Amsterdam Looking Forward To Ban Red Light District Windows

Amsterdam has one of the world-famous red-light districts, where sex workers pose in windows to entice clients, which could be shuttered. The authorities also launched the Stay Away campaign to reclaim the city's reputation and fix the lax attitude towards sex, drugs, and alcohol. 

De Wallen district of Amsterdam is famous for paid sex. Now the local government will decide whether to close the curtains of the brothel windows in De Wallen lanes, as the local council votes this week to clean up Amsterdam’s image by forcing the red drapes - currently only shut when seeing a client. 

Ban On Red Light Windows In Amsterdam

De Wallen is the largest and best-known red-light district in Amsterdam with a network of alleys containing 300 one-room cabins rented by sex workers, who offer their sexual services from behind a window or glass door. The council is looking forward to bringing a change through a proposal under which 

the window brothel curtains in the tourist destination will stay shut. The clients will need to book via a QR code on their smartphones instead of the conventional way of talking to the sex worker behind the glass.

 Dutch Liberal D66 party proposed the new law. The local head pointed out that sex work had become a tourist attraction leading to degrading, undesirable behaviour towards sex workers at hands of drunken tourists. A behaviour that does not contribute to improving the position of women in the MeToo era, as claimed by the head.

On other hand, sex workers have expressed their concerns about the new measures. According to them, this will make them feel less safe as they are unaware of the person who booked the services until the client is already inside the room.

For a few members, it is more about improving the city's image and discouraging recreational activities than improving working conditions for sex workers. Amsterdam councillor Diederik Boomsma, Christian Democratic Appeal party, articulated he wanted to get rid of Amsterdam’s image- where tourists “can do all the things that aren’t allowed at home”.

A Dutch sex worker, Lucy in a report said, “How can I attract clients with the curtains closed? They say it is for my protection, but that is nonsense. It isn’t an automatic service I negotiate. If drunk people come, I don’t let them in. Window brothels allowed sex workers to operate safely and independently."

The other measures that the proposal includes are earlier closing times for bars and brothel windows and a ban on smoking cannabis in public areas.

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