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Rachel Moran

$12 general / $10 members

Free for Young Patrons ($125) members and higher

Photo Credit: Beta Bajgartova

Rachel Moran

Moderated by Jessica Neuwirth, a founder and Honorary President of Equality Now

Tuesday, September 22 | 7:30 pm

"This is surely the best, most personal, profound, eye-opening book ever written about prostitution—irrefutable proof of why it should NEVER be legalized." — Jane Fonda

“Thoughtful, highly readable, and provocative….shines a necessary light on a dark and underdiscussed topic.” – Kirkus, Starred Review

Bestselling author, sex-trade survivor, and activist Rachel Moran joins us to discuss her new memoir Paid For: My Journey Through Prostitution—a brave, compassionate, and humane account of her time lived as a prostitute in Ireland, her struggle to break free, and the politics and psychological damage associated with selling your body to survive.

Escaping an unstable family and state care, at age fifteen Rachel became homeless. For the next seven years she worked as a prostitute—isolated, drug-addicted, outside of society. Her experience was one of violence, loneliness, and relentless exploitation and abuse. Paid For is an indictment of prostitution and a celebration of a remarkable woman’s survival of body and soul.

Rachel Moran grew up and lives in North Dublin. At 22 she started on the path to further education, gaining a degree in journalism from Dublin City University, where she won the Hybrid Award for excellence in journalism. She speaks internationally on prostitution and sex-trafficking and volunteers to talk to young girls in residential care about the harms and dangers of prostitution.

ABOUT THE MODERATOR

Jessica Neuwirth is an international women’s rights lawyer and activist. She is one of the founders and Honorary President of Equality Now, an international women’s rights organization established in 1992, and the founder of Director of Donor Direct Action, an offshoot project now hosted by the Sisterhood is Global Institute to support women’s rights organizations around the world. She is currently mobilizing a new Coalition for the ERA (the Equal Rights Amendment), in an effort to add sex equality into the United States Constitution and is the author of Equal Means Equal, Why the Time for the ERA is Now. Jessica holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in History from Yale University. She has worked for the human rights organization Amnesty International, for the Wall Street law firm of Cleary, Gottlieb, Steen & Hamilton, and for the United Nations Office of Legal Affairs, as well as the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. She served as a special consultant on sexual violence to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda for its landmark Akayesu and judgment and again worked for the Rwanda Tribunal on the Media judgment holding print and radio media accountable for their role in the Rwandan genocide. As a guest lecturer, she also taught international women’s rights at Harvard Law School. More recently she directed the legal team that drafted the judgment of the Special Court for Sierra Leone convicting former Liberian President Charles Taylor of war crimes and crimes against humanity in April 2012.

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Irish Arts Center programs, are made possible, in part, by the New York State Council on the Arts with support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.	Irish Arts Center programs, are made possible, in part, by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council.	Irish Arts Center programs are supported, in part, by Culture Ireland, the agency for the promotion of Irish arts worldwide.
Irish Arts Center programs are supported, in part, by government partners including the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature; public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, in partnership with the City Council; Culture Ireland, the agency for the promotion of Irish arts worldwide; the Department of Foreign Affairs and the Consulate of Ireland in New York; the Northern Ireland Bureau; British Council Northern Ireland; the Arts Council of Northern Ireland; The American Ireland Fund; Howard Gilman Foundation; Tourism Ireland; Bloomberg Philanthropies; and thousands of generous donors like you.