Alright, so let’s get this straight: Pornography is illegal and now private dancing and stripping is illegal because it promotes human trafficking, but prostitution is legal?

As of tomorrow private dancing will be banned and stripping will only be allowed with special permission in Iceland according to a new law provision accepted by parliament in March.

The law stipulates that it will be illegal to offer nude shows and sell the nudity of employees and guests unless permission is obtained from the health committee, the fire department, a building officer and the police. This means no more Saucy Sally strip shows or naughty naked ladies taking your drink orders. Or does it?

“This is like it has always been; you need permission from all parties,” Ásgeir Davídsson, owner of Goldfinger strip club in the Reykjavík suburb of Kópavogur told Fréttabladid, adding that he was unsure of how the law would actually affect his business since the law only states that walking around spectators (plural) nude was prohibited but that whether singular audiences is acceptable remains ambiguous.

Atli Gíslason, MP for the Left Greens (Vinstri graenir) says this new law is a way of confronting sordid social issues. “These strip joints encourage human trafficking, prostitution and pornography, and these laws are a charge against it,” Gíslason told Fréttabladid.

But here’s where it gets confusing. Gíslason says this law brings up charges against stripping, pornography and prostitution, but prostitution was recently made legal in Iceland so how did the human trafficking argument gain any validity in their reasoning when prostitution and human trafficking go hand in hand?

The reasoning behind the legalization of prostitution is somewhat understandable as it offers working women a safer environment, gives us a new source of tax revenue and of course as the oldest profession in the world is unlikely to just disappear because it makes us uncomfortable in the light of the day. That is not to say the legalization of prostitution is justified—young boys and girls don’t grow up with dreams of becoming sex workers, it is a demeaning industry and a last resort for the desperate.

Still, even though I can understand the reasons behind the legalization of prostitution I am having trouble understanding how stripping is worse. It just seems like a contradiction in terms that a sexual act in exchange for money is legal but a simulated sexual act for money is not? Getting in your car and going to the video store to buy a porn DVD is punishable by law but getting in your car and cruising for sex is A-OK.

And what of the girls who travel from poverty stricken homes abroad and become strippers to provide for their families? This law might actually force them to turn to prostitution if their profession hasn’t already.

Surely in a country like Iceland, listed among the top ten developed countries in the world, we should be looking at why women and men feel the need to sell their bodies to pay the bills. Rather than legalizing prostitution or making stripping illegal, time should be invested in preventing the primary causes rather than the effects.

NÁ – nannaa@hotmail.co.uk