Aliya Rakhmetova is a sex workers’ human rights activist born and grown up in Kazakhstan. She graduated with an MA in Gender Studies from CEU, Budapest,  Hungary. Since 2006, she coordinates the SWAN – Sex Workers’ Rights Advocacy Network in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia. It unites NGOs and sex workers’ groups to ensure that human rights of sex workers are respected and  promoted and that sex workers’ opinions and expertise are heard and considered by state representatives and general public.

(Image: AIDS conference, Vienna, 2010)