Prostitute's burial at revered cemetery decried

Geneva — A well-known prostitute who campaigned for the rights and dignity of sex workers was given an honored place of rest on Monday, in the same cemetery where Protestantism's John Calvin is buried, and some female activists criticized the decision.

Griselidis Real, who died in 2005, was buried in the presence of 200 people at the Cemetery of the Kings, which is reserved for individuals who have profoundly marked Swiss or international history. Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges and child psychologist Jean Piaget are among the luminaries interred there.

The body of Real, who was 76 when she died, 10 years after she is said to have given up prostitution, was exhumed from another cemetery in Geneva for the ceremony that some - particularly women - have called offensive.

"If every woman that had children to raise alone turned to prostitution, the city of Geneva would be a bordello," said Amelia Christinat, a feminist and former member of the Swiss parliament who opposed Real's reburial.

Jacqueline Berenstein-Wavre, the first woman to head Geneva's parliament, also objected.

"No woman should rejoice at this transfer, which is nothing but the elevation of a prostitute and of prostitution in general by its male protectors," she told the daily Tribune de Geneve, which noted the paucity of women buried in the honored ground, less than a quarter of the 350 graves.

Prostitution is generally legal in Switzerland, with red-light districts in some cities. But Real worked for years to improve working conditions.

She helped found Aspasie, an association that describes itself as promoting solidarity among sex workers. Aspasie says she compiled an extensive collection of newspaper clippings, films and other documentation about prostitution over 30 years and that her four children donated the database to the association on her death.

Real was born in 1929 in Lausanne. A divorced mother of four children, she began working as a prostitute in Germany in the 1960s and later moved to Geneva, becoming a leading campaigner for prostitutes' rights.

In her autobiographical books she denounced the hypocrisy of a society that condemns prostitutes while using their services.

Patrice Mugny, a local politician who championed the transfer, said the city was "in no case apologizing for prostitution, but honoring an individual who distinguished herself by battling for human dignity."

"This shows that human dignity is not a question of social status, that it is not limited by moral prescriptions," he said at the ceremony.

Ruth Morgan Thomas, a leading European campaigner for prostitutes, said the burial was an important recognition for sex workers "who demand simply to be treated without discrimination and valued as an integral part of society."