Short answers, pulled from the story.
The word prostitute derives from the Latin prostituta, which literally translates to 'to put up front for sale' or 'to place forward.' The original meaning suggests one 'exposed to lust' or sex 'indiscriminately offered' rather than the modern notion of sex for hire.
In the thirteenth century, the city of Marseille established the first known definition of prostitution in its statutes, designating prostitutes as 'public girls' who received two or more men in their house. These regulations required prostitutes to wear badges of a particular color, such as yellow, to distinguish them from respectable women.
A 2011 report by the Fondation Scelles estimated that there are about 42 million prostitutes in the world. This population generates annual revenue of over 100 billion dollars, though most of Central Asia, the Middle East, and Africa lack data.
In 1999, Sweden criminalized the buying, not the selling, of sex, a model known as the Nordic model that has since become law in France, Norway, and Iceland. This approach decriminalizes the act of selling sex while making the purchase of sex illegal, a stance also adopted by Canada, Ireland, and Northern Ireland.
Daulatdia is an entire village in Bangladesh dedicated to prostitution, sometimes called the world's largest brothel. Many people born there are the children of prostitutes, and mass weddings for these children are held to protect them from being pushed into prostitution.
In 2021, a UK judge ruled that council care workers can help disabled people meet prostitutes without breaking the law. Some countries such as Denmark and the Netherlands fund access to sex workers for those with disabilities on the basis that sexuality is a human right.