Due to the 2019 Covid-19 pandemic, there was an increase in prostitution in the Republic of Kachepa due idleness. A law was passed by parliament of that republic to the effect that under section (1) b of the Street Offences Act, 2019, it was criminal for women to "loiter and solicit in the street for the purposes of sex". The law was intended to protect men from harassment, following the judgment in the case of Director of Public Prosecutions v Bull, QBD 30 May 1994, where it was held that a man could not commit the Offence of loitering by common prostitute, and that the term 'common prostitute' only applied to a woman. Beauty Daka and her colleagues from Jakata Compound tried to eveade the new law by renting an apartment in Kabwata along 4^th Street. In the evenings, they whistled and tapped on windows in the balcony to attract 'customers'. Police were arrested and charged them with the same offence, but they argued that they had not broken the law, as they were not in the streets. In the court of Kabwata, they were convicted as charged.

Using the rules of statutory interpretation, identify and explain the rule that could have been applied by the courts to 'unfairly' convict the prostitutes