Some want to give Olympic brothels the red (stop) light for 2004

http://espn.go.com/oly/news/2003/0723/1584688.html?partnersite=espn

Wednesday, July 23

Ministers: Brothels will add to exploitation of women


Associated Press


STOCKHOLM, Sweden -- Nordic and Baltic ministers for gender equality expressed their "abhorrence'' over Greek plans to increase the number of brothel permits in Athens for the 2004 Olympics.


"It is with indignation and surprise that we have learned that Greece plans to increase brothel activities during the Olympics in Athens 2004. This will lead to more women being exploited and abused,'' Cabinet ministers for gender equality in Sweden, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania said in a joint letter to the mayor of Athens.


"We ... will in this way express our abhorrence and protest your plans, which we do not feel to be compatible with the fundamental ideals behind the Olympics,'' they wrote in the letter, faxed to The Associated Press by the Swedish government and posted on the government's Web site.


Greek authorities have decided to implement a 1999 law that stipulates all brothels must have permits. Presently only a few of the brothels in Athens have permits. Officials said they will give 230 permits while the law provides for 200.


"In Athens as in the rest of Greece there are laws which foresee that you need a license to open this kind of establishment, and what the city of Athens decided was to implement this law, that's all,'' Athens Mayor Dora Bakoyianni said Wednesday.


Sweden's vice prime minister and minister for gender equality, Margareta Winberg, said Wednesday that she took the initiative to write the letter.


"We hope that we will manage to stop the expansion of the brothels, but also to start a discussion if this is in line with Olympic ideals, using women and girls in this way,'' Margareta Winberg, Sweden's vice prime minister and minister for gender equality, told AP in a telephone interview.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

These guys don't know much about ancient Greece. I know I would have always been at an Aphrodite temple.