Spear
JF-Expert Member
- Jun 21, 2008
- 507
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Published: 8 May 10 13:02 CET
Liberal Party member of parliament Camilla Lindberg has argued that Sweden should legalize prostitution and provide greater social security for practitioners of the "oldest profession".
The controversial parliamentarian said she hoped her vocal stance would spark debate. Best known for her opposition to a high profile surveillance law, Lindberg said Swedish laws permitting the sale of sex but forbidding its purchase had failed to protect prostitutes.
Speaking to local newspaper Borlänge Tidning, Lindberg said prostitutes should be given full access to Sweden's unemployment insurance and pension systems.
"Prostitution has existed for thousands of years. How can we help people living with this? They too are part of our society. People should be secure in society and feel that they belong," she told the newspaper.
Lindberg said it had become taboo to question Sweden's prostitution laws.
"What one really wants to get at is trafficking, which is a completely different thing to prostitution. The two are often mixed up. One shouldn't confuse trafficking with a 40-year-old woman who has chosen to sell her body, or a 40-year-old man who has made that choice," she told Borlänge Tidning.
Lindberg said she could conceive of prostitutes plying their trade in legal brothels, while stressing that the fight against sex trafficking remained vitally important.
