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This Playboy model, professor and author is running for the presidency of Croatia and wants sex work legalised

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Magazine Features

Ava Karabatic announced her candidacy for next January's presidential bid with a series of saucy snaps that she posted from a beach in Italy where she is on holiday. While she is known for her modeling work, the presidential hopeful is also an accomplished academic and professor of Italian language and Roman literature.

READ MORE: This is what the representation of women looks like in the new Cabinet

The Croatian presidential elections are due to take place next year where current President, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, 51, also a woman, will be running for re-election to a second five-year term.

But now the 31-year old starlet from Croatia, is also in the running, telling her Instagram followers, "I have decided I will run for president. I have been given so many support messages on Instagram and I thank you for that. Politics is my second love. I can not longer watch bad things happen to my country. It is like everyone is blind with healthy eyes, our young people leave the country, birth rates fall (sic).”

READ MORE: Sex work is work: why this woman chose to sell sex

She expects some backlash from trolls who overlook her intellectual accomplishments. 
"I wrote an autobiography, a novel, starred in a film that has been in the cinema for months, and in addition to acting, I became a painter too. Of course, my artistic abilities are not important, my new regime is, Ava’s regime is important," she says.

Earlier in the year Ava said she wanted to legalise sex work in her country as she believes that both customers and the state would benefit – as sex workers would end up paying taxes.

READ MORE: Is this a new dawn for women in politics?


She has even hired a lawyer to draft a proposal in support of sex work and get the ball rolling. "There are also psychological reasons, such as 'healing' the sexual frustrations that exist in our country.

“Also, I have studied medicine and am very aware of dangers of STDs, which can be avoided if prostitution becomes a legal profession."

We think more women should be elected to presidential positions, what are your thoughts? Share them with us here.

Story and images by: CEN/MAGAZINEFEATURES.CO.ZA

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