ABSTRACT

Prostitution is strongly embedded in local cultural practices in Cambodia. Based on extensive original research, this book explores the nature of prostitution in Cambodia, providing explanations of why the phenomenon is so widely tolerated. It outlines the background of the French colonial period, with its filles malades, considers the contemporary legal framework, and analyses the motivations for sex work, examining in particular how women become locked into debt bondage. Overall the book provides significant contributions to wider debates about sex work, sex trafficking and the constrained nature of women’s choices.

chapter 1|17 pages

Introduction

chapter 2|16 pages

Filles malades

Sex work in French Cambodia, 1863–1953

chapter 3|23 pages

Sihanouk's ‘Thesis A and B'

Sex work in post-independence Cambodia

chapter 5|17 pages

Just choices

The moral and political economies of sex work

chapter 6|24 pages

Core transmitter/sex slave

Ten years of regulating sex work (1998–2008)

chapter 7|7 pages

Conclusion

Blood, sweat and tears