User:M.N.D Kadhila 212038532/sandbox

Should prostitution be legalized in Namibia?

Most women and girls in Namibia who are poor, uneducated and unemployed tend to get into prostitution industry and take prostitution as their occupation. They do this by providing sexual services to another person in return for payment, due to the lack of sufficient funding to cater for their basic needs as well as other services because they have no other choice in order to raise some funds for themselves and escape poverty. Most of the people especially our leaders are against this issue. One of them is the founding father of the Namibian Nation, stating that it violates the human dignity and that it has never been the culture of the African people. Others (Christians) claimed that a large number of people (90%) of the Namibian population are Christians and in this regard they think that it is morally wrong for prostitutes to use their God given bodies for such immoral act. The other fact is that, having sex before marriage goes against the 6th commandment of the Ten Commandments of God and it would corrupt the future generations into becoming pagans that is why they think prostitution should not be legalized in Namibia. One of the point against prostitution is that it promotes the act of criminality among the people and violence. Some claims that apart from that prostitution also severely affects their reproductive health and exposes them to STDs, including HIV infection. In prostitution industry in Namibia safe sex is uncontrolled as most of the prostitutes interviewed said that no usage of condoms at all due to the preference of their customers. Some politicians in their views think that, prostitution is both a social problem and a form of violence against women, in the case of female prostitution. “It is also considered an immoral and illegal activity. Therefore, they think it is not good to legalize prostitution as it has a negative impact in terms of health and social point of view. The other reason is that legalization of prostitution promotes high risk of human trafficking, sex trafficking, increasment of child prostitution it also increases the demand for prostitution. It boosts the motivation of men to buy women for sex in a much wider and more permissible range of socially acceptable settings. Most of the people in the communities are saying people who are doing that should think of something better for their life rather than relying on prostitution which is not a business hence it should banned and those who will be found practicing it should be punished to avoid the spread of HIV / AIDS and other infectious diseases. Local and Regional Government Minister Jerry Ekandjo ‘said the young people involved in prostitution should rather be encouraged to cut and sell grass and tree pods. “If you legalize prostitution then nobody will work [regularly] anymore,” Ekandjo argued.

Others think that prostitution should be legalized due to some reasons of which some of them are that it will make it possible for sex workers to report crimes against them because it is presently impossible to know how sex workers are protected because they cannot report illegal acts perpetrated against them without facing a backlash from the law enforcement, legalizing prostitution in the country it will also make it easier for the prostitution industry to get access universal health care and to enable them to lay charges with the police without the fear of being arrested. Some argued from economic point of view that prostitution should be legalized in Namibia to provide poor people with employment to generate income to buy food, pay for their children’s school fees as well as other essential needs. Some think that prostitution will provide the government with some fund as prostitution industry will start paying VAT to the government. Uneducated people are saying that they have tried many activities but they are not working at all but prostitution works best for them and they are making a lot of money out of it. And being self employed is also the best as the whole income produce will just go straight into their pockets. Some claimed that decriminalization is not at all a solution to every injustice that exists in the sex industry; it is a starting point. If prostitution was not an underground activity it would allow us to much more effectively address the serious problems of forced prostitution and juvenile prostitution and the other abuses which are part of an industry that operates completely in the shadows. There are many who want other options and they should be given alternatives and assistance. And then there are also those who organize for their rights and are not quitting at the moment and they should be afforded options, their rights, and self-determination as well. Whatever ills are attached to prostitution, criminalization of prostitutes exacerbates the abuse." Finally as an individual I’m against this act of legalizing prostitution because it has a lot of bad effects to the prostitutes themselves in regard to their health and to the country itself with that status of legalizing prostitution which is morally wrong, it is against most of the cultural values in Namibia and it is just a very big shame to the country itself despite all of reasons that are said to be the cause of prostitutes. I think Local and Regional Government Minister Jerry Ekandjo is right when he ‘said the young people involved in prostitution should rather be encouraged to cut and sell grass and tree pods’ rather that getting their income through this act which is putting their lives at risk.

References 1)	http://www.nshr.org.na/index.php?module=News&func=display&sid=1455 2)	https://sites.google.com/site/filippussite/my-page 3)	http://www.misanamibia.org.na/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=142:prostitution-needs-to-be-addressed-kamwi&catid=37:archive&Itemid=85 4) Veronica Monet Prostitute and Author in Gauntlet Magazine 1994 5) Carol Leigh Founder of Bay Area Sex Workers Advocacy Network (BAYSWAN) and former prostitute "Justice Talking" on National Public Radio (NPR) Mar. 4, 2002