By Mara Ricoy / Matriactivista

On 28th of May 2022, thousands of feminist women took to the centre of Madrid. They aimed to remind the Spanish government of the abolitionist law proposed by a feminist platform known as PAP (Plataforma Estatal de Organizaciones de Mujeres por la Abolición de la Prostitución). And I say thousands, because although I was there, it is difficult to establish exactly how many we were. Due to the political division on this topic, the reports from the press suggested anything between 3,000 and 8,000 women.

One thing was clear though, the feminists, some of them being survivors of prostitution, were abolitionists. The PAP with their feminist abolitionist law proposal, the LOASP, wants to follow the example of countries such as France or Norway where a bigger emphasis is placed on the pimps and Johns and efforts are in place to support the exit of those who have been trafficked or prostituted.

When I returned home, I celebrated that the PP (Partido Popular, conservative) was going to support the proposal from the PSOE (Partido Socialista Obrero Español, Spanish Labour party) and vote in favour of drawing up legislation to abolish prostitution. On the 7th of June, the historically opposed PP and PSOE allied in favour of a law that says it will criminalise pimps and Johns. The results were that 232 lawmakers voted for the proposal, 38 voted against it and 69 abstained, seeming to show in numbers those who consider prostitution a type of work that is chosen freely and those who have a more in-depth understanding of the structural inequalities that can push women and girls (predominantly) to be subjected to sexual exploitation and trafficking.

Irene Montero, Minister of Equality and part of Podemos (governing in coalition with the PSOE) had warned previously that restarting this debate and voting on this law proposal could lead to tensions and split the Senate. It is worth mentioning that the majority of feminist activists at the May demonstration in Spain were chanting #MonteroDimisión (Montero resign), as they do on an almost daily basis on Twitter. Feminists view Montero as someone more interested in the promotion of “gender ideology” than women’s rights and therefore in direct opposition to the fundamentals of feminism. I think the disappointment is particularly due to the great expectations placed on Podemos when they defined themselves as a feminist party.

However despite Montero’s warning, the vote has gone ahead and the law proposal has now received the green light, thanks to the support of the PP. The vote hasn't created the tensions, it has only made them visible. What is surprising is that the split is now internal. The PSOE seems closer than ever to the opposition and a bit further from their party in coalition. 

While a faction within Podemos promotes the neoliberalist approach of ensuring better conditions for women who “choose” to sell their bodies and sexuality, and refers to them as “sex workers”, another supports the ideas of the PSOE and feminists, seeking to put the focus on those who exploit women, and the ones who pay for sex. In Spain, recent laws that punished prostitution in the streets have also created a new underground system of “pisos” (flats) where pimps are also self-appointed landlords who exploit women with a “double-edged sword” interaction.

Smaller independent parties, all left wing, such as ERC, Bildu, En Comú Podem, Junts and CUP, have considered the proposal of abolitionism as puritanical, repressive and a direct threat to personal freedom. And have expressed these views through various outlets.

Prostitution in Spain generates 5 million euros daily and is the European country with the largest numbers of men paying for abusing women. Data from 2009 suggests that up to one in three Spanish men had paid for “sex”, and another study suggests that the figure may be as high as 39%. It is believed that at least 113,000 women are currently exploited in Spain.

I admit that I started writing this in a cautious but celebratory manner, as the news was spreading in jubilous tweets amongst British feminist friends online. I then noticed that my Spanish friends were becoming more and more sceptical in their reactions and even opposed to the so called “abolitionist law by the PSOE”.

In order to understand this better, I decided to ask a survivor of the Spanish prostitution system for their views. So I asked Carol L., who I had met during the demonstration in Spain to collaborate on this article by answering some questions.

M: Do you think that this law proposal from the PSOE changes anything regarding prostitution? 

C: I think that it changes things for the pimps and Johns, but to me whether they are richer or poorer means nothing, what matters to me is the situation of women. These laws will be great if all the money collected from the penalties and economic sanctions they talk about, was then forwarded to support the women who are prostituted. And I can’t find that written anywhere in their proposal.

The problem to me is that these sound to me as tiny gestures, and considering that we are heading to pre-election campaigns, it looks very good in principle, it is a nice photo but I find it completely insufficient. I don't even consider it a patch to cover the problem, more like a little plaster.

M: What is the difference between the new proposal and the law in place that already punishes Johns and pimps?

C: That coercion under the new proposal does not need to be violent to be penalised. Any kind of pressure on women to endure sexual exploitation could be prosecuted.

M: And that will also be applied to the so-called landlord/pimps?

C: Yes, them too, but I will reiterate, my issue are not with the penalties, and I know this is what most of us abolitionists have a problem with, the issue is with what is that money going to be used for because it seems to us that is only changing hands, what is the point in punishing the pimps and Johns, and then what…use the money to build roads?! What about the women? How are we supporting them?!

M: So I understand that the main difference with the LOASP or any truly abolitionist laws and what the PSOE is proposing is the lack of thought given to support women who are victims of trafficking and prostitution?

C: Yes, and perhaps where we have failed in our analysis is that, due to socialisation, we women have learned to expect little and we are easily pleased. The minute this was presented we started clapping, but our triumph as abolitionists is not there, as this is hardly a step in the right direction when it is done with the “wrong foot”. Our true success, if we look closer, is that this is a self-preservation gesture from those in power due to our constant pressure, and that is a monumental success. We have managed to put the debate out there, to corner them into taking some form of action. And if only we feminist understood that power we would probably be unstoppable.

M: So what is next? Should we carry on pushing for the LOASP? Should we continue debating on social media? What do you suggest?

C: Yes, absolutely all of that, we can’t stop, we must continue to give visibility to the issues around the prostitution system, and especially we need to carry on demanding resources for the women who are prostituted. And to start promoting restorative justice and expropriation of the finances raised by the sanctions to be placed to support women who exit. And to work to deconstruct clubs and hotels used for prostitution and transform them into centres for women who have exited prostitution, and train the survivors!

M. And here is where Carol speaks with all her strength and passion from her own personal journey…

C: We really need to train the survivors who, like me, want to progress in this line, to be the ones supporting other survivors, before they even attempt to get jobs. Because there is a lack of understanding and a patronising attitude from those who haven’t experienced been a victim of prostitution. We still don't have the resources or  professionals to work with the survivors. But the capacity of women who have exited prostitution have after everything that we have dealt with, believe me, that enables us to be the perfect professional to support other women. I do believe that  women who have survived prostitution, and have a feminist perspective and are trained properly is the best possible “tool” we have to support women exiting, and it is the only hope in the middle of all this dark subject.

It angers me when anyone suggests that we need to be “reintegrated into society”. We were in our society!! We never left, we were there, on the side of roads, in the clubs, in plain sight for everyone to see. And to readapt us to a society and find jobs working with those who were our “clients'', is that where you want us?! Off you go with all your PTSD, work as a cleaner or a cashier while facing those who abused you. It can’t work like that. We need to have a deeper understanding of what we are talking about.

Carol apologises for repeating herself, I tell her that we clearly do need her repetition, if we keep forgetting the centre of what should be our fight as feminists and as a society. We feminists have spent years asking to move the focus from punishing the women to punish the pimps, it seems that this is beginning to be understood. The next step is that the focus must return to women and their needs.

While I write this, the ongoing war against women becomes even more hostile on social media. Spanish speaking feminists start receiving harder attacks online for our active defence of abolitionism, which reads as pure and unleashed misogyny, constructed around the basic ideas that men have the right to sex and women must provide it. Every euphemism is utilised, including of course “sex workers”, “empowerment of whores” and the “social function that prostitution provides”.

The debate moves around preposterous questions from men such as: what are disabled men going to do if we have no prostitutes? And then the classic argument: I know a woman who actually enjoys being a prostitute. In the middle of the absurdity, a professor of philosophy even mansplained that Plato started feminism…

So after my initial celebration, reality hits. The politics are complex, and society is still further behind than the ideas we exchange and pursue in my lovely feminist bubble. Patriarchy is still very much in charge. Should I despair? Is this proposal as some of my Spanish feminist friends suggest a political manoeuvre to bargain with us for the “gender self-ID laws”. I don’t know but once again I will keep my focus on what the women at the centre of this and other oppressions say, amplifying all of our voices until they are the loudest sound on anything that affects us.

So while it is good that we are strong and rocking the boat, we are far from celebrating yet. We should not be distracted from bringing a clear, feminist and confident approach to dismantling the prostitution system in Spain, one that not only punishes Johns and pimps but re-educates society, one that not only guarantees safety for those exiting prostitution but also for any girl growing up in Spain today and in the future. That approach requires a complete revision of the politics and laws already in place as well as the careful scrutiny of any new proposals that could compromise the rights of women, and from a frame that takes into account the patriarchal structures that time and time again fail women and render us more vulnerable. Achieving this, Spain could be an example of equality in a way that will achieve justice for women today, in the future, and also for the many women who have fought long and hard for their rights regardless of the politics in charge.

But in order to do so Spain needs to listen to women, and specifically those who know what prostitution can do to them.