The Woman Who Closed the Brothels

1963 Interview to Italian Socialist Lina Merlin

The quote says: The Law should not tolerate the trafficking of women.

In 1963, Italian writer and journalist Oriana Fallaci interviewed the former socialist senator Lisa Merlin, who had, in February 1958, introduced Law 1958 no. 75 (known as Legge Merlin), which abolished brothels in Italy. They were colloquially called ‘case chiuse’ (closed houses) so she became the woman who closed the closed houses. I want to translate this because her arguments against the regulation of prostitution are still incredibly modern and applicable to the current movement to regulate ‘sex work’. I also enjoy how she puts Oriana Fallaci, who is quite rude, in her place.

ORIANA FALLACI: In Montecitorio [the name of the palace that houses the Italian parliament], when I happened to go there and you were still a socialist MP, I could not take my eyes off you. Not because you were the famous woman who closed the brothels, but because everything in you reminded me of a world that was about to disappear. The world of those old fashioned socialists, sentimental, a bit anarchical, pure-hearted gentlemen. I would observe your white hair, your lively eyes, and I would see a world I never knew, a liberal, lay world.

I used to think then that I would have liked to talk to you, or better, to listen to you. It never happened back then and now I feel almost like I am bothering you. Now you are not a senator anymore, nor an MP, you are not even a member of the socialist party anymore, and you are now full of bitterness (or so they tell me), maybe even ill (or so they tell me), sitting in the bourgeois living room of a bourgeois house on the Adriatic sea, your window open to a view of beach umbrellas and tourists. But your law on brothels…

LINA MERLIN: First of all I am not ill, I am quite allright, thank you very much. I have a heart that is better than yours, and I am not here because I am ill but because I holiday at the sea every year. Second, I am not bitter at all, I am at peace and serene, and the reason I retired from politics is because I do not want to die before my time; we all have the right to postpone death as much as we can. I am fond of my old skin and if I stayed another day amongst politicians I would have ended up in a cemetery before my time. I will answer all your questions, I have no secrets. But remember that when bad people win, good people leave. As for my law on brothels…. Are they still talking about it?!

OF: You bet they are, senator. It is one of the most debated issues by Italians, who took your law as having being passed out of spite. They complain about it as if instead of five years, only two days had passed and they could not come to terms with it.

LM: Ha ha! This country of macho men who claim to be the best lovers in the world and then cannot get a woman without help! If they cannot get a woman, idiots that they are, too bad for them. Why don’t they do like my socialist comrades in Adria? One day I went to Adria and I asked them: How come, comrades, you never invited me to talk about my law? «Because we are not interested, Lina», they answered. And now I want to tell you a story. One day I was invited to speak in a local office of the socialist party in Milan; as soon as I arrived, somebody gave me this yellow envelope. I opened it and inside I found this message: «Comrade, think of how much damage your law will do: where else can an old disabled man like me go, if not to a brothel?». I went to the table and I said: I have received just now a letter, and I hope the comrade who wrote it is here because I want to ask him a question.

Comrade, where should an old disabled woman go, if she cannot get a nice young man for herself? I am sorry, comrades, but who told you that women do not have their problems too? This is more or less what I said in parliament: if you think that this is a social service, and male citizens have a right to this social service, then make this a compulsory service for all women 20 years or older. Make it so that this is a social service that female citizens have to offer. Some journalists said that my logic was unbecoming. Me, unbecoming? I never said anything vulgar in my life and I prefer to call them ‘those unfortunate women’ rather then say prostitutes.

OF: In the trial of a pimp in Florence, the judge accepted the argument of the defence counsel that your law is unconstitutional because it does not take into account the article of the Constitution on the duty of the State to protect the health of its citizens. The judgment is currently being reviewed by the Constitutional Court and…

LM: Oh, yes. I knew that you were going to mention this to upset me. So I will scream it to you: my law is constitutional with bells on, and if the Constitutional Court as much as considers the judgment, then it is the end of it all. Then it means that my country does not deserve anything, that my country is barbaric, and that the judges in my country do not even know the meaning of law: they need to read Montesquieu again! I was one of the 70 legislators who wrote the Constitution, you know, I know the Constitution, and I know especially the article on public health, because I wanted it there [she also added ‘senza distinzioni di sesso’ to the equality and non discrimination article in the Constitution, article 3].

What does the article say? «The Republic safeguards health as a fundamental right of the individual […]. The law may not under any circumstances violate the limits imposed by respect for the human person.» ‘Respect for the human person’: Is that clear? And to subject those poor women to compulsory health checks, is that respecting the human person? And remember that the State does not keep a register of them [it did during fascism]. How do they know which women to choose? As they did with all unregistered prostitutes during fascism? Stop women in the street, maybe because they were smoking, or they had no ID documents with them? Have you ever walked alone at night, maybe smoking?

OF: Oh yes, sometimes.

LM: Good. You know what happened to one of your colleagues, as she left the newspaper’s office at 1:30 in the morning, and was walking the street smoking, looking for a taxi? They stopped her and: «Come to the police station». «No way, why should I?». «Because we say so. Documents, please». «I do not have them. I am a journalist, that is my newspaper’s office». «We don’t care. You were smoking in the street. Come to the police station». She was lucky, she was quite a character and put them in their place. But assume she would have been convinced to go to the police station, as many women who did nothing else than walking alone at night may have done, what would have happened to her? They would have held her overnight, and the day after she would have been subjected to a compulsory health check. And then she would have had to wait eight days for the results. It takes eight days to get the results. Let’s move on. Which other criteria would you use to stop a woman: being alluring? How many women today would fit that description?

I do not want to come off as an old bigot, I am not shocked because women wear too much make-up and wear their hair like Brigitte Bardot [this was 1963!], it is just the fashion, and if fashion dictated to wear a sleeping bag from the First World War to the beach, instead of a bikini, women would do that. But the fact remains that lots of women wear a lot of make-up. What should we do about this?

Should a policeman stop them because of it? «Why did you stop me?». «Because you are a prostitute». «And how do you know that?». «Because of your appearance». «Oh, yes? How dare you judge my appearance?». «You could be ill, baby». [One reason why prostitutes wore a lot of make-up was to disguise a bad complexion due to illness] «Is that so? Are you a doctor, who can tell if a woman is ill?». «Shut up, it is the doctor for you». The doctor examines her, maybe finds her to be ill. «Ah, clearly she is a prostitute». Because she is ill? So now the policeman is a doctor and the doctor is a policeman? What other criterion would you use to detain a woman?

Those who receive many visits by men at home? For twenty years I received plenty of visits by young men at home; I used to give private lessons of Italian and French, to survive, as the fascist regime took away my job. What if a mean doorkeeper would have told the police the private lessons were just a cover?

I was quite good looking when I was young, you know? I had my share of suitors, and my husband died when I was young. What if the doorkeeper had told the police? So many women who lived alone were denounced to the police and lost their home. I am a civil person, I respect others, but this I do not tolerate.

OF: The State could do health visits for everyone, men and women, healthy and ill, as they do for vaccination programs. The police could start with those who are clearly prostitutes, those you see in the street at night…

LM: You really do not know what you are talking about! We already have a law allowing for health visits for all citizens, but it is not applied. As for street prostitutes, how can we prove they are if they are not registered? Should we start registering them again? Should we give them back the card that Benito Mussolini hypocritically called ‘health card’? It was worse than a life sentence, worse than the branding of a slave. [For those who think these were other times, reminder that Germany registers prostitutes and subjects them to compulsory health checks]. Do you know that if a woman decided not to be a prostitute anymore and she went to the police station to give back her health card she would be sent back to her hometown [prostitutes usually went to work in brothels not in their hometown, obviously to avoid being seen by, and seeing, their male relatives in the brothel] and for years she would be monitored by the police? Do you know that if she had a child, the child would be recorded all their life as the child of a registered prostitute?

Most of them have children, and even if they are the best mothers in the world, even if they raise them as best as they can, when the child needs a document, maybe for an entrance exam for a job, it will come out they are children of a registered prostitute, preventing them from getting a job, not even as the traffic police. To register them is the same as to go back to the days of the health cards, do you understand that?

OF: Senator, I agree with you, do not get upset. From now on, I will present to you the arguments against your law, the faults of your law, please do not get upset with me.

LM: Which faults, which arguments? I did nothing wrong, I did something good.

OF: I know, Senator Merlin, and nobody thanked you for it. They insulted you, mocked you, attacked you for it. Nobody is hated more than a benefactor, and gratitude is a myth. So please answer my points. The first accusation: after the law was passed, the number of prostitutes doubled.

LM: Maybe so; population increased, maybe also the number of those unfortunate women. But how do they know this for sure? Did they count them? Had they counted them before? What do you say? You can see them? And before, you did not see them? You saw fewer of them, you say? Oh please, you know nothing! You did not see them if you did not want to see them. I always saw them. Once in Milan I was going home at four in the morning. They were everywhere.

OF: Second accusation: sexually transmitted diseases are up. We have data for this.

LM: You are so naive! Whose data? And compared with what data? In 1937 alone there were hundreds of thousands of cases. They went down as antibiotics started being used, and then up again in 1953. Brothels were shut down in 1958. Antibiotics started being less effective you see? And diseases go in cycles, you know? Polio is up, as are some types of cancer. Is that the fault of Senator Meerlin too? What are we going to do about it?

Should we open brothels again, which were always at the centre of outbreakes? You really know nothing: do you know how many health checks these women had? Two a week. Do you think it was enough? With tens of ‘customers’ a day? And what was the point to subject to compulsory health checks 2,500 women in the brothels if there were at least 50,000 unregistered prostitutes outside brothels? And the madam who would ask the doctor: «Please doctor, do not report that Rosetta is ill, she has so many customers», and the doctor would agree? Please shut up.

OF: Third accusation: a rise in sex crimes, from bands of young men attacking women to catcalling. And I am not even mentioning, because I find it ridiculous, the issue of men doing military service [compulsory in Italy at the time] which are compared to sex pests attenting at the virtue of virgins and virtuous wifes…

LM: Do you really believe anything they tell you? Look, a flying pig! As if sex crimes did not exist before! Young men on the loose! 14 or 15 maybe? As if before, at that age, they were not already going to brothels that were technically only for over 18 year olds.

Catcalling! As if we did not have that before. Or men doing military service. You do not want to talk about that? I will. Listen, how many men on military service in a big city? Tens of thousands. How many brothels in a big city? No more than 16 recorded. 250 women in total. Do you think that is enough? What do you think? Clearly men found women somewhere else. They can now too. Or are you saying it is now too expensive for them?

OF: I have not said anything.

LM: Oh quiet. Maybe you will say it now costs them too much. Look, I care about men in the army. I try to avoid them being sent to war, not open brothels for them. And to those generals who complain about this I would like to ask if brothels are the price for these young men’s lives. And I would like to ask the same questions to some mothers. Do you know what makes me really sick? Those mothers who say, who is going to teach my son about sex? Really? You ask yourself that and you do not wonder why they send your son to die for the country, yesterday for Mussolini, tomorrow maybe for oil? And also, who are these men that want a woman to be served on a tray like a piece of meat? Nice men they are!

OF: Fourth accusation: that prostitution has not been abolished at all, on the contrary, it goes on as before, with the same brutal moral degradation, the same exploitation. And this, please do not get mad, is true. I believe it as well.

LM: Are you crazy? You really did not understand. I had no plan to abolish prostitution. My law was simply meant to prevent the State from profiting from it. Read the name of the Act again: «Act for the Abolition of the Regulation of Prostitution and against the Exploitation of Prostitution ».

That’s it. I had added also «… against the risk of sexually transmitted diseases», but they took it out as there was already a law for that. I am really surprised you would make such a claim. Prostitution is not a crime, it’s a malpractice. And even if for some people it is a crime, the difference between regulated and unregulated prostitutes is the same as between thieves with a permit to steal and thieves without a permit. Do you know of any country without prostitution?

OF: China, at least that is what the Chinese say, and I do not think they are lying.

LM: Maybe so. In a dictatorship, it is possible. You just execute them. But I am against dictatorship, of any kind. I want to live in a country of free people. Unfortunately also free to be a prostitute, but free.