Sex worker activism, feminist discourse and HIV in Bangladesh

Datos Bibliográficos

ID15098542
AutoresHabiba Sultana (0000-0002-1357-4009, University of New England, autor de correspondencia)
Año2015
Volumen17
Número6
Páginas777-788
Fecha de publicación2015-07-03
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaCulture Health & Sexuality (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1369-1058 • E-ISSN: 1464-5351
EditorialInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/13691058.2014.990516
PMID25588539
PMCIDPMC4391286
OpenAlexW2056093305
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas13
Referencias citadas22

This paper explores the relationship between sex worker activism and HIV-related discourse in Bangladesh, relating recent developments in activism to the influence of feminist thought. Following their eviction in 1991 from brothels from red light areas, Bangladeshi sex workers started a social movement, at just about the same time that programmes started to work with sex workers to reduce the transmission of HIV. This paper argues that both sex worker activism and HIV-prevention initiatives find impetus in feminist pro-sex-work perspectives, which place emphasis on individual and collective agency. However, by participating in these programmes, sex workers failed to contest the imagery of themselves as 'vectors' of HIV. In this way, they were unwittingly complicit in reproducing their identity as 'polluting others'. Moreover, by focusing on individual behaviour and the agency of sex workers, HIV programmes ignored the fact that the 'choices' made by sex workers are influenced by a wide range of structural and discursive factors, including gender norms and notions of bodily purity, which in turn have implications for the construction of HIV-related risk

Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV · Political science · Research methodology · Sex workers · Sociology · African Sexualities and LGBTQ+ Issues · Demography · Gender Studies · Human Rights and Development · Medicine · Sex work and related issues · Virology