Prostitution is taking centre stage

When Sharon was a teenager, her mother insisted that she accompanied her to the local bar to have sex with men in exchange for gifts and money. But Sharon didn’t like the idea and preferred going out with friends. Years later, Sharon followed in the footsteps of her mother and took the only path in life she knew – prostitution. And like her mother, she pushed her own daughter into doing the same. Sharon is the character in a play that depicts the realities faced by women in prostitution in Malta. The brutally-real story, with a bitter-sweet ending, is based on three generations of women who enter into prostitution. Entitled Waħda Minna (One of us) the play is a collage of real moments and experiences in the lives of prostitutes, and their children, which scriptwriter and actress Angele Galea has collected since childhood. The character of Sharon is, in fact, based on a childhood memory that remained ingrained in her mind. Why her, not me? When Angele was about 10 years old, her mother, a primary school teacher in a government school, had told her how one of her students was being forced into prostitution by her mother. “That girl was my age at the time. She used to tell my...