ENOMW Article
Public discussion, Brussels – 6 November 2025
Overview
On 6 November 2025, Isala ASBL hosted in Brussels a groundbreaking public event on Belgium’s new prostitution law and its consequences for women’s rights. The discussion was co-organised by the European Network of Migrant Women, Université des Femmes, Collectif des Femmes, JUMP, La Voix des Femmes, Synergie Wallonie pour l’Égalité, Maison des Femmes de Schaerbeek (MEFH), Le Monde selon les Femmes, and the Fondation Anne Perre-Louise. The event brought together more than 80 participants, including feminist organisations, frontline service providers, legal experts, policymakers, survivors, students, and persons currently in prostitution. It formed part of the ongoing feminist legal action challenging the constitutionality of the Belgian prostitution law before the Constitutional Court.
Deconstructing the Belgian Law
The evening opened with a historical overview of abolitionist feminism in Belgium, followed by a detailed analysis of the 2022–2024 reforms. Speakers deconstructed the myths surrounding the so-called ‘decriminalisation of sex work,’ clarifying that prostitution was never criminalised in Belgium. What the new law in fact did was to legalise pimping, turning exploitation into a recognised economic activity and granting legal status to third-party profiteers. The discussions examined how this measure institutionalises the sexual exploitation of women, particularly those in vulnerable situations, and leaves migrant women—many of them without residence permits—without any form of real protection. As feminist experts highlighted, a labour law framework cannot protect those who are not legally allowed to work.
Colonial and Economic Dimensions of Exploitation
Participants also explored how prostitution perpetuates structural inequalities and global hierarchies of power. The feminist organisations and speakers from Le Monde selon les Femmes and the European Network of Migrant Women drew connections between prostitution, colonial histories, and the extractivist logic of the global economy, where women’s bodies become sites of exploitation. Many of the women in prostitution in Belgium are migrants—from both within and outside the EU—reflecting broader patterns of economic and racial inequality. As everywhere, the buyers are overwhelmingly men, and in the European context, most are European men.
Survivors’ Voices
A powerful segment of the evening gave space to survivors of prostitution who shared their first-hand experiences of violence, coercion, and systemic discrimination. Their testimonies exposed the gap between legal rhetoric and lived reality, showing that the new law protects pimps, not women. Survivors also emphasised that the legislation does nothing to address the structural causes that push women into prostitution—poverty, migration, and male demand.
Art and Resistance
The event featured a striking feminist art exhibition by Colombian artist and survivor Erika González Ramírez (@minotauracollage), titled El Cónsul.
‘El Cónsul’ is an autobiographical work framed within the feminist denunciations of the #MeToo movement. A collage that addresses the power asymmetries in prostitution and the banality with which harm is inflicted on women’s bodies. Inspired by Gisèle Pelicot’s phrase ‘Shame must change sides,’ the work centres on who holds power in the purchase of a sexual act. The phrase ‘I’m going to abuse your charms as a novice whore’ — taken from a letter found in the house of ‘El Cónsul,’ a client, when the artist was 17 — challenges viewers by revealing the intrinsic violence involved in accessing the bodies of women and girls.
Continuing the Debate
This first-of-its-kind meeting marked the beginning of a broader public discussion on prostitution, law, and equality in Belgium. It demonstrated the urgency of informing the public and policymakers about the realities behind this legislation and its long-term impact on women’s status, rights, and safety. Feminist organisations reaffirmed their collective determination to continue exposing the truth about this law and to pursue justice through both legal and political means—defending women’s dignity, equality, and the right to live free from male violence.