Search Titles Subjects Organizations. Tangail brothel Bangladesh has had brothels for centuries that have gradually become part of the local culture. Some are residential, relatively uncrowded, with small rooms rented to individual women. Others are crowded, with many small rooms housing three or more women together.
Although not technically legal, brothel prostitution is regulated by the local authorities in Bangladesh. Sex work is considered a blacklisted trade, and sex workers are highly denigrated by most members of society. This enables her to avoid arrest when working in the brothel. This system is supposed to ensure that only willing women who are at least 18 years old enter the brothels. The system is ambiguous and recognizes prostitution, but does not make it legal. At the time of the baseline survey Sarkar et al.
At the time the lokh are present, their women do not take clients. Some women have permanent relationships and give up taking clients altogether, but continue to live at the brothel. Some women are the children of sex workers and were raised in brothels, and in turn, many raise their own children at the brothel. Many send money to their mothers and other relatives. Tangail sex workers were not allowed to leave the brothel at will, and when out, could not wear any shoes or slippers; if they did, they would be fined by the police.
This imposition on their rights was supposed to ensure they would not sell sex outside of the brothel. Their children were unable to register for school because they could not name their fathers. At one entrance to Tangail brothel, Although violence has not been a major problem at Tangail, sex workers are heavily stigmatized by the surrounding community. Police exercise a great deal of control. Sex workers are made to pay extra money to the police if they take a client for the whole night.
Consequently, few women have all-night clients. Most of the time at the brothel there is a reasonably peaceful and sociable atmosphere, with open courtyards where women, children, lovers and friends gather. However, it is not typical of all Bangladeshi brothels, is not stable, and it certainly is not an environment in which sex workers have adequate control of their own lives and bodies. Pressure to earn for themselves, their families and their controllers, while facing eviction and forced rehabilitation at any time, makes safer sex a difficult goal to achieve.
