A sex workers’ rights organisation in Singapore confronts the stigma and discrimination that fuel violence against sex workers and their communities.

Bella is a migrant transwoman and sex worker based in Singapore. This is her testimony:

 “The police treat us like terrorists, destroy our room during raids. We don’t like to be treated like that, like we are criminals. They come to disturb us, but don’t give us a license or provide jobs in Singapore. We want a license, but the process is not easy. Some jobs also require us to cut hair and be like a man. That is why we do sex work.” 

Bella’s story, which she contributed to a report toward the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), reflects on the many legal, social and economic challenges migrant and sex workers as well as women of trans experience encounter in Singapore. 

Take, for example, the police violence that sex workers face and the fact that they are primarily treated like criminals, not workers. Many sex workers in Singapore work in legal grey areas where the city-state considers their labour illegal but the “government allows them to operate within Designated Red-Light Areas (DRA), within brothels regulated and monitored by police despite the law.” Where some sex workers can receive a ‘yellow card’, (a license of sort) others are not eligible if they are over 35, are not from a listed country like China, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, or Singapore, or are not legally recognized as female. 

Migrant workers face even harder restrictions, and those considered ‘illegal’ even more so, as the fear of deportation is a daily reality. 

Meanwhile, trans persons are extremely vulnerable to social stigma and discrimination and consequently find it hard to find work in a society that is filled with prejudices towards them. The general media portrayals of sex workers often do not help dismantle stigma, instead:

“Their sensationalistic portrayal of sex workers demeans and dehumanizes them, encouraging public prejudice, further feeding the stigma that causes social ostracization, employment discrimination, and violence.” (CEDAW 68th Session Stakeholders Report by Sex Workers in Singapore)

Project X advocates against the systemic obstacles that sex workers experience as they try to live and work. The organisation is the first and only rights-based sex workers’ organization in Singapore and, alongside a variety of programming, does much through public education to shift harmful and mainstream views of sex work and the people who do this work. As Vanessa Ho, the director of Project X says, "Sex work is a topic that nobody wants to talk about." 

Untold Stories

To transform silence into stories, images, voices and dialogue, the organisation works with partners and allies on media and public awareness campaigns. These take shape in written form, photography, or as humorous caricatures. 

In 2017, the organization partnered with Dear Straight People, a leading online LGBT publication based in Singapore, to bring ‘Untold Stories’ told by sex workers. These illustrate that sex workers do not have one single unifying experience, but that they each have unique and interconnected stories. Most importantly, those who lived those stories are the ones to tell them. Here are just a few:

Sandhya, 40: “I actually came from a family of ministers. My aunts and uncles are all pastors and worship leaders so it was pretty difficult for me to transition. To them, it was the ultimate betrayal. They couldn’t understand why I was transitioning and would quote paragraphs to me from the bible telling me how transitioning was a sin... When my pastor uncle came by, he told my mum it was time for them to accept me. He said if they don’t accept me, the public wouldn’t accept me either… "

Sherry, 25: “If you were to ask me 5 years ago what I would be doing now, I wouldn’t have believed that I would be working as an activist with Project X and talking to members of the public and educating them about sex work...”

Qistina Asyurah aka Echa, 37: “I am a very good cook and my goal is to actually open my own Muslim food stall soon. I come from a family of good cooks. Right now, I am actually saving up. My signature dish is the Ayam Lemak chilli padi...” 

Movement Matters

In August 2016, Project X joined AWID as an institutional member. In addition to their work on public education and media awareness, they mentioned that intersectionality and movement building is important in creating social change and justice. It is crucial to build solidarity, partnerships, strengthen alliances.

Find out more about Project X and how to get involved.

About a writer and photographer from Nigeria and the ancestral forces that led to her kind of feminism. 

The alarm goes off at 3:00am daily for Adebisi. She confirms that it’s part of her motivation to write, something she has done since primary school. 

“(I) Gave it up upon entering the university because I thought no one would take me seriously as a writer.” 

Ten years later, she picked it up again. If she ignores the alarm she says, “I miss writing so much that I run back to it”. 

Through her writing practice, Adebisi explores issues connected to feminism, gender and topics with strong social and political context. She has written on child marriage in Uganda, ending sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, sponsoring women technology events, nurturing one’s own creativity, gender stereotypes at work and other spaces. 

Ancestries of resistance 

Across her body of work, Adebisi pinpoints her favourite piece as “Finding Biko: The Spirit of Black Consciousness Lives Among Born-Free South Africans”, a feature published in OkayAfrica, a media platform that highlights activism, arts, and culture across Africa and the diaspora. 

In the article, she describes in-depth how the current generation of South African activists from the #FeesMustFall movement was influenced by their forerunner, Steven Biko, who propelled the Black Consciousness Movement and fought for Black liberation in South Africa. 

“Thirty-nine years after his death, Biko continues to inspire the struggle for freedom in South Africa. This time the struggle is not for freedom from white minority rule but from the dismantling of a system that sentences South Africa's black born free generation to a cycle of exclusion. (Adebisi, OkayAfrica)”

“Unquestionably, to a keen observer of South Africa's history inherent in the #RhodesMustFall, #FeesMustFall and #OpenStellenbosch fallist movements, this political awakening (is) similar to that found among youths in the Soweto Uprising of June 16, 1976. (Adebisi, OkayAfrica)”

“This is South Africa's born free generation's way of embracing Biko's philosophy of Black Consciousness which states that ‘the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity’. (Adebisi, OkayAfrica)"

Intergenerational Feminisms

In the same way that she draws connections between Biko’s activism and the Fallist movement in South Africa, Adebisi is aware of how her own ideas on gender were shaped by her mother’s and grandmother’s feminisms (which they never labelled as such). 

“My maternal grandmother climbed trees and refused to marry my grandfather. My grandmother’s daughter knew too much. She was the kind of woman most men aren’t comfortable with. These African women were the first feminists I knew even if they never identified themselves as such. Therefore, when people say feminism is un-African I smile.”  

The young creative describes her journey toward rejecting pre-formatted brands of feminism and shaping a version of her own, one that suits her context and needs. “I am more inclined to see feminism as a daily, sustained practice”, she says. Adebisi points out that certain choices she makes are not because there is a specific point to prove, but are part of her space and being comfortable there: 

“For instance, I hold a camera because I love it, not because I want to prove women can capture moments better. Consequently, to me feminism is not an ideology of competition.”

If you’re wondering, Adebisi told us that her feminist grandmother stopped climbing trees and eventually married her grandfather. But as she says:

“You probably figured that part already”.

Adebisi’s Quest

In May of 2017, Adebisi joined AWID as an individual member. She maintains a dynamic pace as a freelance writer, photographer and blogger from Nigeria. The Female Orator, an online platform she runs, is “created to inform, educate and inspire African women by sharing content related to them”.

Her writings have been published in African Feminism, OkayAfrica, Circumspecte, SheLeadsAfrica, and the Huffington Post. She has a firm handle on contemporary issues, but also reflects on what factors led her there: 

“As a third wave feminist, I am still my mother’s feminism. My affiliation with the past is because it is still very much my present. This is because I still exist in spaces where sexism thrives. We still seek change and equality as found in the second wave.”

The spaces Adebisi mentions, where sexism, social injustice and inequity still exist, where second meets third wave feminism; these are points of convergence between the past and present. Here legacies and struggles of our ancestors’ feminisms intersect our own. Here we also find incredible opportunities for renewed energy and change as we step into our feminist futures.

Follow Adebisi @biswag, take a look at the Female Orator and see some of her photography work below.