Europe's first sex workers museum opens in Amsterdam's red light district

Amsterdam: Europe's first prostitution museum opens on Thursday, in the heart of Amsterdam's famous Red Light District, to give people a glimpse of life behind the glass.The narrow streets attract thousands of tourists, eager to see the ladies in lingerie who work behind windows, making a living selling sex for money.Now, the small educational museum will attempt to give an insight into the industry.After being welcomed by a hologram of a beckoning prostitute, visitors get the opportunity to sit behind a virtual window and experience being stared at."As I sat there, just being in their foot steps and lot of people looking at you, it is such a very embarrassing and I don't know how they put up a brave face every single day, just to go through it," said Shamim Jumba, a University student and museum visitor.There's a short film documenting the history of prostitution tolerance in Amsterdam, starting from the 16th century, when it was a port city flush with wealth from the spice trade and authorities turned a blind eye when sailors went ashore looking for women.Visitors can also learn that during the Napoleonic Wars prostitutes first began to have mandatory medical checkups to combat venereal disease among soldiers.Fast-forward to 2000, and the film documents the legalisation of prostitution in the Netherlands.The tour moves on to showcase the rooms or "peeskamer's" where the prostitutes work, and the clothing they've worn over the centuries.For many people, the museum really is an education - according to Melcher de Wind, museum organiser."Some people are coming here to visit the prostitutes, some people are just ordinary tourists and some of them never saw a prostitute," he says."So when you walk here you see women sitting at the window and you don't know how that is real. In the museum you can see what is going on in the Red Light District. You can see how it looks, a room of prostitutes and many other things. It's really very interesting."There is also an S and M exhibit to finish the tour.The decor is dark and the tools even more so.Prostitution remains an only source of income for many women in the Netherlands.Since prostitution became legal, the city has been struggling to eradicate pimps and human trafficking.But Yolanda van Doeveren, Amsterdam's city prostitution social programmes project leader, says they are doing everything they can to create a "normal profession.""Our goal in the city of Amsterdam is to make out of prostitution a normal profession. After all, the prostitution is a profession that was legalised in the Netherlands but we find that fear, forcing, trafficking and abuse do not belong to that profession."