Sex Work:  Feminist Fault-lines

VAMP Institute

1st – 2nd May 2024

Dhaka, Bangladesh

Organised by

Sex Workers and Allies South Asia (SWASA) and Naripokkho

Sex Work: Feminist Faultlines, a cross-movement dialogue, explored contentious issues within feminism that intersect with sex work in a safe and non-judgmental space. It aimed to build an understanding of sex work and sex workers’ rights. 

The frameworks of Sex Work: Feminist Faultlines were: 

1. Moral Policing: Ability to consent to sex work, representation and sex work, intimate partnerships within sex work.
2. Politics of sexuality: Queer theory, gender and sexual identities. 
3. Sex work and decent work: The labour framework
4. Trafficking and sex work: Beyond a critique of conflation.

The cross-movement dialogue also explored the possibilities of a common position on sex work and identified areas of consensus and disagreement, as well as areas of solidarity and potential common agendas. 

The 40 participants were women’s rights activists, trade unionists, sex workers, and rights activists from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, and England.