information and raising awareness as regards the concrete situation of these women and the physical, psychological and mental consequences for them is absolutely necessary. Women who have succeeded in exiting prostitution are increasingly voicing their experiences. They report having to dissociate their feelings and reactions, having to function like a machine in order to go through the degradation and pains that they are subjected to by constant vaginal, anal and oral penetration. They report having learned this technique of dissociation through childhood violence. They hoped to finally gain control of the situation and thus power by repeating the trauma as an independent decision. The opposite then happens: the trauma is perpetuated by recurrent repetition.

The congress informs on the realities of prostitution, the high risks born by the women, the intense violence perpetrated by the punters. It counters the prostitution myths by reality and clarifies that the purchase of sex must not be legal.

Following Panels on Saturday 6th address the Problem of Trauma and Prostitution:

The Reality of Prostitution: Survivors tell the truth:

Rachel Moran, Space International, Dublin; Tanja Rahm, Denmark, “Marie”, Germany; Jana Koch-Krawczak, Germany. Moderation: Dr. Ingeborg Kraus, Germany.

Trauma. Traumatisation as cause and consequences of prostitution

Dr. Muriel Salmona, Psychotraumatologin, Paris: Michaela Huber, Psychotraumatology, Kassel; Dr. Ingeborg Kraus, psychologist, Karlsruhe; Tanja Rahm, survivor and therapist, danmark. Moderation: Dr. Ingeborg Kraus, Germany.

You can read the whole program here: conception for a congress against prostitution.2.

Trafficking, Prostitution and Inequality: A Public Lecture by Catharine MacKinnon

Catharine MacKinnon is an american lawyer, teacher and radical feminist activist. In her visiting lecture to University of Chicago Law School, Professor MacKinnon talks about consequences and significance of the systematic maltreatment of women, her experiences in india, the swedish model and why legalizing prostitution is a failed experiment.

You can read her text here.

Prostitution and Choice

by Dr. Ingeborg Kraus

Prostitution is often portrayed as a completely normal thing, something that has always existed. This usually involves very little thought of the women in prostitution. If it does, the argument of ‘choice’ is very quickly brought up. Who wants to take on the role of a person who sanctions or judges?