A century-old brothel that cannot be demolished

 

A century-old brothel that cannot be demolished

 

Agudemba asked old man Lavani: For girls who are prostitutes in Kandapara Village, the triple pressure of debt, medicine and survival has formed heavy shackles, binding the women in Kandapara Village. In an era when women's rights are strongly supported, is there no one to rescue these girls who have been sexually exploited?

Lavani said: In Bangladesh, conscientious officials certainly do not allow the existence of prostitute villages, but the reality is that the resistance is too great and it is difficult to save the suffering girls.

Mukti, the governor of Tangail district where Kandapara village is located, could not tolerate the existence of the village. Since 2014, he had given frequent public speeches, criticizing the village for corrupting public order and good customs and polluting the environment.

Soon after, Mukti ordered the destruction of this cancer. He made insufficient preparations for this. While ordering the powerful departments to prepare for the demolition of the prostitute village, he also set up a special committee. The committee's job is to respond to potential demonstrations and guide media public opinion. Although Mukti's earnest speech sought public support, public opinion does not seem to be overwhelmingly supportive of the government's actions.

The opposition parties and some unscrupulous media will seize every opportunity to cause trouble. Soon some media published tendentious reports, exaggerating that the "century-old brothel" was in crisis and that Mukti planned to seize the brothel's assets...

On July 12, a group of people gathered outside Kandapara village. They claimed to be subordinates of the mayor and were implementing Chief Mukti's request to demolish the brothel.

It's hard to say whether the identities of this group of people are true or false. If they are true, they are definitely a type of people who have little success and more than failure. They act too roughly.

The gang threatened the people in the village that if the brothel workers did not leave immediately, they would lock the village gates and set everything on fire!

True to their word, the gang brought two barrels of gasoline at night, cut off the electricity supply to the village, and entered the village heavily armed to enforce the law violently. No, maybe their behavior is not even considered violent law enforcement. It should be called "japs entering the village."

They searched house to house, robbed the madam's property, raped the prostitute, and even set fire to the house while the woman cried. Fortunately, there were only two barrels of gasoline, so everything was not burned down.

Such demolition of Kandapara village triggered strong opposition from various organizations. The sex worker group in Kandapara Village and the Bangladesh Sex Workers Website took the lead in launching protests. News and human rights organizations also came out to oppose it, such as the National Press Club and Action Aid.

The most puzzling thing is that UNAIDS also came out to oppose it. It would have been understandable if it had just objected to the brutality of the law enforcement agencies, but the Planning Department demanded that sex workers be allowed to return to Kandapara village.

Women's organizations have also not played a good role. At the end of 2014, the National Women's Lawyers Association filed a lawsuit in court, directly accusing the government of illegally deporting sex workers.

In any case, Mukti cannot get rid of the blame for rough law enforcement. But compared to the way he enforces the law, his biggest problem is that he is not prepared to deal with the prostitutes in Kandapara village.

The prostitutes were unable to make a living by doing other jobs, so they submitted proof of "voluntary" sex work to the court. In the end, the court ruled that the prostitutes should be allowed to return to the village and continue to work.

After the court's ruling, a group of non-governmental organizations came on stage. They helped rebuild the village of Kandapara and carefully maintained the original layout so that the prostitutes could return to their original living conditions as quickly as possible.

Is prostitution also a legitimate rights and interests of women? If it were in Europe, this issue might be debated among the benevolent and the wise, but it was definitely not worth discussing in Kandapara Village.

The farce came to an end, the "Century-old Brothel" continued to operate as usual, and its status became more stable. Mukti worked hard for a year and became a different person inside and outside.

How can we save those suffering girls? Agudenba fell into deep thought.

Old Lavani said: No one can change the poor fate of these women. Kandapara is not the only prostitute village in Bangladesh, there are similar villages in neighboring India. Such a village is not tolerated by secular morality, let alone religious transactions, but it can stubbornly exist for more than a hundred years. Do you know why this is so?

Agudemba could not answer.

Old Lavani said:

The reasons that most easily come to mind are women's low status and poverty. In fact, prostitution is a very old profession. After entering the private ownership society, many women became men's playthings and were bought, sold and traded. The lower a woman's status, the more serious the situation of being bought and sold.

In order to improve the status of women, the government of Bangladesh, an Islamic country, has signed a series of international mechanisms to promote gender equality, formulated laws to recognize and protect women's rights, and implemented policies to improve women's working and living conditions. Bangladesh's efforts have achieved certain results. The "Global Gender Gap Report 2021" pointed out that the country is in a leading position among South Asian countries in narrowing the gender gap.

But these are not enough. Long-term concepts cannot be changed by a few laws. Improvements in local areas and individual positions do not mean that the problem has been solved. It is impossible that the elites of Bangladesh are unaware of the cruelty of sexual exploitation, but people represented by the National Association of Women Lawyers still condone Kandapara village.

Poverty is the biggest problem. In order to survive, a large number of women have to enter the porn industry. Bangladesh has no mines and oil underground, and frequent floods on the ground. There is no decent industry at home, and there is no big country to rely on abroad. However, the population is as high as 160 million in a territory of 140,000 square kilometers. Bangladesh is the poorest country in South Asia.

The government's role is the most critical in controlling poverty in developing countries, but the Bangladesh government has not played its due role. The government does not have enough funds, and the investment it makes in poverty alleviation is very small each time, and cannot be made on a sustained basis. Due to the inefficiency of the political system, limited funds have not played their maximum role.

Bangladesh is not without insightful people, and successive governments have formulated plans that look great. However, excellent plans require strong execution and strict supervision, but Bangladesh has serious shortcomings in execution, so that most of the previous governments lacked outstanding performance.

The government's mediocre performance in the past has caused the public to lose trust in the government little by little, further making it more difficult for the government to control poverty.

In recent years, the Bangladeshi government has made great efforts to strengthen itself and achieved certain achievements in economic construction. It takes advantage of the abundant and cheap domestic labor force, abundant raw materials and cheap land to develop textile industry OEM. Using per capita GDP as an indicator, the country has entered the ranks of low-income and middle-income countries from low-income countries. However, the problem of the huge gap between the rich and the poor has not been resolved. Unemployment is still increasing. The number of poor people has decreased, but people's income has generally decreased. The simultaneous growth of GDP, poverty and unemployment means that social inequality is increasing.

Considering the political system, the concentration of wealth to a few people will also lead to the concentration of power to a few people, making it more difficult to protect the rights of women and poor people in marginalized areas.

What do poor, poor women do for a living? More and more people make a living by selling their bodies, creating prostitute villages like Kandapara one after another.

Even if Mukti's campaign to demolish "century-old brothels" succeeds, it will not prevent the resurgence of brothel villages in the future. It is understandable if you look at the lawsuit filed by the National Women's Lawyers Association, the court's decision, and the actions of NGOs to rebuild prostitute villages. In the face of evil deeds, legalize them if they cannot be banned, and always leave a way for the people to survive. This is the political philosophy under the "democratic" system.

Is the future of Bangladesh capable of solving these problems? I'm afraid no one can give a definite answer.

Old Lavani accompanied Agudengba and said: When we came to a farmland, we saw no farmers working in the farmland, but there was a burst of desolate and sad and angry singing. Old man Lavani said that it was a new rural song "Looking for My Home" compiled by local netizens:

  

Only by understanding who you are

Not when I have the chance to embrace the world

lost myself

In the process of finding a sense of belonging

I'm looking for my home

 

Only by understanding this world

Not when it is full of cunning and deceit

stupid and ignorant

In the search for truth, goodness and beauty in life

I'm looking for my home

 

Only by understanding this society

Not when money and beauty pollute

Struggle with fame and fortune

In the search for happiness

I'm looking for my home

 

Only by understanding that life is short

So that I won’t get lost in the noisy world of mortals

I just want to go home

My heart is always tied to my hometown

My home is where I belong

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