I was AMAZED to read about this recently! Not only are they legal, but they are government owned!! Apparently they look after their prostitutes extremely well - they have to undergo medical examinations on a weekly basis.

My question is - in a country that is, say, at least 90% muslim, who are the customers? Turkish News says that they have managed to curb forced prostitution because Turkish men were happy to report it - therefore I assume it is not just tourists using them

A quote from a few years ago made me laugh :-
'I've been very surprised,' said Marielle Lindstrom, head of the IOM in Turkey. 'We haven't noticed this anywhere in Europe. Turkish men seem to have an old-fashioned view of women. They don't mind using prostitutes, but they want the woman to be doing this willingly. If she's found not to be doing it willingly ... it affects their pride.'
The Independent

Are you trying to attack turkish men from different angle aenigma?

Answer to your question:
Of course 99% customers are muslim Turks.
I doubt foreigners go there at all.

Sorry Aenigma, I don't see the problem at all. Aren't in 'Christian' countries the customers mostly males of which many 'true' believers who go to church every Sunday? Aren't in almost every country the government the biggest pimps of all? Why should Turkey be an exception?

Actually it is not "another dig" at Turkey! I am honestly amazed and surprised, bearing in mind that prostitution is punishable by death in some muslim countries...

I dont think you can compare the two Trudy - in the UK, only 3% of the population go to church and consider themselves religious, but I guess we are not "open minded" enough to have legalised brothels!

The way some get around this is via a type of marriage called

Muta marriage

It is a controversial topic, but I've even seen some say if a condom was used, they really didn't do zinna. Same thing I heard once with a Saudi who was drinking scotch. His reply was that the Quran talked about wine.

It is a Shia practice and legal in Iran today, from what I've heard...

No, absolutely not....We already have them in sufficient numbers...no future in this field for foreign ladies...

Female Prostitution exists in almost all the societies, where -at least- some of the male population is not gay...

Anyone here says there is no prostitution in his/her country?

and some religions forbid it unlike islam.

Is it freely allowed in Christianity or among Jews ?....enlighten us, pls...

There are plenty of free lance prostitutes working illegally here too...That is called liberal economy and free enterprise...

aenigma
this is all LIE, NOT TRUE!

It is true that there are many prostitutes in Turkey and not only Turkish ones but there are also Russian, Moldovian, Romanian and Ukrainian prostitutes too. Prostitiution is a very profitable business; they earn a lot and spend a lot. If a prostitute is doing business in a better part of the city she often drives a car much more expensive than most and lives in an apartment larger and better than most.

There is also a strong gay community in my country. I do have some gay friends and sometimes I accompany them when they go to gay bars. (They appreciate that so much.) They have very sophisticated ways to communicate with one another as most of them constantly change partners.

A favourite gathering place for gays in Istanbul is Neo Bar. They are very active. They organize many events to attract the gay population of the city making it possible for them to get to know one another and stand together.

I have neither paid for sex nor am I thinking of but I believe this sector does help society in some ways. As long as legal and healthy and done voluntarily I see nothing wrong in that.

If you are married you should not cheat your wife whether it be with a prostitute or with some other woman.

Prostitution is a reality of life. They have always existed and they have a right to do so. Just imagine how many prostitutes there are in the world and what they would do if their profession were banned.

Fire arms are also freely available to those wishing to have one. Are all gun owners murderers? (Although I am in favour of banning fire arms, I can't say they all are).

Nevertheless, there are certain points in how Turks approach sexuality that can be criticized. Young boys are usually pushed by an older friend or sometimes (though rare) by a family member to go and have their first experience in a brothel. For example, that never happened to me. It is not an iron clad rule. This is probably more common in poorer quarters where people have little chance to have any sort of relationship with the other sex. Is it wrong? Yes, it is wrong is inseparable from a certain class of corruption that is present in all societies.

Here is a question to you: what do you think about the demonizing of prostitutes and gays? Do you approve of their being excommunicated from society? There are many prostitutes with excellent personalities and much more power to endure the hardships of life compared to an average person. If they work for a brothel, they pay their tax to the last penny. Why should they be regarded just like extra terrestrials? We should at least greet them in the street and support them to help them hold a place in society.

I live in north America, but i was born in the ukraine. I go bach there very couple of years. i watch russian tv. Where i come from it is widely known that there are lots of russian, ukrainian prostitutes in Turkey. Some of these go there willingly and knowingly. But most of the girls there get tricked. They are hired to work in hotels, in restaurants, as receptionists. But upon arrival, their paperwork, passports are taken away. There is no way to get back, neother is there money to do so. They are working girls and there is nowhere to go and no where to hide. There is shows about this all the time and is widely known, but girls go there to make money, thinking their contract is different, or just not knowing iwhat is waiting for them. these are not the prostitutes that drive the nice cars, and own nice appartments.

It is not voluntary prostitution. Therefore it is not legal in the first place. Even to know their individual stories and to offer them a way out you need to communicate to them. I am not singing praises for prostitutes. I am just trying to draw your attention to a multi facated drama they are going through. All that you have so far mentioned is also a result of the lack of sympathy and communication between them and society.

Tamam Taman insanlar

(english)In the USA people who celebrate christmas say they are Christians. My wife and I had Turk Students as our guests in the USA. They want to visit a Mosque, but they only wanted to "drive by" and see it was there. Funny story, my wife say, lets go inside. SHE had to tell them to take there shoes off!

This kind religon(both christians and muslim) is harmless, more, not so much so.

My name is Italian and people assume I am Catholic. I am not Christian nor Muslim.

If you ever get a chance to watch, it's a heartbreaking and very well made TV flim about the sex traffic industry...

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0419365/

Folks, you will not get rid of prostitution. It has been around longer than any of us, and will be around much longer than any of us. It's the law of supply and demand.

The poor people who are forced into the situation are the real tragedy. However, as hard as it may be for you to understand, there are some people who actually choose the profession and like it as it pays quite well.

I think the best thing is to figure out a way to control it, and the Turkish legal brothel seems to be a good compromise. Although they might not be legal in England, don't for a second think they don't exist. They are legal in Holland and Germany. The US state of Nevada has legal prostitution as well, and there has been efforts to legalize it in other parts of the USA.

I think the best thing is for the clients to be observant to the conditions of the establishment and on the look out for any signs of coercion. In order to know what to look for they need to be made aware of the signs of coercive sex trade. Then there are some who wouldn't mind or would actually enjoy that aspect.

One of the ways to help along this path would be to remove the stigma from the profession. The saddest thing is when there is a raid and the poor people who have been forced into the trade are branded as a "whore" and denied immigration status. They should be given sanctuary IMHO.

I did a little search and found this....

legal prostitution

stealing, murdering and giving false witnesses, pedophilia were also among us long before we were born and these things wont stop either. so lets legalize them too.

folks, no problema, lets solve it out by tolerating and legalizing.

no one stated that if its illegal it means theresnt prostitution in those countries.
i feel sorry for nevada, for sweden, germany or holland.

making it legal, you are saying YES to women humiliation, you are saying YES to the sodomia.

What is your understanding of society femme? Do you consider society as a setting exclusively designed for people living up to certain norms? Society contains all sorts of people and it is not very fair to everyone to begin with.
There are crime and corruption in society because people that make up society are that way. If you cannot remove sources of crime and prevent people from becoming the victims of society, you cannot simply compensate for this by penalizing those who have nothing left to lose.

I think the solution to stopping sex trade trafficking is in training in how to recognize when a person is willing or forced.

Of course, the ladies HAVE to appear to encourage customers, but they are forced to do that. Learning to recognize who is there by choice, and who is not, is the key.

There have been numerous cases of "clients" freeing the captives.

sad !

Sad for the title
Sad for women behalf,
Sad for men behalf too
And sad for posts who try to make it norm and legal!

İts humiliating,TOTALLY humiliating for all parts,both women and men too !

heck, yesterday i was writing a reply post to vino, between cooking and washing, but when it was time to submit the message the site was unavailable. all my 2h writing was wasted

POPE visiting Turkia, met and hailed by reporters at the airport.

Reporter : What do you think of brothels in Istanbul?

POPE (shocked) : Are there brothels in Istanbul?

Next day's headlines in most papers : First question POPE asked upon arrival is whether or not there are any brothels in Istanbul .................

If we lived in an ideal world, I guess we wouldn't need them. However, this does exist and there is definately a need for them to be regulated and that these women be monitored in some way for health risks to the general public. I think legalizing them is a necessary evil. Even if you find somthing morally repugnant, ie prostitution, abortion, ect...that does not mean everyone will stop doing it. It is up to us as individuals to hold ourselves personally accountable for our own beliefs. It is the duty of government agencies (in this case the CDC - Center for Disease Control or Department of Health) to protect its people...sometimes from themselves.

i think the only way minimising evil is to invite them to live up to morales, i.e. to give them good education, to support our justice systems, to care for each other.
i mean it will never be ideal, but loosening the morales wont solve the problem.

just compare the generations: look at todays children, they are growing up with no morales, and they are the disaster!
they can easily kill, because they feel so, they feel some people annoying them, they come with guns or knives to schools. we starting to put our feelings "maybe so" ideas above the morales. and resulting into tragedies.

Please understand me correct: I do NOT plea in favour of prostitution. And yes, if there is any kind of force in it, it is humiliating for women, then it should be forbidden and punished. However, if a woman herself choose to do this job, who are we with all our morality to say she is unmoral?

you two bed amerikans!

I think i need new glasses where is femme post i saw in the morning????not fair,guys,not fair!!!!!

astaghfirullah... it is sad.... what's happening to Muslims in Turkey gosh~

Whats your problem?

To learn Turkish or what?

if no one answers to the post above, i will give it a try later))))))))))))))))))

Um Um, please answer someone, anyone..