Legalise Prostitution...Or Not?

Legalise Prostitution...Or Not?

I was driving with friends along the Sinza road when someone in the car said, "look at all those women". In my naivety I asked, "what are they all doing lined up over there?". We ended up taking a detour and driving into a street that was full of so many women lined up on both sides dressed up in all types of outfits before it hit me that they were prostitutes.

Last week, or the week before, BBC Africa posted a question on their page, "Should prostitution be legalized?" There is nothing that will fire up a discussion on facebook than questioning the morality of a minority that the majority think are less moral than they are.

I sat in front of my desk top in awe and amusement at all of the responses coming through on the page. It is funny how when the question of legalizing prostitution comes up, it becomes an issue of morality as opposed to human rights. Something that a lot of us seem to not realize is the fact that laws and the law is created to protect people's rights and not necessarily their moral/ethical beliefs. But of course, this is debatable as morals are derived from religious practices and these have a strong tie to our laws.

Two arguments against legalizing prostitution made sense to me. The first being that by legalizing prostitution we are propagating the use and view of women as merchandise, as sexual objects, something that radical feminism and some aspects of liberal feminism have spent years trying to fight. However, if women are opting to do this trade as a way of feeding their families, are we not taking away from their income?

The second argument was, "although prostitutes sell their bodies for sex, it does not mean that they are always willing". Now this is exactly where I feel that the legalization of prostitution is needed. Our government has not created enough employment opportunities for our youth such that some are opting into prostitution. Won't legalizing their trade mean that they will thus be protected by the system from rape, trafficking and abuse in general?

At the end of the day we all have our own opinions, religious or otherwise against or for prostitution which I think is necessary, for yourself. However, I find myself concerned at how much time and effort we spend asking and responding to questions that do not directly affect us. Should prostitution be legalized? I think if you have not walked in the shoes of a prostitute you don't deserve to voice out your opinion on this matter. What I'd love to see is prostitutes being asked this question. We need to start involving minority groups in discussions that involve them as opposed to making decisions for them. Our moral/ethical ideas have never stopped prostitution and they will never stop it.


The problems are within the buyers not the sellers
 
I love the language and clarity of your persentation. Sex for money is what we call prostitution. I find no where in Tz law saying it is an offence. My opion is, whether it is legalised or not, prostitition will never end until the end of the world if there is. In other words we should not deal with something which we know the results at hand. So long as men and women exist, and so long as sex remains the main occupier of men and women minds and desires then prostitution remains inctact. Every sex is done in secrecy, so does the prostituion. By legalising it , means making it more open or what? Free market sort of?

BTW I have never seen a free sex. Men always pays for sex. Even the wives enjoy a lot more being rewarded after sex.
It is prudent therefore to let it be the way it has been since its inception otherwise we create a new worse form of prostitution whereby men will be charged more and more for sex.

Mfamaji;
Receive my compliments. Yu have made my day look good. I have been looking at our politics until I read this thread, then yu just popped up with your wonderful idea.
I agree with yu that, Let's let the dogs lie or else we are going to start a new problem. Prostitutes are the women who have gone 1 mile ahead of the others. They realized that they have a commodity which is on demand and have a market value.
I can not see any difference between the women who make love to their husbands only on the day when he came home with a very small thing like a piece of 1 samosa. They are very active that day than any other day. Why? Just because he bought her a samosa. That is prostitution
 
@mrconfident so you would prefer that we were all mindless robots that were being controlled by some higher being? Ok.
 
SHOOyaKIBABE i think people in all societies will treat you different if you are a prostitute, but ofcourse it is much more harsher in african communities. *waits for prostitutes to join discussion*

I think its different in the western nations, the girls are well respected and protected.. people see prostitution as a normal job, a high paying job.. you cannot belive how much money a girl can make per night, it can be two times(perhaps three times) your basic salary..
 
Yes. There's a lot of positives in legalizing prostitution than the negatives. First and foremost, it's already there. The government, the society or whoever is responsible have failed to beat it. And we already know the saying, if you can't beat them....

Aaash!!! what about rape? what about adultery? what about incest? what about corruption? what about littering? what about theft and others? Why only prostitution? Aren't these "there"? or these are successfully beaten out of our society?

Let's put a draft of proper mechanism to legalize and regulate all these so that we can reap taxes and each one can enjoy his/her endowments of human rights. YES a society where everyone can live the way he/she pleases as far as that way is "regulated"...no norms....let's decode all codes. We're free-humans by the way so why confine ourselves from this or that?

The principles of complexity, from human beings to human barbarism!!!
 
Aaash!!! what about rape? what about adultery? what about incest? what about corruption? what about littering? what about theft and others? Why only prostitution? Aren't these "there"? or these are successfully beaten out of our society?

Let's put a draft of proper mechanism to legalize and regulate all these so that we can reap taxes and each one can enjoy his/her endowments of human rights. YES a society where everyone can live the way he/she pleases as far as that way is "regulated"...no norms....let's decode all codes. We're free-humans by the way so why confine ourselves from this or that?

The principles of complexity, from human beings to human barbarism!!!

Really?? In prostitution, both parties(the seller and the buyer) come to an agreement first. It's a win-win for both. If one is not happy with the terms, they walk. Both prostitutes and their customers have options, and control of what they're doing.
 
Really?? In prostitution, both parties(the seller and the buyer) come to an agreement first. It's a win-win for both. If one is not happy with the terms, they walk. Both prostitutes and their customers have options, and control of what they're doing.


For sure Paulo Sergio De Souz

All the said above have two parties too, it's just a matter of regulating them and put the parties to terms.

Let's keep walking ahead,,,let's go the barbaric way.
 
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The more we come to social deterioration, the more I see the point why these religions were imposed.. The Fear of God is important to adjust social morality.. I don't think any reason will click to legalising prostitution... The fact that we discuss all this now is due to freedom of thinking and expanding, but if we had limits, things would've remained intact!

By common sense, Prostitution legalisation is fallacy!

I have a different opinion, perhaps will persuade you.
I certainly believe that morality is something objective. This is to say, something moral should always be moral in all circumstances. If that claim is convincing then religion cannot be a bedrock of morality at all,even God cannot be a primordial of our moral beliefs.
In this,one has to make a distinction between ethics and morality. The temptation is to use them as synonyms words which isn't the case. Issues about morality, any democratic goverment must show concern to its citizens. On contrary issues about ethics government shouldn't intervene because individuals can decide for themselves. A goverment ought to be neutral in order to show respect to all its citizens to whom it claims dominion.
I also do think that Government ought to be neutral about prostitution because its about personal life. We don't need public sex as a nation.
If you hold that prostitution is wrong because isn't a good life for you as an individual,that is okay to you. Though, the problem comes when you think that everyone should live as you think.This is always a case to some governments, especially African countries.
 
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