projects & investigative journalism

Julie has travelled extensively, sometimes undercover, to investigate a range of subjects around the abuse and commodification of women and girls. Here are the some of her major projects to date:

the Selling of breast milk: an example of capitalism literally milking the poor

Breast milk at a clinic in Cambodia

An Example of Capitalism Literally Milking the Poor

19 April 2017

Phnom Penh, Cambodia — I am in a clinic where local women sell their breast milk, which up until recently was then shipped to the United States for consumption.

Chanda is sitting at a table, breastfeeding her infant. She looks tired and uncomfortable. Chanda’s baby—a gorgeous little thing with a mass of black, shiny hair and huge inquisitive eyes—has been suckling for well over an hour, in between bouts of crying.

Surrogacy clinic in Gujarat, India

THE PIMPING OF PREGNANCY

Investigation into the international commercial surrogacy business.

8 February 2016

Birthing a Market, A Study on Commercial Surrogacy (2012) estimates that there are currently 3000 clinics in India offering surrogacy services. Surrogacy is a 2.3 billion dollar industry annually. Around 10,000 foreign couples visit India for reproductive services each year.

INTERVIEWS JENNIFER LAHL, FOUNDER OF STOP SURROGACY NOW!

31 March 2016

Julie Bindel interviews the founder of a leading campaign group against surrogacy.

JULIE BINDEL SPEAKS TO JONATHAN NARDUCCI, FILM DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER

31 March 2016

Julie Bindel interviews Jonathan about his experiences making a documentary about surrogacy in Nevada.

JULIE BINDEL INTERVIEWS KAJSA EKIS EKMAN, AUTHOR AND JOURNALIST

2 March 2016

Kajsa and Julie discuss the similarities between prostitution and surrogacy, as well as the steps neccessary to work towards abolition.

JULIE BINDEL SPEAKING WITH EVA MARIE BACHINGER AT PARIS FEMINIST CONFERENCE

29 February 2016

Eva Marie Bachinger discusses the surrogacy industry in Russia and makes the case for worldwide abolition

JULIe BINDEL SPEAKING AT FEMINIST CONFERENCE AGAINST SURROGACY

16 February 2016

Julie Bindel talks to a feminist conference about the human rights abuse inherent in the surrogacy industry.

JULIE BINDEL INTERVIEWS DR SHEELA SARVANAN, ACADEMIC RESEARCHING SURROGACY IN INDIA.

12 February 2016

Julie speaks with an academic aiming to expose the human rights violations of the surrogacy industry in India

Outsourcing pregnancy: a visit to India's surrogacy clinics

1 April 2016

Julie Bindel, a strident opponent of surrogacy, travelled to India to find out more about a practice worth an estimated £690m a year on the subcontinent

Commercial surrogacy is a rigged market in wombs for rent

20 February 2015

Yes, same-sex surrogacy bans are wrong – but as a human rights campaigner I want to see a serious discussion about the ethics of outsourcing pregnancy

It is selfish to have a surrogate baby

31 December 201

Thousands of children in Britain need loving homes, yet couples are opting to pay for 'rent a womb' designer babies

The oldest oppression

A detailed examination of the global ‘sex workers’ rights’ movement

13 April 2015

Since October 2014, I have been researching a new book on the global sex trade, commissioned by a UK publisher under the working title 'Abolishing the Sex Work Myth: The Rise of the Prostitution Survivor Movement'. This book will be about what we know about prostitution and the international sex trade, and who we know it from. I will produce a detailed examination of the global 'sex workers' rights' movement and how the 'happy hooker' narrative has come to shape our perceptions - including many women involved in prostitution - of what is misleadingly named as 'the oldest profession'.

EXCLUSIVE: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL UK'S STITCH-UP JOB?

4 August 2015

Julie Bindel obtains a summary of an Amnesty International UK meeting held in 2013, revealing the intention to support the decriminalisation of prostitution prior to a sham consultation process. Judge for yourself

"THE LOW TRACK" – PROSTITUTION IN VANCOUVER

27 July 2015

Julie Bindel investigates the sex and drugs trade in Canada's poorest postal code, meeting the women fighting to fix a broken neighbourhood.

WOMB TRAFFICKING

3 June 2015

It is time for a bit of honesty. The accelerating boom in surrogacy for gay couples is no victory for freedom or emancipation.

WHY DO (SOME) MEN PAY FOR SEX?

18 May 2015

Julie Bindel interviews buyers of sex to find out their motivations

ENABLING CRUELTY

16 May 2015

Human trafficking is a core component of the sex industry, argues Julie Bindel

AMSTERDAMNATION

12 May 2015

Julie Bindel is a frequent visitor to the Netherlands. But she is unlikely to be on the Dutch embassy's Christmas card list from now on...

"WHAT THE GIRLS DO FOR 30 EUROS IS UP TO THEM"

6 May 2015

Julie Bindel talks to the owner of 'Caesars World', one of the biggest brothels in Munich

TO LEGALISE OR NOT TO LEGALISE?

4 May 2015

Exposing the harsh realities of legalised prostitution, Julie Bindel argues that legalisation has not improved the conditions of women in prostitution

'WHAT I THINK I KNOW ABOUT LEGALISED PROSTITUTION, AND WHERE I KNOW IT FROM'

1 May 2015

Julie Bindel interviews a man at a Spanish restaurant located in Amsterdam's red light district

'IF MY SISTER DID THIS, I WOULD BE VERY ANGRY'

21 April 2015

A text and audio report from Amsterdam's notorious red-light district.

DENNIS HOF: 'SELLING SEX IS LIKE SELLING BURGERS'

19 April 2015

Julie Bindel's 2011 piece on Dennis Hof and Nevada brothels and her postscript for Byline.

AN UNLIKELY UNION

13 April 201

A world of workers, pimps and punters: the link between the sex work lobby and a major UK trade union.

Pimps outside the village shop, Wadia, Gujarat, India

Inside the tiny village in Gujarat riven by the sex trade

18 November 2015

Wadia is notorious as a place where men get rich from the sexual exploitation of women.

Wadia, a village in north Gujarat, close to the Rajasthan border, is famous for prostitution. Aside from a few exceptions, most of the boys are raised to be pimps, and the majority of girls, some as young as 12 years old, earn a living selling sex.

If women's rights are human rights, why do such organisations push for the decriminalisation of prostitution?

26 August 2017

The sex trade is the elevation of the free market economy over the female body. What are human rights organisations even thinking of, supporting such abominable practices?

The queer argument for the decriminalisation of prostitution and pimping just doesn’t stand up to scrutiny

19 August 2017

Prostitution benefits men who wish to colonise women’s bodies, while being able to escape the shackles of compulsory heterosexuality is about personal freedom to define one’s own sexuality

Most ‘sex workers’ are modern-day slaves

19 August 2017

Prostitution is rarely, if ever, a choice

In the midst of all the outrage about modern-day slavery, usually vulnerable men forced into manual labour, there is actually a far worse form of abuse going on in the UK. It happens in every city, town and even village...

Tell me if you still think prostitution is empowering after hearing what the buying punters have to say

12 August 2017

I met a punter who told me that prostitution 'prevents rape', and, conversely, if men, were prevented by nasty feminists from puntering, they would be driven to rape 'real women'

This is what really happens when prostitution is decriminalised

5 August 2017

The application form for opening a brothel in New Zealand is just two pages long: three pages shorter than the form needed to adopt a dog or cat from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

Why are women who have escaped prostitution still viewed as criminals?

12 July 2017

Women who have got out of the sex trade dread criminal record checks when they go for jobs. But now there’s a chance those records could be expunged...

Our sex laws aren't working. It’s time to think again before more women’s lives are ruined

14 May 2017

The answer isn't as simple as legalisation. New Zealand, a country with more sheep than women, decriminalised its sex trade in 2003 and trafficking is still a problem