Sex Workers of Faridpur

About 800 women and girls live and work inside a state-licensed brothel in Faridpur, Bangladesh. The bustling brothel is comprised of four buildings, situated on an important trading route on the banks of the Padma river. Many of chowkri (bonded sex workers) are underage. Some of the girls are runaways who leave home to escape a bad situation or marriage, and end up on the brothels when they have no where else to go. Many others have been kidnapped and sold to a madame by a parent or relative. Others were born into the brothel. They must take on 5-10 clients per day, and most receive no pay because they must repay their debt to their madame.

Piea waits for customers in the stairwell of the 3rd floor in the Joinal Bari brothel.
   
An aging sex worker reclines in her bedroom in a brothel in Faridpur.
   
Overflowing buckets of trash and used condoms are seen of the 3rd floor in the Joinal Bari brothel.
     
  
Piea waits for customers.
   
Kajul is embraced by a customer in her bedroom of the 3rd floor of the Boro Bari brothel.
   
Young chowkri (bonded sex workers) wait for customers in the stairwell of the 3rd floor in the Joinal Bari brothel.
     
  
Joshna, a madame, and her girls wait for customers on the 3rd floor in the Boro Bari brothel. "I was raised in Gaibandha and was married , but my husband divorced me after my family could not pay the expensive dowry he demanded, nor could they afford to keep me. It was through desperation that I found this brothel, which has been my home for 16 years. After spending four years as a sex worker, I became a madame. How can I be happy in this hell? I will be happy when I leave this place." Joshna has plans to move to Dubai as soon as she can.
  
  
Piea waits outside her room while customers browse the halls of the 3rd floor in the Joinal Bari brothel.
     
  
Pakhi (meaning "Bird" in Bangla) waits for customers in the stairwell of the 3rd floor in the Joinal Bari brothel. She claims that she is 22 years old. "I have been working in this brothel for two years. I was married for four years but ran away because my husband was crazy. When I moved back in with my parents my uncle took me to Dhaka. I believed him when he told me he was going to enroll me in a dance school, but instead he sold me to a madame. Sometimes this place is okay, sometimes it's not, but anything is better than living with my husband. I don't talk with my parents anymore; I miss them, but what can I do? The people in the brothel are like family to me; Alyea (my madame) is my mother now. I love her and I dream of being a madame someday."
   
  
Pachey (left) and Argu (center) wait for customers outside their room on the 3rd floor of the Joinal Bari brothel.
     
  
Ria, who claims to be 22 years old, talks with customers on the 3rd floor of the Boro Bari brothel in Faridpur, central Bangladesh. "I grew up in Jessore and I have been working in the brothel for 5 years. I was stalked by a local boy in Jessore and when I told my family, they blamed me for the harassment so I ran away. When I was on the streets I met a woman who brought me to the brothels here in Faridpur. I miss my father and I talk to him often. I tell him that I'm working in a garment factory in Dhaka and he always asks me to come back home." At the time of my visit Ria was excitedly planning to leave the brothels and move back home with her father to become a tailor. When I visited a few weeks later Joshna, her madame, had given her 20,000 taka, gold earrings, and sent her back to her family in Jessore.
  
Pakhi (meaning "Bird" in Bangla) gets ready for the night with her friend in the Joinal Bari brothel. Pakhi claims that she is 22 years old. "I have been working in this brothel for two years. I was married for four years but ran away because my husband was crazy. When I moved back in with my parents my uncle took me to Dhaka. I believed him when he told me he was going to enroll me in a dance school, but instead he sold me to a madame. Sometimes this place is okay, sometimes it's not, but anything is better than living with my husband. I don't talk with my parents anymore; I miss them, but what can I do? The people in the brothel are like family to me; Alyea (my madame) is my mother now. I love her and I dream of being a madame someday."
   
Pakhi (meaning "Bird" in Bangla) waits for customers in the Joinal Bari brothel. She claims that she is 22 years old. "I have been working in this brothel for two years. I was married for four years but ran away because my husband was crazy. When I moved back in with my parents my uncle took me to Dhaka. I believed him when he told me he was going to enroll me in a dance school, but instead he sold me to a madame. Sometimes this place is okay, sometimes it's not, but anything is better than living with my husband. I don't talk with my parents anymore; I miss them, but what can I do? The people in the brothel are like family to me; Alyea (my madame) is my mother now. I love her and I dream of being a madame someday."