Women and Sex Work in Cambodia: Blood, Sweat and Tears

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.

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