Turkey Sex in Strange Places

This programme contains some strong language

and scenes which some viewers may find upsetting

'With one foot in Europe and one in the Middle East,

'Turkey is one of our top holiday destinations.

'But civil war in Syria has brought Isis to its doorstep...'

Come in.

'..and trouble is now spilling across the border.'

I'm not having it. You guys are all racist.

They have issues because she's Syrian.

'With religious fundamentalism on the rise in Turkey as well...'

'..I'm here to find out how much tougher life is

'getting for women and sex workers in particular...'

They say that she should not be doing sex work if she wants to live.

'..as the authorities crack down

'on a century of legalised prostitution.'

Have a good night.

I think we're slowly outstaying our welcome.

This is the Turkish city of Gaziantep,

just 30 miles from the Syrian border.

It's a dangerous place and we can only be here for a few hours.

You can really feel the influence of the civil war next door

and Isis are known to have a presence here.

I've come to understand the impact extremist beliefs are having

on some women's lives in this region.

Two girls, both around my age, are coming here to tell me

their stories.

They both have first-hand experience of how women are used

as sex slaves by Isis.

So I've just heard that Leyla's in the car, she's on her way to us.

She's incredibly nervous. She feels really frightened.

Just last week, two journalists had their throats slit

and Isis have claimed responsibility

and there's an Isis presence here, so I think she'll feel safer here.

I just want her to be able to speak openly, you know?

We're in lockdown. For my own safety, I can't leave the hotel.

All I can do is wait.

Hello. How are you? Come in.

'Both girls are from moderate Muslim families.

'They're incredibly brave even talking to me.

'It's too dangerous for them to be identified in any way.'

-Leyla?

-Leyla.

Stacey. How do you do? Thank you for coming to speak to me.

I really appreciate it.

'Hiba, on the left, has been in Turkey a few months,

'but Leyla has only just escaped from the clutches of Isis.'

Before Isis became so powerful...

would you dress like this ordinarily?

'Leyla lived with her family before getting married,

'but her husband was killed in an air strike and, despite being

'completely covered, she unfortunately caught the attention of a jihadi soldier.'

He decides that he wants you to be his wife. What happens next?

As much as you feel comfortable telling me, can you describe...

..what your relationship was like, sexually?

So you must pleasure him, sexually, every single night?

It's so important.

I mean, to me, it sounds like they're used like sexual objects.

Are you OK?

Feel OK?

You tell me if you need to stop, that's totally fine.

So how long were you forced to live like this?

'If a married fighter dies,

'his wife gets passed on to his fellow fighters.'

What was going on inside your mind at that time?

'Leyla managed to flee and get across the border into Turkey.

'I so hope she can rebuild her life.'

I think she's incredibly brave

for having the courage to come and speak to me.

-Thank you so much.

-Thank YOU.

-See you. Bye.

-Take care. Lots of love. Bye.

Thanks, girls.

It's just mental, isn't it? It's just...

What can I say?

When we see it on the news, when we read it in the papers...

"Oh, that's sad, you know. Things must change."

But very quickly they just become statistics,

they just become numbers.

They're human beings.

Isis want to rule completely under Islamic law.

While the vast majority of Turkish Muslims see

this as a distorted extreme, their new government has recently

become much more religiously conservative.

The exotic Turkey we know and love from holidays and the TV

was founded almost 100 years ago with a constitution that

separated religion and politics,

and had surprisingly liberal views on women and sex work.

The state even opened brothels.

But under the new tough President Erdogan, attitudes towards sex

and sex workers are shifting and the brothels are being shut down.

I'm actually really curious to see what they look like.

So I've never seen a legal brothel, not a state-run brothel.

Zurafa Street is Istanbul's oldest and most famous red light district.

I don't know which door is the entrance. So many men.

Unlike any other red light district I've visited, all the brothels

are hidden behind gates with security guards and metal detectors.

Everyone is searched for weapons or cameras and it's strictly men only.

No problem.

Oh, come on. Let's not push.

-Listen, I can stand here if I like.

-OK. OK.

This is a public space.

Yeah, we stay calm.

Tell me.

Because they're family men?

There you go.

That's what they're concerned about,

that the guys that are going into this brothel are family men.

Total family...

Deniz, a young guy on his way into the brothel, offers me

an insight into why it's so popular with many Turkish men.

But why not their wife?

Wives - they must still have a sexual appetite.

Why?

I find that hard to believe.

-I am 28 and I love sex.

-Yes.

Many women in their 20s love sex.

-Domestic violence towards women?

-Yes.

-Such a backwards mentality.

-Yes.

Don't shout at me.

He said, "I'm going to break your camera."

-You should go, I think.

-OK.

Getting inside to speak to the sex workers here is not going to happen.

Look at him edging me off.

How far you want me away?

Under the influence of the current government, local authorities

have closed almost half of Turkey's 52 state-run brothels.

During inspections, if there's any irregularity,

no matter how small, it's used as an excuse to shut the place down.

It's something the people in power really didn't want to talk

to us about, so I'm travelling 360 miles to try to

get into one of the handful of state brothels that are still running.

Kamal is helping us.

He's an activist, a sex worker and a rare thing in Turkey - openly gay.

-Is he happy?

-He's happy. He's wondering where we are.

In terms of me, as a woman, being inside the brothel,

is that going to be problematic?

The main understanding of the state is that

brothel is a place where immoral women, full of immoral women work,

and they don't want immoral women and moral women get together.

These women are not doing another job, but these are bad women,

so they're not looking from a labour-based perspective,

but looking from a moralistic perspective, two separate,

-two groups of women.

-So demonising the sex workers.

Demonising and stigmatising those women.

-So this is it.

-This is the door.

-It's big.

-That's quite big, yeah.

DOG BARKING

It's nothing like what I'd imagined. It's like a prison.

Covered in barbed wire, huge walls, railings.

I thought it would be down a dirty little alley.

The atmosphere of the brothel feels a million miles from

the bustling activity I witnessed in Istanbul.

-Hello.

-Hi.

-How do you do?

Mustafa, the owner.

'And as brothel owner, Mustafa begins to give me the tour.'

So, if I can see where the girls work, that would be amazing.

'I soon discover why it feels like such a ghost town.'

Why?

This is a legal brothel, what's the issue?

Why won't they just allow more women who want to come here, join up?

The state, they're not only

stopping new women to enter brothels as workers,

-but they are demolishing brothels.

-Why?

From my own perspective, this is mainly

because of their conservative Islamist ideology.

Do you think any of the girls here will talk to me today?

I don't want to...

put anyone at risk or make anyone feel uncomfortable, so I appreciate

you allowing me in, because I know that's a very big deal.

It's proving impossible in Istanbul, so thank you.

I find some of the women who work and live here,

but they're adamant they can't speak on camera.

Even though it's official,

they're convinced that if the authorities see them on screen,

they'll lose their jobs, their permits and their pensions.

One of them even tells me that her family would murder her

if they knew what she did for a living

and she's been lying about her job for 30 years.

Let's compromise - how about,

can we do the interview here, near the sofas?

Let's go outside.

But then several clients arrive and the atmosphere changes.

We don't want to upset the customers,

because I don't want the girls missing out on money,

so if I go right in this corner, do you think that's OK? Come on, then.

Let's go outside for the minute.

It feels a bit tense, a bit apprehensive,

so I'm just going to come outside.

How do you do?

Have a good night. Goodnight. Goodnight.

I think we're slowly outstaying our welcome.

The mad thing is, right, that this brothel is completely legal.

The girls, what they're doing, completely legal.

The guys entering, no problems.

No-one here is actually breaking the law,

but despite all of that, they're all

petrified of appearing on camera, and that does suggest that

perhaps society here will not accept how they choose to make a living.

With the stigma attached to their trade

so great that they risk being killed, I'm not surprised

that the prostitutes I'm meeting aren't willing to go on camera.

But one brave sex worker has agreed to speak with me.

Hulya, how are you? Lovely to meet you. I'm Stacey. How do you do?

You look incredible.

'Hulya works in one of Turkey's few remaining legal brothels.

'As well as a shortage of licensed sex workers,

'her brothel is experiencing an increase

'in impromptu police checks.'

Do you think the government disagrees with prostitution

and are now going about trying to make it more difficult for you,

trying to close these brothels down?

'Sex is a taboo subject in Turkey and sex education is non-existent.'

I mean, genuinely, you have guys trying to shag you

by putting their dick in your belly button?

It's one of the most bizarre things I've ever heard, I think,

and I've spoken to many prostitutes all around the world,

but THAT is a first.

And I know, Hulya, you genuinely believe that brothels are necessary.

Why? Why are they so important?

That's such a mental thought.

What you're describing is guys with serious psychological issues.

Sex workers like Hulya see up to 50 men a day and I'm shocked when

she tells me she thinks maybe a third of her clients

have similar fantasies.

And, Hulya, how long have you been a sex worker?

So someone forced you into this line of work when you were 15?

Who?

Where were your parents when this was going on?

You were never really given a chance to even see

if you would like to try any other career.

Well, yeah, ideally you would hope...

..that women who are sex workers would have...

the same kind of freedom as women

-who choose not to have sex for a living.

-Yeah.

Do you not get tired of being demonised?

I look at you girls and I think, you are so strong and you are

so brave and you continue fighting, but it must be exhausting.

Hulya is one of the remaining 1,500 licensed sex workers in Turkey.

But there are 100,000 unregistered prostitutes

who are even more powerless.

As the government takes a more hardline Islamic stance,

liberals are fighting back.

And some sex workers have the courage to stand alongside them.

I'm en route to my first ever political rally in Turkey,

and it's for the CH Party.

They're the main opposition for the current government.

They're a secular party.

Turkey is days away from a general election,

and it seems there are two choices -

staying with the current conservative government

or taking the country in a more liberal direction.

Wow!

SHE LAUGHS

I'm going to the rally with Derya,

a transgender sex worker and supporter of the liberal CHP.

You OK?

Nice to see you.

She's already seen a shift in attitudes,

and is worried life will only get worse.

OK, let's shake a leg.

SHE SINGS:

I feel really excited to be here.

Inevitably there's going to be a lot of people

with very strong opinions. They're going to be very passionate.

There was a bombing in Ankara literally a couple of weeks ago,

one of the deadliest bombings in Turkey.

And that was supposed to be a peaceful protest.

So let's just see how it goes. I'm sure it'll be fine.

THEY CHANT

All of these people

are out here tonight because they've had enough, you know?

They want change.

Just like Derya.

She doesn't want to live feeling frightened all of the time.

They're not interested in having an Islamic government.

Not these people, anyway.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

But my first Turkish political rally is cut short.

Derya is a woman in demand.

Wow, OK. I can come?

-Come.

-Yeah? Come on then, let's go.

Can't keep money waiting.

Thank you.

Transsexual sex workers are popular with Turkish men,

but they're also far more likely to be abused.

So, Derya, tell me what you bring with you. What's in your bag?

IT BUZZES

STACEY SHRIEKS

SHE LAUGHS

It's like a butcher's knife.

Have you ever used any of this stuff?

SHE MAKES A BUZZING NOISE

Derya's been a sex worker for almost 20 years

and, like Hulya, feels trapped.

Yeah, I understand.

Feel OK?

Yeah?

You got everything?

Transsexuals aren't seen by the state as women,

so they can't work in legal brothels.

The only option is risking the streets,

having strangers in their homes,

or working in illegal sex houses.

This is one of the most notorious illegal trans brothels in Istanbul.

It's completely illegal.

But for whatever reason, it's way more obvious.

The legal brothels are actually quite hard to get into

and are extremely well hidden.

I just find it extraordinary

that so many brothels are being closed down,

and this is operating so obviously.

And some of the men who are window shopping

think I'm for sale too.

I don't know if they think I'm a prostitute.

Uh-oh.

-You. You, I.

-No, thank you.

-Yeah, OK?

-No, no, no.

-OK?

-Definitely not OK.

These young boys keep asking me for sex.

They are deluded. They're children.

This is what they want.

-This is sex.

-This is sex, yeah.

-Sex, yeah.

-This is definitely sex.

-You, I.

-Not in a million years.

You think I'm easy?

Why?

To ask a woman that you don't know if you can kiss her

and if you can shag her and show her pictures of anal sex on your phone -

is that a bit rude? Do you think that's acceptable?

-Playboy. Playboy.

-You, I, yes.

-Have you used the trans brothel?

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Is it good?

Four, four.

-You've been in there four times?

-Yeah, four.

Why do you prefer trans prostitutes?

So talk me through what's hardcore to you.

Does she fuck you or do you fuck her?

So you insert your penis into their arse?

Would you describe yourselves as straight guys? Bisexuals?

So why are you using trans prostitutes?

Is there anything you would like to ask me?

You just want to have sex with me? Are you being serious?

Cos I'm actually starting to feel quite insulted.

The assumption that you've made that I am just going to leap onto you

because you have shown me one bit of interest.

That's not how women operate. It's not how all women work.

From speaking to these guys,

it seems that one of the reasons trans prostitutes are so popular

is that they indulge Turkish men's hardcore sexual fantasies.

I can't talk to the women working here.

Me and my camera are bad for business.

SHOUTING:

The camera. She's trying to wet the camera.

To hear more about Turkish men's sexual preferences,

I head back to Derya's.

-Hello!

-Ooh!

But I have to wait in line.

She's expecting a client any minute.

As well as working on the streets,

Derya also has a website.

Those clients come to her home.

Oh, you don't want us to see your boobs?

They're nicer than mine.

You're a beautiful woman.

So tell me about this client tonight.

Condom.

Very necessary.

-I won't say anything or go anywhere until you come and get me.

-OK.

Have fun.

Put the TV on.

This is the weirdest experience.

WHISPERING: She's asked for the telly to be on,

because even when she's alone,

she'll make sure that they can hear the television

so that the client assumes someone else is in the house.

Means he's less likely to attack her.

Inviting complete strangers into your personal space,

into your home...

So dangerous. I'd be petrified.

DISTANT SQUEALING

Hopefully he's nearly finished.

Sounds like he is.

What have I become?

Like some weird English pervert.

SHE LAUGHS

STACEY LAUGHS

Let me just see.

Wow.

You're red raw.

Derya chose to keep her penis,

and as a trans sex worker, she knows it's her biggest asset.

So what happened?

So he came by sucking your penis?

So ordinarily, when they turn up,

are they usually hard?

They usually turned on, and you just have to finish them off?

Do you think some of the guys who you believe to be gay

are struggling to accept their sexuality,

and so by using trans prostitutes

they can somehow convince themselves

they're not completely gay?

How much did he pay you?

Is that quite good?

-Bye-bye.

-Bye-bye. DERYA GIGGLES

She's desperate to have a wash,

cos she said she's all sweaty and dirty.

It seems difficult in Turkey for men to be openly gay.

I've left Istanbul to head to Turkey's capital, Ankara,

to speak to Kemal,

the openly gay sex worker and activist

who got me into the brothel.

-Kemal, how are you?

-Hi!

Trying to be good. How are you doing?

I'm very well. I'm very well, thank you.

-So welcome to the office.

-Thank you.

This is the office.

This is something I haven't seen in Turkey just yet. SHE LAUGHS

-Well, it's the rainbow thing that we are fighting for.

-The first time I've seen it.

As you see from the posters, what we do, actually, is raise awareness

and visibility on human rights violations that sex workers face.

We, for example, offer legal aid to victims of violence.

This is one of the most important things that my organisation does.

Tell me about the relationship generally

between the authority figures and the sex workers here in Turkey.

The AKP government, they want to get rid of sex workers.

They wanted to cleanse the country

from sex workers.

And this is something I'm saying

not because I'm exaggerating - this is the case.

Why aren't people up in arms?

Why aren't there are demonstrations fighting for these people's rights?

People just don't care about sex workers.

You see stories of, for example, transgender people who were killed,

their heads were cut off,

their silicones were taken away from their bodies,

their legs were cut, and thrown to a dustbin.

Or stabbing a sex worker 200 times.

But you see the comments on the internet,

below the news.

Like, they have this hatred.

They say that she should not be doing sex work

if she wants to live.

These are the stories that we are always facing.

Most attacks on sex workers either go unreported

or, Kemal claims, are not taken seriously by the police -

as he knows from personal experience

when he was raped by a client in his own home.

It's obviously a big trauma for me.

And it's not very easy for me to talk about that.

Because, like, it was about theft,

sexual assault.

Um...

Forcibly keeping me

at a place that I didn't want to be.

The incident happened six months ago,

when a regular client turned up at Kemal's house with some friends.

So there were three people. One outside, two inside.

And I realised that something bad was happening

-at that time.

-One guy raped you?

-Yes.

And while raping, he was always repeating that...

"So we are three people, and..."

So bad.

"So we are three people,

"and we will come back to your house.

"You have to give us money."

I was paralysed, to be honest.

And I tried to be calm, actually,

because I know many of my friends died because of that.

All of them, including the third person,

told me that they would come to my house,

they would take my money again, and they would fuck me.

And I started to cry.

And I said, "OK, I will give you money."

So they took me to one of the ATMs.

But on the way, I saw the lights of the police car.

I ran towards the police officers.

The first reaction of the police officer was, "Shut up."

I was like...

-I started to cry at that time.

-That's what he said?

-Yes. "Shut up."

Like, you've just been violated in your own home,

and I bet when you saw the police, you couldn't believe your luck.

Then you approach them and it's more bullshit, you know? It's...

The perpetrators started to tell the police officers,

"Look, you are our brother, and you know these faggots,

"they always tell these things.

"Yes, we had sex with him,

"but I mean, he's just telling a lie."

They don't identify themselves as being gay guys?

No, not at all.

They told the police officers, "Look, we are men,

"and we have families, so you should help us,

"because we're like you. You are our brother."

These were the exact words.

Since the incident, Kemal has brought proceedings

against all three men and the police.

After months of waiting,

today is the first day of the court case against the men he's accused.

-Oh, gosh.

-What's wrong?

I'm so stressed.

Listen to me, don't feel stressed.

Remember why you're doing this.

You're totally capable. You've got this.

I mean, I spent four months to forget about what happened,

and now they want me to tell about the details.

OK.

Kemal is being supported today by friends and lawyers he works with.

Hello, how do you do?

He's in the same situation as many of the sex workers

he's helped in the past.

This is such a huge deal.

He's trying to represent so many sex workers

who don't have the courage to speak up and say,

"You know what, I am a sex worker, but I was raped.

"I didn't ask for this and it's not acceptable.

"The police haven't taken me seriously.

"And I'm a human. I deserve respect."

Although I'm allowed to sit in on the trial,

the camera has to stay outside.

But it seems Kemal will still have a long wait for justice.

The first formal hearing today, it's just been adjourned.

About two and a half months, the second hearing will continue.

Kemal, whilst giving evidence,

was sobbing throughout the entire process.

The three lads are convinced that they're completely innocent.

They were shouting, "We are not guilty.

"If he's so frightened, what's he doing inviting men

"to his house in the middle of the night?"

It's like, how realistic is it that

he's going to get the justice he deserves?

I caught up with Kemal after he was finished at the court.

Of course, they're struggling with their sexuality

and they're not out. They don't want to be out,

because they don't accept themselves as being gay.

Many of the clients that come to us act as gay,

but when they go back to their house,

they act as the husband of their wives

or the father of their children

in a very heterosexual way.

And I... Sometimes I feel pity for them.

You've been through so much.

Will you be returning to sex work?

I may go back.

Because you want to? Because you have to?

It's not about money only,

because I remember myself doing translations for money,

which is really, like, mind-fucking.

I mean, I would prefer to do sex work to a certain level

compared to doing translation, to be honest.

-Really?

-Yes.

But not now, because psychologically I'm not ready.

Right, leave you to it.

Take care.

I am shocked that despite all he's been through,

Kemal might well return to sex work.

Derya feels she has no choice.

She needs to do the work to pay her bills.

But there's another group of sex workers in Turkey

who are even lower on the pecking order than transsexuals.

They have no rights, no support, and barely make ends meet.

Those are the women from war-torn Syria.

So far, at least three million Syrian refugees have entered Turkey,

and a large number have settled in a rundown area of Istanbul.

This has become a small ghetto of Syrian refugees.

A lot of desperate people here

with little or no help from the state.

I've got nothing, darling.

HE SPEAKS OWN LANGUAGE

I promise you, nothing.

Money, money.

Although Turkey has offered them a life free from war,

their struggle continues through the discrimination they face.

INAUDIBLE

Hello, baby. I haven't got anything.

Sorry.

With no legitimate income,

they're forced to live in squalor

in houses that are illegal and condemned.

You've got to try and imagine where these people have come from

for this neighbourhood to now be so appealing.

It's like, the buildings could collapse at any moment.

The kids are hungry. It's filthy.

But in all honesty, these people here,

they see themselves as the lucky ones,

because it sure beats still being in Syria,

frightened that you're going to get killed,

or being in camps near the border.

I've arranged to speak to a 35-year-old woman from Aleppo,

a city devastated by war.

She fled with her three children and husband, who is too ill to work.

If she can't make enough begging,

she feels her only choice is to sell herself for sex.

She's agreed to tell me her story in a hotel close by.

It's getting cold.

Have you got some money? You've got some?

But as we take a short cut through a market,

I discover first-hand the sort of discrimination

that many refugees face on a daily basis.

What's the problem?

What's the problem?

-This problem?

-Yes.

-You mean my friend?

Why won't you let her in?

Listen, we don't want any trouble.

She's not going to cause any...

STACEY COUGHS

He's just sprayed me in my mouth with something.

Someone has just sprayed me in the mouth,

and they've put something in her mouth.

Sorry, not for you.

SHE SHOUTS ANGRILY

You need to calm down.

Listen, I'm not having it.

The issue is, you guys are all racist.

They have issues because she's Syrian.

It's racist behaviour.

And it's totally unacceptable.

Let's go. Let's go.

This is all you can get. You know, do you want to kill all your film?

-No, I don't.

-We have to go. We have to go quickly, listen to me.

-But it's fucking so unacceptable. They're racist fucks.

-Yeah.

-What did he say? Why did they spray me?

-He said they spit on the woman

because they're thinking that she was a beggar.

But they sprayed something in my face. I couldn't breathe.

They are, I think...

..both racist and also very religiously conservative guys.

Ah, come on.

You OK?

Fatima has been living here for 18 months.

She paid traffickers to walk across the Syria-Turkey border

after Isis destroyed her home.

Fatima's in her 30s, and I've seen the face beneath the veil.

She looks a lot younger than she sounds.

Once she starts telling me her story, I understand why.

SHE CRIES

When you were in Syria,

you had never before been a sex worker?

Does your husband know how you're making money?

And how many guys are you having to sleep with a night

to make sure that you can feed your husband and the kids have got food?

Before you had to start selling yourself,

had you ever been intimate with another man other than your husband?

I mean, she's hysterical, understandably.

She's traumatised. How could she not be?

It's like, how any one person

can go through what she's had to is beyond me.

You can't begin to imagine. It's...

an existence for her now.

But a really bleak one.

With the Syrian crisis raging on next door,

the Turkish people have voted in their general election.

They've put the AKP in charge,

a hardline Islamic party

who won a clear majority.

-NEWSREADER:

-In Ankara, supporters of the ruling party

took to the streets claiming an unexpected victory.

Wow. It was an unexpected victory.

The AK Party will now single-handedly rule the country.

Which...

for a lot of sex workers here, that was their worst case scenario,

in their words.

That was the last thing they wanted to happen.

The President and the party he founded

had a very simple message:

"It's us or chaos."

It's not good news for the people I've spent time with.