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
