Sigrid Schellen, Belgium's "most famous sex worker", has announced she will start studying again, and will follow philosophy courses at the KU Leuven.
Schellen garnered fame in Belgian after she was interviewed on the Flemish tv-programme "Van Gils en Gasten" (video), where she wanted to raise awareness for the necessity of a legal statute for sex workers, and said that sex work was her dream job. "I set my own work rhythm and I don't do anything against my will. It is also ideal to combine with motherhood," she said then.
She still loves her job, but she also wants more from life. "Today, I have my first lessons in moral philosophy," she said on Radio 2. "I always wanted to study philosophy and now I can. My job is flexible and can easily be combined with my studies," she added.
"Completely quitting my job is not an option. I need an income. So I'll be working before and after my hours at school. Definitely not during. Luckily I have my family, who want to help me take care of my daughter, for example. It's going to work out," Schellen said, reports Het Laatste Nieuws.
She understands that students increasingly choose sex work to pay for their studies. "If you can earn more in an hour than in a whole weekend, I understand that this is your choice," she said. "And there's also more time left to study, it's a logical combination," she added.
Maïthé Chini
The Brussels Times
