Substance Abuse among Young Female Sex Workers in Tehran Metropolitan

Subject Areas : Sociological Studies of Youth

Payam Roshanfekr ¹ , Saeed Madani Qahfarokhi ² , Maryam Ranjbar ³ , Babak Nasiri ⁴ , Mohammad Ali Mohammadi ⁵

1 - Assistant Professor, Social Welfare Management Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 - Ph.D., Department of Criminology, University of Social Welfare & Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3 - Ph.D., Department of Psychology, University of Social Welfare & Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran
4 - Ph.D., Department of Education, University of Social Welfare & Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran
5 - Assistant Professor, Social Welfare Management Research Center, University of Social Welfare and Rehabilitation Sciences, Tehran, Iran

Received: 2019-03-12 Accepted : 2019-03-12 Published : 2019-03-01

Keywords: Women, Sex work, Drug use,

Abstract :

Both drug use and sex work considered as serious health and social problems. This study aimed to find the relation between them in young Iranian women. A mixed method of data collection applied from 300 young female sex workers in Tehran and 39 in-depth interviews with key informants. Result show that 84.4 % of participants used drugs before sex work. 46.2% of their fathers and 56.6% of their husbands used drug. 13.6% of these women mothers were sex workers. Evidences stated that priority of drug addiction to sex work cannot be generally determined. This study finding indicated that young women use drugs mostly before sex work; but substance abuse after starting sex work was to reduce the mental and physical sufferings to facilitate working through raising sexual potency and to sink in ecstasy and ignorance meanwhile in most cases to be able to obtain drugs.

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