Nigerian Prostitute Leads Protest In Lagos

A Nigerian prostitute named Patoo Abraham led other sex workers in a protest in Lagos to ensure that prostitution is legalized and that sex workers are respected, according to Al-Jazeera.



48-year-old Patoo Abraham who has become famous for fighting for the rights of prostitutes and heads the Nigerian chapter of African Sex Workers Alliance (ASWA) led a couple of protests in Lagos state, demanding the rights of prostitutes as they carried their signature red umbrellas and T-shirts with the inscription “Sex work is work, we need our rights.”

Abraham told Al Jazeera saying: “We are tired of dying in silence, We want to be able to practise our profession with pride like every other person. We want an end to name-calling and stigmatisation. We are sex workers and not asawo [a Yoruba derogatory name for prostitutes].”
Abraham who is also the president of the Women of Power Initiative (WOPI), a non-governmental organisation established to advance the cause of sex work in Nigeria said Sex work, is normal work and that there are “sex workers everywhere under one form of disguise or the other”. “[The] government should stop criminalising our work”.

Abraham, a single parent of two kids who are in the University said she has no regrets being a sex worker.

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