Disabled Rights Organization Requests Free Prostitutes

An invalids organization based in Karaganda, Kazakhstan has made a rather unusual request.

"Tirlik" (Everyday Life) is appealing to the government to legalize prostitution in Kazakhstan and for the government to provide disabled people with special "cards or checks for a specified amount to be used [to pay] for the services of commercial sex."

In a report from Interfax-Kazakhstan on January 19, Tirlik head Roza Petrus (a woman) said Kazakhstan's invalids have limited possibilities for intimacy and that "they complain that after saving money to pay for the services of a prostitute, [the prostitute] sees them in wheelchairs or without arms and leaves."

Petrus said "there are men, 30-35 years of age, who have never been with a woman."

It's not just men, Petrus: disabled women also suffer from the same problem. And, in her opinion, legalizing prostitution would "provide significant profits for the state budget."

-- Bruce Pannier