Best-selling author angers conservatives and feminists alike

Her long, wavy, black hair tied loosely in a knot, 50-year-old Nalini Jameela looks like any other Indian housewife.

But this attractive, largely uneducated mother of two is a best-selling author and prostitute whose outspoken views of sex work as a career choice have stirred controversy in conservative India.

The Autobiography of a Sex Worker, dictated to a social activist because she can't write, has angered both feminists, who say it glorifies sex work, and conservatives, who think prostitutes should keep quiet.

"I have written this book for other sex workers. I wanted to talk about it to remove the stigma," Jameela says.

"People think we are bad because we have sex for money. Nobody understands our grief."

Jameela was forced into prostitution 25 years ago when her first husband died, leaving her with a child to support. Sex work paid more than she was earning as a factory worker.

Her first customer was a policeman. When she came out of the room the next morning, she was beaten up by police on orders of another policeman she had turned down.

"I felt humiliated, but I had no option but to continue," she says.

Jameela estimates she has had sex with more than 1,000 men since then. She took some time off after her later marriages.

She feels her work is an important social service.

"If there is no sex work, it would lead to a situation comparable to a pressure cooker with its safety valve locked on. The truth is that sex workers are doing a great service," she says in her book.

It's a view that angers some feminists.

"Prostitution is considered as work" in the book, said K. Ajitha, president of Anweshi, a Kerala women's group.

"I don't accept that. Women in prostitution have only the right to sell their bodies, they don't have the right to choose."

Written with I. Gopinath, an activist who works with sex workers, the book has sold more than 10,000 copies in less than six months. Jameela has so far earned Rs84,000 (Dh6,762) from book sales.