Out of the shadows with Autobiography of a Sex Worker

New Delhi: Stereotypes of a sex worker aside, Nalini Jameela's not quite what you would expect - a calm-looking 50-something mother of two from Kerala, she’s come a long way.

She’s come all the way to the Capital with the English translation of her book The Autobiography of a Sex Worker.

The semi-retired Jameela has strong opinions on the need of the hour.

“Sex is something natural that human beings need. It's a place market, people demanding and people supplying. Those who are demanding are not thought of as on the wrong side but those supplying offering those services are called bad or horrendous or monsters. For whatever reasons they enter the profession, once they enter it, they should be safe, not harassed and exploited,” says Jameela.

Her English edition is a revised form of her autobiography that first appeared in Malayalam in 2005, selling 13,000 copies and generating a fair amount of controversy.

“On one hand there’s outright rejection in many circles which just brand her a neo-liberal agent out to destroy a decent society. One reaction is a very voiced one. The other is a reaction that accepts but downplays her part – ‘Oh she's written a book, but why so much of her life in it? Why not about sorrows of sex workers?’ Others grudgingly say book is out, but not an author, why does she claim to be one?” explains translator J Devika.

But Jameela's story is one that charts her journey of more than 30 years, ever since she started sex work after her husband died. But it's not all negative.

“The best way to look at it, the way Nalini looks at it is that people do all kinds of things to make a living, what is the difference between domestic work and sex work? As a young child she worked in chalk mines, she said far harder. Not that sex work is easy. But her point is simple because you're focusing on the sex part of it, losing sight that this is a job, as a job it's better paid than some of the equivalents she's explored,” explains publisher Nilanjana S Roy.

Even though it's all written down it's hard to imagine the kind of life Jameela has led. She’s a very brave woman with a strong voice, no matter how controversial.

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