For some women, fashion is a hobby. For others, it’s a means of survival.
For a small number of Israeli prostitutes in Tel Aviv and Haifa, prostitutes have become a lifeline with the help of the NGO Turning the Tables. Turning the Tables has run a fashion school since 2011 and enrolls 100 prostitutes each year.
Fashion school Yotsrot Atid, which means ‘creating the future’ in English, aims to help women build self-esteem through creativity.
For Anya, an immigrant from Russia whose name has been changed for privacy reasons, learning to sew meant an escape from the daily life of a prostitute.
“I didn’t know anything… I didn’t want to learn anything. I didn’t want to learn to sew,” says Anya, now 57, of her state of mind when she first encountered Turning the Tables, a friend told her. talked about
Lilac Tulu Ben Moshe, the organization’s founder, said most women learned about Turning the Tables through word of mouth.
Anya explained that the economic recession forced her to leave her country. When she arrived in Tel Aviv, thousands of kilometers without her family, she fell into prostitution. After several suicide attempts, she enrolled in Yotzlot Athid.
“I was in the market and I had no other choice. “I was afraid of God. I had no security or anything.”
With a bold bleached bob, bright blue eyeliner, and a hearty smile, Anya was one of the few women left in the studio after last month’s Yotzlot Ated graduation ceremony to wear matching outfits for her grandchildren. I was working overtime to make sweatsuits.
Next to Anya, Mariam, 27, puts the finishing touches on an asymmetrical denim dress. Mariam’s vision was to create a “Neanderthal dress,” she said. She was inspired by the combination of modern and old, with mass-produced materials and rustic, rugged style.
All the women at Yotsrot Atid have recently been working on denim products, a partnership project with sustainable fashion brand Comme il Faut, explained Zur Ben Moshe. The women will present their denim creations at this fall’s fashion show, and the garments will be for sale.
Dozens of women of all ages and ethnic backgrounds flocked to the studio’s courtyard for the ceremony, where the heat of Tel Aviv smelled of perfume and fresh food made by volunteers.
Mr. Tur Ben Moshe called out the names of the women in attendance, presented each one with a diploma and greeted them with a hug. All the women who were called had big smiles on their faces, and cheers and applause erupted every time their names were called.
A woman sat in the front row holding a smiling baby girl, her long pink fingernails matching the child’s hair ribbon. The women around the courtyard were lined up all at once to the baby.
“We also have single women. We have mothers. We have grandmothers. Mr Segal said.
At the end of the ceremony, a pile of unclaimed diplomas was left behind, a stark reminder of the difficulty of breaking out of the cycle of prostitution.
The struggle to break out of the cycle of prostitution
The health ministry counted 14,000 active prostitutes in 2018, but the organization’s leaders said they believed the figure was just the surface. The same survey found that the average life expectancy for prostitutes was 46 years.
“I think we’ve seen about 3,000 women prostituted so far,” explained Segal, a trained psychotherapist. “They turned to prostitution as a result of their abuse, which was not only unaddressed and untreated, but was distorted many times,” said Segal, who had previously met them. She added that many of the women who have been living with them have been indoctrinated to believe that they have no other life. They are the only victims.
Tul Ben Moshe started the organization after living in Tel Aviv’s central bus station district, one of Israel’s prostitution hubs. Segal called the area “The Meat Market”.
Substance abuse is rampant in the region. Low-class businessmen roam the streets seeking to exploit women in prostitution, thereby adding to the debt shackles and depriving women of the economic freedoms that enable them to exit the prostitution industry.
“A man comes in and has perfume and a bag in the trunk of his car, so she goes shopping at the end of her shift. He added that shady street lending also played a role in perpetuating the debt.
“There are women here who have been exempt from debt of hundreds of thousands of shekels. The process is not easy, but we will not give up,” Segal added.
Turning the Tables helps alleviate women’s debt through premeditated financial planning, a model established in partnership with the Ministry of Justice.
It was not until 2020 that the government formally banned the use of prostitution services.
The current legal text provides for two penalties for violations. One is a fine that doubles for each repeat offense, and the other is a rehabilitation class aimed at preventing repeat offenses by addressing addiction to requests for sexual services.
According to Tur Ben Moshe and Segal, weakening the prostitution industry, even if it is abusive, could in theory be positive, but it would mean that some women would lose their only source of livelihood. . So, under pressure from NGOs, the government started investing in anti-prostitution organizations.
One of them, Turning the Tables, now partners with the National Insurance Association to provide disability benefits to victims of prostitution. Because of the prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, victims are entitled to its benefits, Segal explained.
Most of the 2020 laws expire after five years of trial unless extended.
A study conducted by the Myers JDC Brookdale Institute and published in 2022 examined public opinion and behavior against prostitution following the 2020 legislation. In a survey of 803 Israeli men and women, every other man (53%) said they knew someone they paid for sex with.
Of the 432 people who had been “consumers of prostitution” so far, 48% said the law was unaffected and would not stop their habit of using the services of prostitutes.
With prostitution still prevalent in Israel and around the Tel Aviv Central Bus Station, Turning the Tables aims to shorten the cycle and rehabilitate the individual, one woman at a time.
The leaders cited plans to expand operations to Beer Sheva next, with the aim of supporting women in the Bedouin community.
There are several anti-prostitution organizations in Israel, but what distinguishes Turning the Tables is the self-esteem approach emphasized in Yotsrot Atid.
“Often women stand in front and say they don’t know what to choose. I don’t know what color I like. Choose for me,” says Segal. She spoke of a mental state common to many women who enroll at Atid. “Right, [they’re in a] A place where their choices are erased and their entire relationship with themselves erased.
“When she can look at her body and her femininity in the mirror and start a new relationship with it…it should start some kind of communication with her body. I understand,” Segal said.
“A lot of the time I have conversations with women and she feels like she’s lost, and I’m like, ‘Listen, I can see you, I can hear you,'” says Segal. said. “You’re smart. You’re talented. You’re funny. You’re beautiful. You’ll be in a different place in a year. I know that.”
And often it does. The group reports that about 70 percent of women who fully participate in the program and who work with mental health professionals and social workers to become economically and emotionally stable are out of prostitution.
Growth in self-esteem can be seen in women like Anya, who nurtured their creativity from abuse.
Her dream is to design a clothing line for a boutique. “I want to make clothes that are unique and individual. If she has two or she has three items in one design, that’s it,” she said. “Now I want to live,” Anya’s voice cracked. “And I know what I want.”
For more information, visit Yotsrot.org. •