Bangladesh
is one of the few Muslim countries in the world where prostitution is
legal. The Kandapara brothel in the district of Tangail is the oldest
and second-largest in the country — it has existed for some 200 years.
It was demolished in 2014, but has been established again with the help
of local NGOs. Many of the women were born there, grew up there and
didn’t know where else to go when it disappeared.
Supporters of
the brothel believe that sex work is also work — and that these women
don’t want to do something else. The women themselves demonstrated for
their rights as workers, and so at the end of 2014, the Bangladesh
National Women Lawyers Association convinced the High Court that the
eviction of the sex workers was an illegal act. The sex workers quickly
returned to their homes.
Today, the area’s “brothel district” is
surrounded by a wall. In the narrow streets, there are food stalls, tea
shops and street vendors. The brothel is a place with its own rules and
hierarchies of power which are completely different from mainstream
society. For example, inside the brothels, the women are weak but also
powerful. The most vulnerable stage is when a young sex worker enters
the brothel — she is called a bonded girl. Bonded girls are usually 12
to 14 years old.
These girls come from poor families and are
often victims of trafficking. They have no freedom or rights. They
belong to a madam, have debts and are not allowed to go outside or keep
their money. When they have paid all their debts, which takes somewhere
between one to five years, they become independent sex workers. Then,
they can refuse customers and keep their own money. From the moment that
a woman has paid her debts, she is free to leave the brothel. But these
women are socially stigmatized outside their “homes” and thus often
choose to stay and continue supporting their families with their
earnings.
