Although you’ve long left, you define yourself as a “whore.”

Yes, and I have reasons. On the one hand, to remove the pressure from the insult, because one way to attack is to call it a slut, and if I say I'm already, they're unarmed. On the other hand, I do not want to demarcate or exclude those who engage in prostitution, and in my identity there is still an important part of a slut, among other things the mark that has left me out of it. I cannot deny that I am a whore and I do not want it.

You don’t like the “sex worker”.

No, this name is promoted by the pimp lobby; they proposed a more aseptic name, hiding the dark side, being able to present prostitution as a normal working relationship. If the slut is a worker, they are good entrepreneurs, they are not really exploiters of misery. Unexpectedly, in many progressive areas this word is recognized and used in the name of the dignity of women.

He also uses the word “putero”...

Because I find it very appropriate. I am in favour of the disappearance of euphemisms. Client? User? Consumer? What do they consume? What do they use? People, women, girls. Putero is much more appropriate and I also know that they do not like anything, so go ahead. It is sad, but 39% of Basque men are or have ever been dating.

In the book you mention the different types of people who call you puteros, can you explain what you think they are?

Until you're in the room, you don't notice the guy that's yours. At first they think they're good, they want to talk, they give explanations, they treat the slut as if it were a girlfriend ... No, not so, you do what you have to do and you celebrate, you buy my body but not my soul. Then come the males, the axis of their life is to pierce women as much as possible, who count the “conquests”. Finally, misogynists hate women. The latter are often violent and dangerous. Although we do not classify him as a puterer, there is another species that goes to the brothels to “just one drink”. They are also part of the system. They're playing and they go to the club to do what they can't do in normal bars, that is, to say lusts to the girls, to laugh at them in the face, to touch what they can or to masturbate in the bathroom. They pay three times the price of the cube to do what is unacceptable in free society in our area of concentration.

Putetxea concentration camp?

It's a singular ecosystem. In principle, the women who are there are free, but I have never met a girl exercising prostitution who does not want to leave that life. Everyone is against their will, in the cancellation of presumed debts, in the threat or because they have no other solution. They are areas of sickness and death, unhygienic, violent, indignant. Many times a feminist demonstration has passed in front of a club, shouting “Ahizpa, I believe it” or “No is no”, regardless of what happens on the other side of that wall, as if there was a normal bar there. If we're invisible to some feminists, think about society.

Prostitution has a great social impact, how far does this system go?

Prostitution moves five million euros every day in the State, counted in the calculation of GDP. In this system there are a lot of people: pimps, municipal offices, businessmen who celebrate the successes of business in brothels… Everyone takes something out, but it seems that it is a problem of the will of girls who practice prostitution. It is a system based on classism, machismo, racism and violence.

What are the consequences of the violence suffered?

The physical consequences are huge: we spend hours on a couple of uncomfortable heels, poor nutrition, diseases, drug dependencies, forced abortions... But the psychological ones are no smaller: apathy, depression, lack of self-esteem, stress, fear, mistrust, self-harm… To that must be added the violence suffered by clients and pimps.

But it seems to be kept secret.

Pimp does not want to harm the merchandise, so it behaves very carefully. The customer's is something else. Feminicides are more abundant than expected. If a foreign girl disappears from a club, who is missing? He is said to have gone to another club or returned to his country, and no one else asks. Until recently, the murders of prostitutes were not considered gender violence, but were not listed. Now this has changed, but we must not forget that in the State at least 48 prostitutes have been murdered in recent years, some of them in the Basque Country.

What would you say to those who say it's a public service?

What services? To guarantee the right to discharge into a girl? Avoid violations? There are two points. One: the belief that men are uncontrollable. Two: if so, in exchange for a ticket we will have to be “lost”, sacrificed and raped, the other “honest”, in order to save them. Women are divided into two groups: those who are money violable and those who have to be cared for. This is the public service they defend.

And with those who say they have the right to choose the customer, what?

Does the pigeon have the right to choose the hunter? The intention is to make as much money as possible, it is not appropriate to give up the customer, as it is more likely to have a bad reputation. Pointers have created applications where girls and their services are scored and commented on as hotels and restaurants. Poor scores are obtained by selecting men, among others. It is a great competition, taking advantage of the war in Ukraine bring more girls, but now it has also come to fashion prostitution Kilometer 0. With models like Only fans try to attract girls here who often see on social media. Take precautions.

You don't want to regulate prostitution, but you're not in favor of banning it ...

The regulation of prostitution can only be understood from neoliberalism, from the belief that everything is for sale. But it's based on inequality, also class, gender and race differences, I would say. This model, in force in Germany and the Netherlands, has been a failure: violence against women has increased and rape has also increased.

Prohibition is a moralistic or conservative solution: the problem is not prostitution, but visibility. It is a model of Eastern Europe that does not take human rights into account. In the end prostitutes are punished as if the guilty were the weakest.

Abolition is what they propose, but how?

A combination of measures. Some positive ones: subsidies, counseling, work bag, psychological care... And others of a criminal nature, especially against pimps and putars. It's sad, but the law teaches. Today, nobody is wrong to turn on a cigarette in the restaurant because the law does not allow it and we all know it is wrong. As with prostitution, if a penalty is imposed on the puterman, everyone will know that he has done wrong and will be a model, the demand must be turned off. It is the model of the Nordic countries.

She left prostitution, but it would be hard to take that step. How did he do that?

Individual solutions are sought. The riots I've seen in clubs have been individuals, and in most cases drugs or alcohol. The revolution will not be made alone and drugged, that is clear. I also sought a personal solution. At first, a man offered me house and food in exchange for sex. So I started looking for work, and it wasn't easy. He was slut and Romanian, he had everything. They didn't tell me anything, but the looks explained everything. After years, I married a man here and that gave me legitimacy, so I started being accepted. Then I got to feminism and from there to activism, to the fight for abolition.

Prostitution is said to be the oldest profession and it is impossible to eliminate it. Is it impossible?

For a start, prostitution is not a trade, but a type of exploitation. To those of you who think things are like this and you can't change them, I would give you some examples of the story. When women have organised themselves, they have achieved unthinkable achievements at the time: the right to vote, divorce, the right to abortion… We must fight, otherwise nothing can be achieved.