Islamic scholar, Bakawsu Fofana,has disclosed that Islam does not proscribe providing succour to sex workers by way of food and medicine. His comments come amid raging public debate about government providing COVID-19 relief support to sex workers in need of help.
In a news article published by The Standard newspaper, Bakawsu declared:
“You must be enlightened enough to know that helping sex workers do not necessarily translate into having carnal knowledge of them. So, are you saying that hospitals and the MRC should not offer treatment to sex workers because if they recover, they will revert to prostitution?
Could you say don’t give food and water to prostitutes because if you do, they’ll prostitute themselves?” It is both shameful and disgraceful to see scholars talking about things they know next to nothing about. Scholars should use reason in their arguments and must look at all sides of issues before vilifying each other. The money is not from an Islamic fund. It’s a mundane issue and nobody is soliciting the opinions of any scholar here”.