Scandal-weary France votes on outlawing prostitution

Because changes in public mood, members considered six months' imprisonment for those caught paying for sex

Degas and Toulouse-Lautrec painted, Hugo, Balzac and Zola wrote about them, Napoleon graduates and disgraced former presidential candidate, Dominique Strauss-Kahn said he had a "horror" of between them. Some even claim that they are part of the cultural heritage of France. Prostitutes have been a feature of French artistic circles, literary and political - and a target for politicians - for centuries

Tuesday, after the sex scandal in New York earlier this year, which made headlines around the world and ended Strauss-Kahn in the hope of becoming French President, Members discussed a bill that would make prostitution a crime punishable by six months in prison. Anyone caught buying sex face ? 3,000 (£ 2,600) fine.

Since the end of World War II prostitution in France was considered a matter of personal choice and not illegal. However, the government has become increasingly abolitionist and the public mood may tighten after the debacle of Strauss-Kahn. A series of unpleasant revelations about a prostitution ring of high level based on a luxury hotel in the northern city of Lille also on the minds of MPs, "and that the vote of the bill.

In the busy street of Saint-Denis, one of the oldest streets in Paris and a famous red light district, the prospect of future legislation was of little interest. The average age of a Parisian prostitute who is said to 40, although the age range here seems to be broad. Most are supported by the shabby doors, or hanging on the walls between the bulk of cheap clothes, sex shops, a church and a nursery school. They share the sidewalk with the riders of packages of India with its metal carts, curious tourists who try not to look, parents waiting to pick up the kids and, presumably, bettors the bill would prohibit.

women among the 20,000 said to work as prostitutes in France, are mostly French, independent and own their own studios and pay taxes. They are considered an upper-class girls working Africans, Ukrainians, Moldovans and accuse of invading their land and Eastern workers drag the surrounding boulevards.

Christiane, who said he was active in the territory for 39 years, is skeptical about the new law.

• "It's just blah, blah, blah, because there's an election coming. They forget to follow us," she said. "I own my own apartment, pay my taxes, what will they do? It's not that we are looking for, it's them, "she nods in the direction of Asian prostitutes. Sylvie added:" It is the old self-employed prostitutes as we who will suffer, not the pimps who exploit blacks and Chinese. "
number of prostitutes are

intend to take a day off and given to the National Assembly when the bill its first reading on Tuesday.

"Mistress Gilda", a spokesman Strass, the union of sex workers, said the team from all parties behind the project is trying to impose puritanical sexual mores and morals of Northern Europe in France.

"If the ban on lighting play into the hands of pimps and mafia networks," he said. "This law is just an excuse to clean the streets and hunt Africans and the East Europeans, and others who work there. Be encouraged women to go underground and therefore more at risk. "
Unions and Associations representing French sex workers say their members are providing a "service" that requires some

Find best price for : --France----York----Dominique----Zola----Balzac--