ABSTRACT
This article expresses the author’s disapproval regarding the status quo of prostitution in Israel. This status quo is represented by a multidimensional model of violent cycles that overtly and covertly interact with each other when facing women in prostitution. Women in prostitution are trapped in cycles of intra-psychic dissociations and PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) symptoms. They suffer from the public’s demonizing stereotypes, isolation from services, and neglect from authorities’ support, which place them in silent, unheard, and unseen positions. All other cycles around women in prostitution – familial and spousal/pimps connections, social services, educational systems, and governmental authorities – interact with these women, and with each other, in a similar aggressive muting manner, which keeps them in the darkness of prostitution, and silences their voices. This article analyzes and criticizes these cycles via the interaction with women in prostitution from the field (social work practice), through the eyes of a personal experience of the former director of the Mobile Clinic treating women in prostitution of the Haifa District Health Office in Israel. Hopefully, by giving words to the unsaid, the voices of women in prostitution will be heard and therefore elevate the awareness to their suffering and eventually contribute in supporting these transparent women.
