Seven out of ten Spaniards believe that prostitution is a form of violence against women, a percentage that rises to 75% among the female population. Specifically, according to a survey published this Thursday by the Ministry of Equality, 69% of the Spanish population strongly or quite agrees with this statement. The data also reveals that 63% of the population would disapprove of a male relative paying for sex, a rejection that is even more pronounced among women, reaching 71.1%. Similarly, there is clear opposition among women to having a relationship with someone who pays for sex. 91.2% state that they would not be willing.

The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) have dismantled a criminal network exploiting women for sex in clandestine brothels in Barcelona and Paris. The victims were forced into prostitution at any time of day and were also required to sell or use drugs with clients if they so desired. After nearly a year and a half of investigation, the police have arrested the woman who ran the brothels, and eight other people are under investigation in connection with the case. The arrested woman allegedly led the network along with her partner and her mother. Other women were also involved, managing the brothels, where the victims were monitored by closed-circuit video surveillance. The investigation began in September 2024 following the testimony of a woman who told officers from the human trafficking unit that she had worked for months as a receptionist in various clandestine brothels in Barcelona where women were being sexually exploited. The Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police) explained in a statement this Sunday that this witness recounted how the women were forced into prostitution, "with complete availability and subjected to cyber-control," with a video surveillance system in the apartments. The case has been taken over by agents from the human trafficking unit under the direction of the Prosecutor's Office for Immigration and Human Trafficking. The initial stages of the investigation already indicated that the network was run by the arrested woman, her partner, and her mother, while other women were responsible for monitoring the apartments. The initial inquiries also led agents to suspect that the network itself might control brothels in other European capitals. Key testimonies

In early 2025, the police identified one of the exploited women, who explained that she had traveled to Spain to work as a prostitute on her own. She did so for a few months, until a woman promised her better pay and greater security if she worked as a prostitute in a Barcelona apartment run by an acquaintance. The promise was a deception, and the woman who met her in Barcelona saddled her with an exorbitant debt for the trip there. From then on, she forced her to prostitute herself and sell drugs to her clients. Following this testimony, investigators found a second victim who had been in the same situation before managing to escape. Over time, the group's leader closed the apartments she used as clandestine brothels in Barcelona and shifted the women to working in hotels or at clients' homes. The investigation has also confirmed that the woman opened a brothel in an apartment in Paris's 15th arrondissement and transferred at least four of the victims she had already exploited in Barcelona. To attract clients, the arrested woman posted advertisements on various internet portals and at one point had around seventy active listings. She advertised on websites offering sex work not only in Spain and France, but also in Switzerland—where she resided for a month—Italy, Luxembourg, and Germany. Police have carried out three raids in Barcelona and seized fifteen cell phones belonging to the women who ran the brothels, as well as other items that are currently being analyzed.

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It's not easy to find information on Google about Lizzie Borden, the director who revolutionized feminist cinema in the 80s with Borne in llamas (1983) and Working girls (1986), especially since Netflix announced that the fourth season of Monster It will be dedicated to this famous killer with whom the filmmaker has shared a name since she was 12. "My real name is Linda Borden, but when I was little, to tease me, the kids called me Elsie after a cow that appeared on milk bottles, or Lizzie, after the axe killer," explains Borden, who speaks to ARA by phone from [location missing]. "So a father to whom a killer, a killer, that, to me, a killer, that, I love that I told them that a killer, a killer, that, a killer, that, a killer, that, a killer, to whom, a killer, that ... that, a killer, that, that, that, a, killer, that, that, that, a, killer, that, that, that, a, killer, that, that, that, a, killer, that, that, that, a, killer, that, that, that, a, killer, that, that, that, a, killer, that, that, that, a, killer, that, that, that, a, killer, that, that, that, that, a, killer, that, that, that, that, a, killer, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that, that The focus will begin on November 18 at the Filmoteca with a screening of his first feature film, the experimental documentary Regrouping (1976), in a session presented remotely by the director. "As a young woman, I tried to be a painter and wrote for the magazine Artforum, But in the art world, all the power was in the hands of men, she recalls. One day I met four feminist activists who I found very interesting, and it occurred to me to make a documentary with them. Regrouping It was meant to be a collective effort, but the group broke up during filming, and Borden finished the project solo. "For many years I kept it in a drawer; I didn't feel right screening it," he explains.

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In recent years, the PSOE has attempted on several occasions, using various mechanisms, to introduce legal changes that would lead to the abolition of prostitution. However, each time it has attempted this, it has encountered opposition from the majority of its members. A few days ago, and weeks after the audio recordings of Ábalos and Koldo came to light in which they talked about hiring prostitutes, the Minister of Equality, Ana Redondo, asserted that now is the "political moment" to try again. It will once again be a difficult path for the Socialists, as even their governing partner, Sumar, opposes the PSOE's approach on this issue. However, the executive has two open fronts regarding gender-based violence where it could have greater success.

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On Friday morning, in Public mirror, Susanna Griso interviewed the new PP spokesperson, Esther Muñoz. The conversation was very useful for understanding the profile Feijóo's party has sought to address the media and the public. Muñoz symbolizes a generational renewal. Griso made it very easy for her, and the spokesperson displayed great discursive force. She uses unfiltered dialectics, effective on social media, very combative, perfectly aligned with the strategy of parliamentary confrontation. She is determined before the media, with a tough and expeditious attitude, which conveys maximum loyalty.

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As a reader, I've always been surprised by the number of prostitutes who appear in books written by men. I'd say that authors of my generation and younger no longer portray this figure, so present in the male imagination, as normally as possible. As if it were the most normal thing in the world to pay money to buy sex. Of course, they always seek something more than sex in the exploited: they seek power and domination, to do what they want without having to explain themselves or respond to the demands of the person they've slept with. In other words, many pay to be able to rid themselves of the humanity that human females have a mania for possessing. If it hasn't been done yet, someone should dedicate a doctoral thesis to studying the figure of the whore in literature. I was going to say in Spanish (and Catalan) literature, but a mental review of famous authors from all continents leaves the sad conclusion of its universal and transcultural reach. Whether it's that García Márquez character who decided to give himself a teenage virgin at ninety years old, or Naguib Mahfuz's father who consumed belly dancers while keeping his wife locked up at home, passing through all those who during Franco's regime wrote only about (saintly) mothers or butterflies, to a character who uses them to satisfy himself. It's not just that they write about prostitutes, it's that they often represent them with a nauseating contempt, a contempt that coincides with what many real men feel when they use this kind of servicesThey are attracted to prostitutes but hate them because they sell themselves, as if they weren't the ones buying them and, therefore, responsible for the degradation of those they consume. They are the ones who should feel ashamed of the immorality and lack of ethics involved in using a woman who doesn't desire them or enjoy the relationship, a woman who has often been raped because she was turned into a whore or part of a situation of extreme need. It's not enough for them to rape them in exchange for money; they are often the ones who contribute to fostering their social stigma. Just look at how, in some newspapers, the victims of the Koldo and company plot are labeled "young ladies of dubious morals." Isn't dubious morals rather the responsibility of those who use their power to dispose of young women as if they were commodities? Shouldn't the stigma fall on those capable of exchanging human beings without any scruples?

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Pedro Sánchez's insistence these days on expressing his rejection and disgust with the conversations between José Luis Ábalos and Koldo García, in which they discuss hiring prostitutes, is no coincidence. "I want you to know that the leaked audio recordings disgust us. The lack of exemplary conduct, the vulgarity, and the machismo are incompatible with the values of this organization," he said on Monday. Since Sánchez took office, he has championed feminism. It is no coincidence that his first government, after winning the vote of no confidence against Mariano Rajoy, was the first in Spanish history to have a majority of women. Specifically, it had 11 women and only 6 men, and his first vice president was always a woman.

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Xavier Padial left the courtroom almost unfazed, handcuffed and surrounded by six Mossos d'Esquadra (Catalan police officers), heading straight to the cells. The Barcelona Provincial Court had just announced, a few minutes before 1:00 p.m., that he was sentenced to 57 years in prison for torture, as argued by the prosecution during the trial, and for the continuous sexual abuse of two of his underage cousins and for inducing one of them into prostitution. Furthermore, this confessed pedophile from Barberà del Vallès is also convicted of producing and possessing pornographic material. But the man will only have to serve the maximum effective sentence: 20 years.

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Sweden has declared war on OnlyFans and made it illegal to buy personalized sex videos online. This platform, where Users can only view content if they pay a recurring subscription the person who publishes them is one of those affected by a new law that will come into force on July 1. Sweden was the first country in the world to criminalize clients and not prostitutes, whose 1999 law prohibits the purchase of sexual services. Now, the Scandinavian country is updating its Penal Code to reflect the new realities and extending the ban to certain online practices as well.

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The PSC (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) has been championing the idea of ​​being the party of abolitionist feminism for fourteen years. That is, a feminism that advocates abolishing prostitution. At its congresses, it has repeatedly reaffirmed that this is the way to end a practice it considers to be gender-based violence, despite currents within the feminist movement that advocate, on the contrary, regulating voluntary activity. This debate divides parties and organizations. Now the Socialists want to bring abolitionist policies to the Catalan government, which represents a historic shift: it will be the first time the Catalan institution will defend this path, since the last time the PSC led the Catalan government, during the tripartite government, it had maintained a position closer to granting rights to those who engage in prostitution.

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For the first time, it seems we're getting some good news from the Minister of Feminism: that the Catalan government is working to abolish prostitution. These are intentions, of course, and we'll see what happens, but it's already much more than what we've had in Catalonia in recent years: regulationist policies that want to present the so-called oldest profession in the world as just another career opportunity, a job like any other. Ada Colau made things easier for pimps by adopting this position and selling it as open and inclusive. It may seem to ordinary people that this issue doesn't concern them, that those of us who don't know this world have nothing to say, but the existence of sexual exploitation networks and the impunity with which they operate represent one of the greatest shames we live with while we pay lip service to equality and human rights. Can we boast of social sensitivity while there are people being bought and sold, rented by the hour, and subjected to degrading and humiliating practices? The PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers' Party) has long since committed to advancing abolitionism, as feminist organizations have demanded, but things are moving slowly because, as Ana Redondo said, touching on the topic of prostitution always generates controversy. The politicians who put the brakes on these much-needed advances in equality will explain why they show such solidarity with pimps. It's clear that the corruption cases that have been uncovered recently, where there is no shortage of "ladies" demonstrate that resistance to ending this ignominy must come from within the party itself. In any case, Councilor Eva Menor's initiative is welcome, and we hope that those resisting it will consider the conditions in which prostitutes live, not their ideological principles, and that they will not use this issue to establish a partisan profile. There are many manipulated ideas on the subject, and that abolitionism is not a persecution of women who practice prostitution, nor does it have the intention of stigmatizing them and plunging them further into misery. This is the intimate sphere of atavistic male domination exercised through economic power. The fact that cleaning toilets is just as degrading as accepting multiple penetrations in exchange for money. With prostitution, it does not punish the exploited and should provide support and assistance measures for them and their reparation. If there is a single woman who can be sold as an object, we cannot say that we are an egalitarian society.

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Only two of the thirty men involved in The massive child pornography and prostitution ring uncovered almost a year ago They will go on trial for sexually assaulting minors. Although the police investigation was closed with 16 other arrests and 14 other suspects pending identification, sources close to the case consulted by ARA explained that only two men were identified during the investigation, and they will be the only ones to be prosecuted. Both remain in pretrial detention, and one of them is TLM. The electrician for whom the Prosecutor's Office has requested a sentence of 107 years in prison to rape a 12-year-old girl in care, film her to offer her to other pedophiles, and arrange with them where and when the sexual assaults would take place. The second defendant is a resident of Madrid.

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This book is part of a long tradition of autobiographies by what are now called "sex workers." And it is being published now, just as the publication ofStory of my eight sins, by Lea Ferrer (pseudonym). Both volumes are among those offered on Amazon under the heading Real facts.

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The offers on the internet promised stable and well-paid jobs in Spain. And the flight from South America to Barajas airport in Madrid was also supported by the contractor. When they arrived in the State, they discovered that it was all a lie. They were young, poor women in their countries of origin who were looking for a new life with a better future. When they landed, they were informed that this future was to work as prostitutes 24 hours a day, seven days a week. They were threatened and coerced: they had no other way out and had accumulated a debt of 4,000 euros (precisely for the flight and the paid trip) that they had to pay with their bodies. Their destiny was to live in a poor apartment, mostly in Barcelona, ​​​​in unsanitary conditions, and sleep crammed on mattresses in a room because the others were used for prostitution.

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Cohabitation in big cities is not always easy, and sometimes it even seems impossible. Residents in a block of flats on Roger de Flor, in Dreta de l'Eixample, are fed up with the hustle and bustle caused by their neighbours and, above all, their clients. "They call us on the intercom in the early hours of the morning, because they constantly get the wrong buzzer, and people keep coming in and out," a resident explains, who does not want to give his name: "They are pretty nasty," he says. Like him, there are many residents in the same block who are fed up with living next to a brothel. Some mornings, when they leave the house, they have found vomit on the floor or empty bottles of alcohol that some overly drunk client has forgotten. They also have to put up with doors slamming at late hours and, from time to time, an argument with a client who doesn't want to pay or who has caused too much trouble. "The girls are not very quiet either," says another neighbour, who complains that they often shout up the stairs and when a neighbour manages to make them understand that there is no need to make such a fuss, "the pimp changes the girls and new ones come in".

]]> Spain is the European country with the highest demand for paid sex and the third in the world. Catalonia does not escape from this reality. According to the United Nations, 39% of men in the State have paid on occasion to have sex. Not only is Catalonia a leader in the consumption of sex work and in the number of brothels, it is also one of the main destinations in the world for the trafficking of women for the purpose of sexual exploitation. The alegality in which this business moves here has always favoured the exploitation of women, mostly migrants and in many cases minors, victims of mafias and illegal trafficking. Pimping is the great beneficiary of a situation that the Spanish government now wants to put an end to. In spite of some attempts, for example those made in Catalonia by the Minister of Justice Montserrat Tura in 2010, so far in the State has not really managed to have an impact on the problem of prostitution. Only in Navarra, despite the lack of a state legal framework, has a successful abolitionist strategy been developed with social and economic support for sex workers so that they can change their lives.

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Victims or wage-earners? To put it very simply, this dichotomy focuses the debate on who and how sex workers should be treated, whether as women who are victims of an unequal system that puts a price on their bodies or women who freely decide to earn money with their sex. For Janet, spokesperson for Putas Libertarias del Raval and Putas Indignadas, "everyone chooses which part of their body they want to work with" while, in contrast, Amelia Tiganus, a former sex worker, rejects that it is a job because she says that if you take money out of the equation you would have to talk about rape. 

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A petrol station, a garage, a bazaar, a carpentry shop and one of the biggest brothels in Europe. This is what Mas Morató industrial estate in La Jonquera has to offer. It is where Club Paradise is located, known because it can accommodate more than a hundred prostitutes. It is five o'clock in the afternoon, opening time, and there is already a group of six men waiting to enter. "But how can you do this to me? I have a wife!" one of the clients replies to the question of whether he wants to give an interview. The Generalitat considers brothels "public establishments with private annexes" and, throughout the pandemic, the same measures have been applied to them as to nightclubs. This means that, in 2021, they were only allowed to open for two weeks in July, until on October 8 most restrictions were lifted. The only condition is that all customers must present a covid certificate or a negative PCR test result, as in nightclubs. On the first weekend, many customers did not have a test and had to go to a shopping centre next door to get one. To avoid losing customers, this weekend the club hired medical staff who offer tests just outside the brothel. Five security staff check documents, bags and put the men through a metal detector. "We've had a great time, there are some very beautiful women!" two regulars from Toulouse exclaim. They come out squirming and with reddish cheeks. They have paid €17 to get in – with a free drink – and about €60 for the sex service.

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The police arrested a 38-year-old man this Thursday, accused of crimes of sexual assault and threats. The detainee, who has already entered prison by order of the judge, is one of the most wanted pimps in Spain. Three courts from around the state had requested his arrest for similar crimes. He looked for girls who offered to do housework or other jobs through internet advertising portals and who were in a precarious economic situation. From there, he recruited them for prostitution and sexually exploited them.

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