Munaza Kazmi
Today, an increasing number of girls and women migrate to the cities’ sex trade to escape poverty and abuse at home. Some are trafficked and sold into the business. Many others, however, are born into the trade. For generations, families of courtesans have put their girls into prostitution when they are 14 or 15 years old. At this point in the generational cycle, a mother usually retires from the business and then manages her daughter’s career.
There are around more than 42 million female prostitutes all around the world, almost 81 percent of them fall in the age bracket of 13-25 years. Keeping in view the poverty and gender inequality, around 50 percent could be in the developing countries.
Since, women in the underdeveloped countries are deprived of basic rights and are exploited through physical violence, forced marriages, life threat, fake love affairs, runaway and sexual abuses. The conservative mindsets of the male-dominant society do not accept the women with follies. Whenever a woman puts a step out of her home even for work, the evil eyes of the men always gaze at her, moreover every possible situation could be made to buy the piece of flesh.
Poverty, illiteracy, economic unacceptability, family pressure, runaways, low payroll status and societal injustice are the causes of women’s entry into prostitution. However, better to say, “Prostitution is existing due to its high demand prevailing in the society.”
During a correspondence with a 29-year-old sex worker from Haripur, I came to realize the difficulties of her life, the respect and love she yearned for, that all she wanted to do was to marry and lead a normal life but could not afford to. “My past is my curse; I have no way out,” she said with a hollow deep gaze. I know her for the past 10 years and have seen the ups and downs of her life, how her family insists her for sending money back home, and how she sold herself in order to marry off her sisters and even brother.
Our society hates such women because they ignore the fact that, villain is just a victim whose story hasn’t been told.
The issue of sex-workers in Pakistan is a taboo and has never been discussed openly.
Since Pakistan’s inception, no NGO or government organization has worked for the rights and rehabilitation of sex workers; they are only taken into consideration when talking about HIV.
Ironically, Pakistan sees its fair share of prostitution but most of it is carried out in secret. Although the trend of “red-light sex workers” was decreasing, “Heera Mandi” is now just a glistering tale of past, the business had found a new ally for itself in the internet.
Indeed, a coin has two sides, there are women who are pushed into this slavery due to financial reasons, along there are some cases who deliberately jump into prostitution.
Sitara, a 27-year-old refugee girl, enjoying the bounties of God wishes to join this line, only for the sake of more, saying, “I want a rich patron to support my lifestyle, from my pocket money I cannot afford brands.”
This world is full of unimaginable spectacles sometimes, on one end is the poverty sicken, on the other lust and disgust.
Prostitution is a hard work. It is a cutthroat business and girls usually have a short career. Even those who start at the top usually descend the career ladder very rapidly. They are in their prime at 18 and are ‘used goods’ by 25. Until recently, a variety of classes of women lived and worked in this business, from elite courtesans who earned the equivalent of thousands a night, to women in down-market lane, who earned a few rupees per customer. At a basic level, all the women sold the same services, together with their youth and varying degrees of beauty.
A married woman, was forced into prostitution after closing of the salon in which she worked, “I wanted to get a job. I tried everywhere,” she said. But her weakening financial conditions got the better of her. “My children and husband do not know that I work as a sex worker. I told them I work at a parlour.”
Munaza Kazmi holds MPhil in Management Sciences, is a travel writer, an author, and a co-author of scientific contributions in national and international publications.
