Prostitution is strongly embedded in local cultural practices in Cambodia. Based on extensive original research, this book explores the nature of prostitution in Cambodia, providing explanations of why the phenomenon is so widely tolerated. It outlines the background of the French colonial period, with its filles malades, considers the contemporary legal framework, and analyses the motivations for sex work, examining in particular how women become locked into debt bondage. Overall the book provides significant contributions to wider debates about sex work, sex trafficking and the constrained nature of women’s choices.
1. Introduction 2. Filles Malades: Sex Work in French Cambodia, 1863-1953 3. Sihanouk’s Thesis ‘A’ and ‘B’: Sex Work in Post-Independence Cambodia 4. The Social and Cultural Context of Sex Work 5. Just Choices: The Moral And Political Economies of Sex Work 6. Core Transmitter/Sex Slave: Ten Years of Regulating Sex Work (1998-2008) 7. Conclusion
Biography
Larissa Sandy completed her doctorate in the Gender Relations Centre of the Australian National University and is now a Vice Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Flinders University, Australia
