From Astitwa.com - http://astitwa.com/updates/july_sotm.php
Interview With A Professional Sex-Worker | Friday, July 15, 2005
- By Astitwa Team

Prostitution (sex-work) means the sale of sexual services for money. And a person selling sexual services is called a prostitute.The term prostitution is sometimes used in the more general meaning of having sex in order to achieve a certain goal different from procreation or pleasure. In general, Prostitution is rejected by most religions as being improper or sinful, and prostitutes are considered to be shameful or individuals of low standing in most societies. In the context of Nepal, girls mostly adopt this profession due to various reasons: financial crisis; trafficking of women; sexual slavery ;fraud or coercion; maosist insurgency leading them to survive in urban areas from rural areas; luxurious lifestyles etc. Since, prostitution is not legal in Nepal, so they are forced to live in obscurity. We have spoken to " YASMI ", a Nepali girl, on July 12, 2005 about the facts of her life being a prostitute who sees her work the most natural way inorder to live a luxurious lifestyle.

Name: Yasmi (Name has been changed order to maintain privacy)
Profession: Sex-worker
Education: Intermediate level
Age: 22


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Astitwa team: (AT) | Prostitute: (Pro)



AT: Tell us about your past before adopting this profession?

Pro: I was 19 when I started this profession. Before coming to Kathmandu, I had already completed my intermediate level from Sikkim. I came to kathmandu, in my brother's place(relative) to spend my vacations. I was then hired as receptionist, in a travel agency with an income of Rs.3000. I just had to do the general administrative works. Later, I met a guy in my near place and we got along for 3/4 months just as friends. Gradually, we started dating each other and he was the first person to whom I made love for the first time.Since I liked him, so we were still continuing our relation. Then, I started working as GRO (Guests Relation Officer) in a dance restaurant at evening time. I just had to attend guests and makes bills. I left my brother's place and started living with a former dance restaurant girl from Darjeeling. She was married to her own customer as a second wife. Finally, I resigned the job in travel agency and continued in the post of GRO.

AT: Did your bf knew that you work in dance restaurant?

Pro: No, he was not aware of this reality because I used to go for work at the evening time.

AT: Why have you choosen to become a prostitute?

Pro: The main reason is money. It's an easy way to make money. In the same dance restaurant, I started getting offers from the guests, while attending them. I used to go in hotels, resorts and to other places with my customers. I get Rs.3000 when I work for a month as a receptionist. But I earn Rs.3000 when I sleep with one customer.

AT: Did Darjeeling woman support you?

Pro: Yes, she was really helpful for me. She had many contacts and introduced me to many male friends. And my montly income started rising up. I earned around Rs.50,000 per month. Later, I started living all alone in my own (two-bedrooms)flat.

AT: How do you spend the money earned?

Pro: I used to spend on clothes, jewelleries and other stuffs. I used to enjoy doing shopping. After a collection of good income, I bought a bike for myself so that I could ride to my destined places. Later, I had an accident and I sold my bike due to financial crisis.

AT: How have you been dealing with your customers before and now?

Pro: Before, I used to go to in the same dance restaurant. Since, I used to be the centre of attraction and I was given the freedon to appear thrice a week as a GRO. Then, I got offers and if the guy agree on my demand, I used to bring him to my place and slept with him.
But things have changed now. I no longer go to dance restaurants to lure the clients or guests. All works with a phone call in my mobile. If the guests are unknown to me, then I first find out if they are trustworthy or not. After 4/5 calls, I meet them at a different spot and then decide to sleep with them or not. I usually bring guys to my place during afternoon so that the house owner can't make any suspection. I work in night shifts once in a blue moon if there is a regular customer.

AT: How did you manage to work in your place?

Pro: At present, I have four rooms of flat and a servant as well. I have said to my house owner that I work in a manpower company. So its obvious that few people come to my place for inquiry. So, there's no point of suspection by my house-owner. I pay the rent in time and they are quite happy. I just have 2/3 clients a day at my place. And there are times, when I have no clients as well.

AT: How much money you make in a month generally?

Pro: In general, I make up to Rs.50,000. But in any kind of crisis in the country such as strikes etc, I make up to Rs.15,000 to Rs. 20,000. So there's a fluctuation in my income: Rs.15,000 to Rs. 50,000.

AT: Have your ever encountered with police?

Pro: Yes, but they are my clients and they even pay too. Being an educated girl, I am very much aware of legal issues. After the age of 18, one is free to do whatever she likes. If I have desires for sex, then I can satisfy myself getting a guy at my place. I know that providing sexual service for money is illegal. So, I ask people serving for government to buy gifts of the same rate because that is not said to be illegal.

AT: What types of age-groups are your clients and what are your charging rates?

Pro: My clients are from boys to old aged people. Mostly, I prefer the age-group of late twenties because I also enjoy doing sex with them. But whoever, pays me more, I sleep with them. My clients are from higher rank posts in government sectors, businessmen, young college boys to general as well. My rate is Rs. 1500 whenever I am free. I charged Rs. 3000 and above to matured and old aged people and Rs. 2000 to young boys. And I usually charge Rs. 5000/7000 for a whole night. She does nothing for free. To put in simple terms, no free sex trade.

AT: The general perception of the Nepalese society terms prostitution as a sin and doesn't respect even accept this profession. But males keep on searching for the places of pleasure.So, what is your opinion towards these males?

Pro: In the countries all over the world, prostitution is being legalised. So, I give a damn towards the thoughts of our society because I don't harm anyone. I sell my body for myself only. And I find myself really lucky to have these male friends because they are the mainstay of my living. If there are no clients then, I even can't afford for my primary needs. I prefer making male friends rather than females because friendship with males makes you forward and you can gain the knowledge regarding diverse matters. But with females, you are always in the gossips and discussions of upcoming fashions in the town. Men have money, pride, power and prestige. And whenever there is any kinda economic problem or any work to be done, I just have to make a phone call and my work is done. So, there's no use of making female friends.

AT: You provide your services in a very organized way? How did you know about all these?

Pro: I am very fond of movies. And I adopted these procedures from the movies only. After I receive phone calls, I fix the time and ask the client to come to my place. Then, I serve him beer and meat varieties for Rs. 500. After, we have a chat and have our drinks together. Then, the deal is started, if he agrees with my selling rate then I take him to my bedroom and provide sexual service otherwise ask him to leave my place.

AT: Do any of your friends or relatives know about you?

Pro: Since, I haven't stayed and studied here, So I don't have any females friends and all my male friends are my clients. I also left my bf as I started taking prostitution as my profession. I have no time to make females friends. All those friends at the dance restaurants are still at the primary level. And I have no contacts with them. There are no such relatives in kathmandu concerned about me.

AT: Why did you start alone rather than making it a team-work so that you would have a friend to share your happiness and sorrow?

Pro: I didn't find any necessity of female friends in my life. I share my problems with a good friend of mine in his mid- fourties. He helps we whenver I have any financial problem. I think I am strong enough to earn and manage things by myself. I have maintained my standards and limits and thats the reason I stand in the society. I do my work in a very professional way. And other girls can't maintain the standards that I possess.

AT: Any bad incidents happened in this profession? Have you ever felt guilty working as a prostitute?

Pro: Well, there's nothing worst happened. There are certain clients who come and bargain for rates, compare me with other sex-workers etc. And this makes me mad and I scold them and ask them to leave my place. I am very short-tempered girl and my anger makes me feel guilty later.
I never lived with any kind of guilt through out these 4 years because I was not forced by anyone. At the age of 19, I was matured enough to think what I am doing. In this modern world, everyone wants to make money, enjoy and spend life in luxury. With the monthly income of Rs.3,000 or Rs.10,000 I could never live a standard lifestyle like the way I'm living today. Before, I used to wonder seeing the villages girls riding bikes and spending lavishly on clothes and other stuffs. Then, I came to know the reality of their lives. If such uneducated girls can easily sell their body for money then why can't I? I got very jealous seeing them because being an educated girl I could not earn much and girls who even do not know the alphabets of english were making money in hours. Since prostitution was a easy money making process, So I peferred this profession rather than doing 9 t 5 job in office.

AT: Have you faced problems due to any kind of crisis in Nepal?

Pro: The political instability had greatly influenced my business. Since I have all my contacts through mobiles, I faced a very critical situation during those few months. My monthly income decreased to Rs. 9000 to Rs. 10000. I somehow managed to pay my rent and other stuffs because I had no clients.

AT: What is the important thing in your life?

Pro: Of course, money. I got involved into this profession for money. And If anyone provides me a job of more than the earnings from this profession, I will leave this profession. But I don't think that average Nepalese girls can earn more in other profession besides selling body. If they want quick changes, then they need to sell their body.

AT: Are you in contact with your family?

Pro: I visit my family once in a year. And they don't know what I am doing. I have told that I work in an office, So they are not much bothered. Beside body-selling profession, I work as materials supplier for home contracts as my side job.

AT: At present, do you stay alone or with your relatives?

Pro: I stay alone. My brother comes once or twice in a year, which doesn't make any difference at all. He is busy with his friends and arrives late so there's no point of suspection becase I mostly do my work at day time.

AT: What are your future plans?

Pro: After a good saving of money, I want to get married and settled. I dream of my husband, family and a peaceful life.I want my husband to provide the same facilities that I am enjoying and my demands needs to be fulfilled. I will discontinue this profession after marriage. I am interested in fashion and furnitures. So, I may open a business depending on my interests like boutique or any furniture shops.

AT: Any suggestions to other sex-workers?

Pro: I just have a single message: Practice safe sex because health comes first rather than money.

you're dead springer...i hope your nobody has to write shits about your gf, your sis's if you have any..so stop promoting hell..F***K OFF

bloody pimps!!!

Well... I did not really go through the other postings but I did read the interview. It is shocking to hear the views of a prostitute. I mean I had watched documentaries such as "The day my god died" and I forgot the name of the other one...DANG... "_______ ion a brothel" which is about teaching photography to children who are born in brothels. But this is the first time I am actually reading the views of a prostitute who is doing all this for money and fun. Real weird. It is shocking,..... REALLY shocking to hear her views.

Is this thing in a real magazine or what is it? Astitwa Team re... I dont know, not trying to be judgemental or anything but the English grammar of Nepal astounds me. I thought that Publishers are supposed to have some editors to do the editing before any interview or article is posted. I was shocked to see the various gramatical mistakes at almost every sentence. Not saying that I am a whiz, but the grammar was pathetic! Just an advice to the team--- You guys ought to hire an editor who will help you make better sense of the articles.

And to be truthful it is sort of weird to take interviews of prostitues who are doing all of this intentionally. There are other people who are being forced into this profession, and it would be better if you got into the depth of that and develop public awareness. It could be better if you helped those people out rather than providing the young generation with the idea of prostitution as the "money-earning-industry".

With all this said and done, I would like to mention that I am not trying to be judgemental or accuse the author/publisher about the content of the interview. This was solely my view. God Bless "Maiti Nepal" and "Anurada Poudyal" who are working against the several nepali women who have been trafficed to several brothels. If someone would want to donate any money for some good purpose, it should certainly be to them!

P.S: I really liked Manab's views on the topic. AND HUSH SIS ROCKS!! GO ON.... you're tha gal! Astitwa team did not make any sense in their reply to Manab. I wonder if they are proffesional at all!

Hushpuppy,

Cut it out! We have had enough of your swagger... Go dump your frustration elsewhere..You are screaming at people for no reason.. You really do have a big chip on your shoulder.. Gee!

the team work is better rocking
the matter says that all the girls think to be a smart with mobike and mobiles and this is HAQIKat of this period.and may god do not give a bad time to think abt this for whole nepal.
and i wanna just request this team for conclusion is this to be eradicated or to be maintained as a business which is to be legallised?

Hey Astititwa team,

Kudos to you guys for bringing these type of article in open. We are talking about it and that means you have been able acheived part of your goals. I hope we can come up with more contemporary life stories of Nepal. The issue is we tend to ignore our realities. Finally the societies around the world are begining to accept their lives they see in the mirror... Dove is using real women to market their lotion. In Europe it's become a great hit...NO more the slick 6' slim models...

Our society which has evolved tremendously over the past 20+ years needs to be seen as is. I can't even walk around Durbar Marg on Friday's or Sat day... bunch of women/pimps out on the streets prowling for customer. Once I conducted an informal interview with a woman who looked like she came from a decent family and she did.. her story was, her man was working outside nepal and she was simply bored with her life.. I also came across pimps who are pimping women who are simply ignored by their husbands. Isn't it ironical that the street where the king resides is one of the most infested streets in KTM.

We all enjoy the reality TV but when we start viewing our own realities, it turns into nuisance. I think the our realities will be more interesting than Ozzy cussing left and right on MTV.

I hope you guys can bring more and more realities that will urge people to reflect on the realities around them.

One of the most fascinting thing i saw when i was in Nepal 2 weeks ago was number of transvesdikes that are around Rani Pokhari after 12PM. That was one of the most shocking events i had witnessed..guess what that was the reality.

ciao

Good article, reality!
I knew this days was coming. I read some of the posts and was more suprised than the article itself that our men are so hypocrats.Whille you want our nation to progress (which means to achieve Western standards) then why can't you deal with it, it's pros and cons. We don't live in isolation, kids will learn it from MTV and Brittny Spear anyway. They are bombarded with Western influence at every step of their life. My recent surprise was when I visited, there was a huge influence of Latin culture from TV. Nope we don't have any Latin community, it's the TV that brought it. There's nothing wrong with adopting the culture but it's a very far distant land we have nothing to do with it. Insecured? Yes. God...don't we have our own culture? Indian is fine, even Chinese. Latin????? Let me assure you that Salsa does not teach anything beside sex.
Those problems are inevitable with modernization. In fact I would say that we need to adopt Red Light areas right now and be safe like Amsterdam than being consevative and ending with more problems like US.
In Nepal, kids and mostly grown ups are having sex like crazy without their spouse and family knowing anything. Nothing to be surprised.
There is already transvesdikes, gays and there more are coming, nobody can stop it. The only thing matters is findin solution. Now do want to adopt hypocracy or logics?
My open view.

It's surprising to see that many of us have ignored the possibility that it may be a 'made-up' interview.

well, even if its a made up interview it is very much possible......if u're ambitious and after money u could probly do anything for it.......moreover females enjoy having sex just the way as men do.......we've heard about actresses and businesswomen having sex with directors or their bosses for fame and money...well this one's a god damn prostitute and she chose to be that way....i dont see anything weird about this....this article is meant to elucidate the situation of nepal so that we could be aware and could empathize. i dont think prostitution is bad if someone chooses to do it by his/her own will and of course applies safe sex......

Internet Sex Column Thrills, and Inflames, China
By JIM YARDLEY

Published: November 30, 2003
THE NEWYORK TIMES

GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 26 ? For the past month, as China's propaganda machine has promoted the nation's new space hero or the latest pronouncements from Communist Party leaders, the Chinese public has seemed more interested in a 25-year-old sex columnist whose beat is her own bedroom.

"I think my private life is very interesting," said the columnist, Mu Zimei, arching an eyebrow and tapping a Marlboro Light into an ashtray. She added: "I do not oppose love, but I oppose loyalty. If love has to be based on loyalty, I will not choose love."

Mu Zimei is both reviled and admired, but she is not ignored. The country's most popular Internet site, Sina.com, credits her with attracting 10 million daily visitors. Another site, Sohu.com, says Mu Zimei is the name most often typed into its Internet search engine, surpassing one occasional runner-up, Mao Zedong.

Her celebrity ? which exploded when she posted an explicit online account of her tryst with a Chinese rock star ? first seemed to baffle government censors but now has drawn a familiar response. Her forthcoming book was banned this week. She has quit her magazine columnist job and halted her blog, or online diary.

Yet at a time when "Sex and the City" episodes are among the most popular DVD's in China, the Mu Zimei phenomenon is another example of the government's struggle to keep a grip on social change in China. Her writings have prompted a raging debate about sex and women on the Internet, where more people are writing blogs or arguing anonymously about a host of subjects in chat rooms and discussion pages.

"She does bring a huge impact on Chinese society," said Zeng Fuhu, a top editor at Sohu.com.

Such sweeping talk does not impress Ms. Mu as she sits in a bistro in this south China boomtown. Women at a nearby table try to eavesdrop as China's scarlet-lettered woman estimates that she has slept with about 70 men, and counting.

She said she never realized her online diary would be so widely discovered, or that it would grow into a national controversy. But she defended her right to sleep with as many men as she pleased ? and to write about it.

"If a man does this," she said, "it's no big deal. But as a woman doing so, I draw lots of criticism."

Sex, and governmental anxiety about it, is not a new issue in China. In January 1994, the government banned "The Abandoned Capital," a sexually explicit, best-selling novel by an acclaimed author, Jia Pingwa. Then in May 2000, censors banned another sex-soaked best seller, "Shanghai Baby," by Zhou Weihui.

But Ms. Mu's case is notable because her most controversial work appeared on the Internet. Mu Zimei (pronounced Moo Zuh-MAY) is the pen name of Li Li, who began working in 2001 as a feature writer at City Pictorial, a glossy magazine covering fashion and social trends. At the end of 2002, editors overhauled the magazine and decided they wanted a sex columnist who could write about "real life" issues.

Ms. Mu said she was chosen because editors knew she was familiar with the subject. Her first sexual experience ? on April 30, 1999, she noted ? ended with an abortion and left her wary of the opposite sex. She followed that with a "pretty normal boyfriend" before concluding she was not a one-man woman. "Personally, I felt I was suitable for temporary relationships," she said.

Her biweekly column in City Pictorial began in January. Her topics included recommendations on the best music for good lovemaking, the aphrodisiacal benefits of eating oysters and technical pointers on making love in a car. It was racy stuff for China, but hardly without precedent.

What changed everything was her decision in April to start her own online blog at a new Chinese site for personal diaries. She said she thought it would be fun.

While writing her magazine column, she had hopped from man to man, sometimes hopping to two men at once, sometimes hopping to married men. Her topics, though, remained more thematic than explicit.

But in her online diary, she began writing explicitly about these encounters, or those of her friends, and on July 26 described her brief and apparently unsatisfying liaison outside a restaurant with a famous guitarist in a Guangzhou rock band.

The entry was posted at a popular online discussion board, spread among China's "netizens" like wildfire and was quickly picked up in the gossipy newspapers that feed China's growing celebrity culture. Eventually, she was featured in China's edition of Cosmopolitan magazine.

In Beijing, editors at Sina.com and Sohu.com also noticed. An estimated 68 million people surf the Internet in China, with annual growth rates approaching 30 percent. Internet users tend to be China's most affluent and better-educated citizens, and though government censors block certain Web sites, the amount of information available online is enormous.

It is also a growing and fiercely competitive business. By early November, Sina.com had bought the serialization rights to Ms. Mu's book, a compilation of her magazine columns, poems and some diary entries. (The diary entries included in the book are not explicit, Ms. Mu said.)

Beginning Nov. 11, Sina.com used its home page to promote the serialization, along with photographs and interviews with the author. The response was stunning. Sina.com normally attracts 20 million visitors a day. Company officials say that number immediately jumped to 30 million and stayed there for 10 days.

She also became a hot topic of debate in different Internet chat rooms and discussion sites. Was she an amoral hussy peddling pornography? Or was she a liberated woman?

"The most loathsome person in the world is not the woman who writes exotic words, but those sanctimonious men!" wrote one contributor to a discussion page.

"I despise Mu Zimei!" one critic countered. Another added, "This kind of diary will only serve as an excuse for more people who want to live a wild sexual life."

Sociologists weighed in, pro and con. A Sina.com poll of more than 30,000 people found respondents about equally split.

For months, the government had remained a bystander. But on Nov. 16, the state-run Beijing Evening News strongly criticized Ms. Mu and accused Sina.com of wrongly promoting her to attract more visitors.

"The blind pursuit after this kind of phenomenon," the newspaper stated, "will mislead people into thinking that the government authorities over news are turning blind to this."

Sina.com quickly minimized, though did not remove, its promotion of Ms. Mu. "When we saw the Beijing Evening News, we realized we might have gone too far," said Chen Tong, Sina.com's editor in chief. "So we pulled back."

Sohu.com's editors initially held worried meetings about Sina.com's popular serialization. But a day after the Beijing Evening News article, the Sohu.com editors, citing the need for Internet sites to maintain content standards, published their own criticism about Ms. Mu.

Asked if the Sohu article was an attempt to undercut Sina's star attraction, Mr. Zeng responded, "It had nothing to do with Sina."

Ms. Mu does not regard herself as peddling smut. She said her generation of Chinese grew up with little or no sex education. "Some learned it from videos," she said. "Why not from words?"

[The government has other ideas, it seems. The decision to ban her book was reported in the state-run media on Friday, Ms. Mu confirmed the ban. Online booksellers, who had been swamped with purchase requests, said government officials ordered them not to sell the book, which had been scheduled to go on the market this week.]

In an effort to defuse the controversy, Ms. Mu said she quit her columnist job in early November and voluntarily shut down her Web site. She said she had other offers and hoped to continue writing, assuming the government does not ban her writing altogether.

She also said the controversy had cramped her social life: she has, she said, been celibate for two weeks

hey..this time guys from usa are on target of astitwa site. Read their story of the month. on their site Astitwa.com

With the donations the team gets, i think they need to get serious and write some good stuff in their webpage and please! with some good language. There are plenty of young writers with good writing skills, hire them. Don't make it another family business.

And also post some serious topics that are relevant. the articles are just too vague and imaginary.

Hush...i agreee with you completely....this ASTITWA does not actually have any significant existance.

Also, reagarding the prostitute girl, don't you think such things were there from the old days. There are plenty of girls who want quick and easy bucks and fun in life and go into prostitution. The story of people who are forced into is sad but why is it such a big thing if a girl wants to earn money through prostitution. There are plently of these girls and we have read enough about them in every culture and in history. What did you guys prove by it.

You might as well provide the address of the girl and do a bit of social service to the girl...the kind you guys are talking about all the time.

no women would be prostitute if it weren't for men.

Dear Astitwa or whatever...

Pinch yourself and GET FLIPPIN REAL !!!!

If it weren't for men there wouldn't be prostitutes? Blame the men for everything! Blame God for making men horny 24/7 at the sight of every females. I'm sure God had good intention in mind though, he just wanted to make sure the human race continued.

But in the civilized society of today, it is not civil for men to do what their natural instinct tells them. Hence prostitution. Some women taking advantage of men's natural desires. Guess it works both ways... just need to be protected from diseases...

no comments... this is one happy pro... how about the sad ones who sell for Rs 100???
but i dont' know about all these articles... what is it tryinna tell the society??? can't blame either of them.... yeah this is sad but true...

Prostitution for fun? what the heck.. if it was by force - totally understandable , it's bad... heck they're doing it for fun ray.. lau....
if they sleep around for fun then it's not prostitution, it's simply fun. most men do that every day or at least try to do it, but sadly they don't get paid. women get paid.. lucky creatures... and still get sorry comments for doing it..
heck , sex + money.. i would definately do it.. why not... we all bokas try to do sex without money no matter what.. if we get paid for fun why not do it.. i think there is a big double standards.. women get sex+ women get money + women get sympathy.. what the heck.... i no unnerstann eay gathay....
some good improvements in Nepal.. now Nepali women can have fun with the mail of thier choice and get paid at the same time.. bravooooooooo... i hope it will happen to men too soon... i'm looking for my plane ticket in advance...

Totally agree with Nivan and G_I sis .. and yes they do need to hire some editors..