How women are treated in Bangladesh. Stolen Childhood - Girl Prostitutes from Bangladesh. On Family Values ​​Bangladesh

Imagine a girl under 13 years old who plays like an adult, puts on a dress, puts on makeup to hide her youth under a mask of makeup. Imagine the smile on her face and her innocence. Imagine that instead of just playing with being an adult, a girl goes out and sells her body to men up to 12 times a day. This is what life looks like as a teenage prostitute, Bristy, who lives with her mother, a former prostitute, in Daulatdia, Bangladesh's largest brothel. Bristy is one of the most popular here, mainly due to her young age.

(Total 48 photos)

1. Young prostitute Bristy puts on make-up to appear more mature to clients. (© LISA WILTSE)

2. A client trades for an underage prostitute in the Daulatdia brothel, on the banks of the Padma River, Bangladesh. (© LISA WILTSE)

3. Prostitutes hide their faces from the photographer. (© LISA WILTSE)

4. A girl named Mushimi before leaving for evening work. (© LISA WILTSE)

5. Young Sonya waiting for clients. Sonya serves up to 12 clients a day. (© LISA WILTSE)

6. Customers and shopkeepers in an alley near a brothel. (© LISA WILTSE)

7. Prostitutes are waiting in the corner to dance for clients. (© LISA WILTSE)

8. Underage Sonya puts on makeup to look older. (© LISA WILTSE)

9. Underage prostitute Sumi in the largest brothel in Bangladesh Daulatdia. (© LISA WILTSE)

10. Children of prostitutes from the Daulatdia brothel in the classroom of a school sponsored by Save the Children in Faridpur. (© LISA WILTSE)

11. A prostitute in a small pharmacy is on a drip due to dehydration. (© LISA WILTSE)

12. Daily life on the Padma River near the Daulatdia brothel in Faridur, Bangladesh. Truckloads of rice, jute, sugarcane and fish from the west and southwest of the country stand here for two to three days to cross the river to the capital, Dhaka. (© LISA WILTSE)

13. The boy looks into the camera, past which the underage worker of the panel passes. (© LISA WILTSE)

14. Many of these prostitutes are not yet 15. (© LISA WILTSE)

15. A trucker sleeps in one of the guest houses in the lanes of the Daulatdia quarter. Truck drivers make up the bulk of the brothel's customers. (© LISA WILTSE)

16. Handbag of one of the prostitutes. (© LISA WILTSE)

17. An underage prostitute in a dark alley of the largest brothel in the country. (© LISA WILTSE)

18. The client approaches the minor Sonya. (© LISA WILTSE)

19. The daughter of a prostitute is dressed up for a birthday party. Girls whose mothers are body dealers take over their jobs at the age of 12 or 13. (© LISA WILTSE)

20. Misumi with her boyfriend. In a brothel, "boyfriend" refers to the most regular client who has the right not to use a condom. (© LISA WILTSE)

21. A prostitute washes sacred paints from her body after she passed out from dehydration. (© LISA WILTSE)

22. Client and underage prostitute. (© LISA WILTSE)

23. Underage Jessna is resting in her room before the night shift. (© LISA WILTSE)

24. The owner of the store and a regular customer of the brothel. (© LISA WILTSE)

25. Girls born in a brothel play in the fields by a small lake behind the brothel. This place also serves as a cemetery for prostitutes. (© LISA WILTSE)

26. Birds on electric wires in the country's largest brothel on the banks of the Padma River. The alleyways of the brothel are a stuffy place filled with people and the temperature can rise to 50 degrees. (© LISA WILTSE)

28. Sonya is preparing for the evening shift. (© LISA WILTSE)

29. A night butterfly is waiting for a client in a dark alley. (© LISA WILTSE)

30. Brothel worker resting in her room before the night shift. (© LISA WILTSE)

31. Workers are repairing roads for trucks arriving by ferry from Dhaka. Truck drivers make up the bulk of the brothel's customers. (© LISA WILTSE)

32. A man is shaved at a brothel in Daulatdia. (© LISA WILTSE)

33. Underage prostitute Bristy in the alleys of the brothel quarter. (© LISA WILTSE)

34. Sonya puts on makeup to look older. Since young girls dominate the industry in Bangladesh, maintaining beauty and youth guarantees them jobs and earnings. (© LISA WILTSE)

35. Primary school for children of prostitutes in Faridpur. (© LISA WILTSE)

36. A girl after serving a client in her room in a brothel. (© LISA WILTSE)

37. Sonya prepares the room for the evening reception of clients. (© LISA WILTSE)

German photographer Sandra Heun is a freelance photojournalist and often works with NGOs and charities. The object of her attention is social problems and issues of humanitarian law. In 2016, Sandra was a finalist for the LensCulture Portrait Awards with the photo project The Desires of Others.

Bangladesh is one of the few Muslim countries where prostitution is legal. The Kandapara brothel in Tangail is the oldest and second largest sex-for-money establishment in Bangladesh. It has been in existence for 200 years. It was demolished in 2014, but then rebuilt with funds from local non-profit organizations.


For the restoration of the brothel were not at all adherents of paid love. Many of the women who worked in Kandapar were born and raised there, and after the brothel was demolished, they had absolutely nowhere to go. Moreover, most locals believe that working in the sex industry is just as acceptable as other service jobs. In 2014, even the National Association of Women Lawyers advocated for the restoration of the brothel. Members of the association convinced the Supreme Court that the demolition of the building and the eviction of sex workers was illegal.


Today, the area around the brothel is surrounded by a two-meter wall. There are food stalls and tea houses on site. They have their own laws and a completely different hierarchy.

Kajol, 17 years old.
In a brothel, a woman is weak, but at the same time she is stronger than the "free" women of Bangladesh. The most difficult time is considered when the worker just gets into the brothel. Such girls are called "enslaved", all of them are no more than 14 years old. They come from poor families or are sold to a brothel by slave traders. "Bondage girls" have no rights, obey the local "madam" and are doomed to work for free for the next 5 years, paying off debts. After the girl deals with her debts, she is free to refuse clients or leave the brothel altogether. However, units are leaving. Society is reluctant to accept girls with such “work experience” into its ranks, therefore, most often, once in a brothel, a girl stays there for life.


Many women admit that working in a brothel gives them much more rights and freedom than staying at home. They run here from cruel husbands and poverty. Officially, only girls who have reached the age of 18 can work in the field of corrupt love, but this rule does not always work.
Their clients are police officers, politicians, farmers, ordinary workers and even teenagers. Some are only looking for sex, others come to a brothel in need of love and female attention. Many really just drink tea or strong drinks with women.


Kajol with a client. She thinks she is 17, but does not know the exact age. She was married for 9 years, and then her own aunt sold her to a brothel. Six months ago, Kajol gave birth to a son - then she had to return to work two weeks after giving birth.


The client attempts to kiss 19-year-old Priya on the cheek. Priya has been working at Kandapar since the age of 17.

Asma is 14 years old and was born in a brothel. She started working as a prostitute only this year, before that the girl just danced for clients.

This woman lost her parents when she was still a child. The girl got married. Together with her husband, they got hooked on heroin and later went to jail for it. The woman said that the prison is the best place she has visited in her entire life, because no one beat her there. After the conclusion, one of the inmates took her to Kandapara.

These twins are only five days old and have not yet been named. Their mother, 20-year-old Zhinik, also works at Kandapar.

15 year old Paki with a client. She has been living in a brothel since the age of 14. At 12, the girl got married, but soon ran away from her cruel husband. Then a man picked her up on the street and sold her to Kandapara.

Deepa is 26 years old. The woman is crying in the photo. She is now in her second month of pregnancy. The child's father is one of Deepa's clients.

19-year-old Mim takes a shower.

Megle, 23, is pictured with a client. At the age of 12, she began working in a garment factory. There she met a man who promised her a good job with a high salary. It was he who later sold Megla to a brothel.

Each people of the world has its own characteristics, which are absolutely normal and ordinary for them, but if a person of a different nationality gets into their midst, he may be very surprised at the habits and traditions of the inhabitants of this country, because they will not coincide with his own ideas about life. We invite you to find out 10 national habits and characteristics of the Bangladeshis, which may seem surprising and a little strange to Russian people.

They don't have the letter "z" in their language.

In Bengali - the Bengali language - there is no letter "z" and, accordingly, such a sound, therefore, many words in English in the pronunciation of the inhabitants of Bangladesh sound very unusual for Europeans. For example, "zero" in English (zero) they will pronounce as "jiro", and the popular Arabic (most Bangladeshis are Muslim) name Zaid (Zaid) automatically turns into Jaid here.

They don't have rules on the roads

There are no rules on the roads here. At all. None. The main instrument of traffic regulation is a sound signal. Everyone beeps, everywhere and all the time. Therefore, in Bangladesh, it is highly not recommended to rent a car for travel, it is better to rent a car immediately with a driver.

They don't walk

Another feature of the local transportation is rickshaws. It is because of them that the average speed of movement in the city does not exceed 30 km / h, and in small streets it generally drops to 10 km / h. Everyone uses rickshaws without exception. In general, seeing a walking Bangladeshi is a rarity. Even if you have to walk 500 meters to the grocery store, a Bangladeshi will take a rickshaw.

They can fall down the drain

It makes no sense to write about dirt in Dhaka, but if you still don’t want to litter, then you will have to endure until the hotel - there are no trash cans in the city. None.

In addition, there is no central sewerage and treatment facilities that we are used to - the entire sewer system is concrete gutters laid under the sidewalks. Waste of human life flows directly into lakes or rivers, and then into the Bay of Bengal. Moreover, pedestrians have to be very careful while walking on the sidewalks - they often make holes for cleaning, into which, unknowingly, you can easily fall through.

They put on bus fights

Buses in Bangladesh are mastodons, fossil aggregates that seem to flock here from all over Asia, and only after major accidents. It is difficult to find even a relatively whole one - most of them are painted at least a dozen times, so the paint peels off in pieces, and the bits are at least a thousand times. Often you can watch the battle of buses, when near the stop one does not let the other pass and they begin to deliberately “butt” each other and push, making room for themselves.

They watch cricket all over the country

Cricket is by far the most important game for any Bangladeshi. They cheer for their national team throughout the country, and if there is a match, then everyone will watch it - in a cafe, in an office, in shops. Each point earned will be accompanied by shouts of approval.

And this is not just a spectacle - every self-respecting Bangladeshi plays cricket himself. Those who have money - at special sites, those who do not have them - right in the yards and on the roads. In cities, open areas are specially organized for this, where everyone can play their favorite game. Finding a free place on them, especially on weekends, is a big problem.

They don't have alcohol, but they do have betel

As in many other Muslim countries (although this is not officially stated), alcohol is not sold here. If you try, you can find it, but for this you will have to turn to local acquaintances. Alcohol is also available in duty free at the airport and in large hotels, but the prices for it are unlikely to please a tourist. So, if necessary, it is better to take it with you. However, there are no problems with cigarettes, which are sold on every corner, and with betel, which can also be bought almost everywhere.

Their women work hard jobs

Due to the extremely low standard of living in Bangladesh, women have to work on an equal footing with men (road works, earthworks, residential construction). Often, at the beginning and at the end of the working day, entire groups of women (usually from the provinces) are seen on the streets, who go somewhere with their tools: a hoe and a small basin.

They ride on rooftops

Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. Imagine: in a territory that is 116 times smaller than Russia, about the same number of people live!

Therefore, one of the characteristic features of the movement here is the accommodation on the roof - be it a train or a bus. Especially during major holidays, when all the workers go home to the villages from Dhaka by train. At this time, transport is literally not visible for people.

However, even at the end of the working day, all the roofs of the buses are filled with "hares". The reason for this is the extremely low standard of living and the unwillingness, and often the inability, to pay the fare. On holidays, the "hares" are joined by those who simply do not fit inside the transport.

They live on the water

When you land in Dhaka, it seems that there is one big lake below, and instead of landing gear, the plane will now release floats like an amphibian. Indeed, at Dhaka International Airport, only the runway is not in the water, and everything where there is no concrete is covered with it. Because of this, there are quite a lot of mosquitoes here in the winter (the most favorable climatic conditions for tourism). Of course, water is not everywhere in Bangladesh, and most of the houses are on land, but since the whole country is located at world sea level, the groundwater is very high, and there is too much rain during the season. It is from this that any depression almost immediately turns into a puddle or pond. By the way, scientists around the world agreed that it is Bangladesh that is threatened with almost complete disappearance (more precisely, flooding) even with the slightest warming of the climate and rising sea levels.

The first thing that catches the eye of a tourist interested in life in Bangladesh is that the local population leads it almost on the street. There is a feeling that people only spend the night in houses, and spend most of the day outside them, where they work, eat, wash and rest.

View of the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka

Despite the large crowding of the population and not very attractive, in the opinion of a European, living conditions, it is difficult to find dissatisfied among the local inhabitants: natural optimism and unpretentiousness help them survive in not the most comfortable conditions.

Bangladesh is a country in Southeast Asia, bordering India and Myanmar and washed by the waters of the Bay of Bengal. In terms of population, the country ranks 8th in the world, it is home to about 170 million people. The indigenous people are Bengalis (98%), the main spoken language is Bengali, but many understand and know English - the language of business communication and tourist services. The capital is the city of Dhaka, with a population of more than 11 million people. In 1971, the former English colony gained independence and became a unitary republic.

Location of Bangladesh on the map

Bengalis are very religious, most of the inhabitants profess Islam, and Dhaka is even called the capital of mosques: there are more than 700 of them, but even this number is not enough for everyone, and people pray on the streets.

The capital is heavily overpopulated, and the real scourge of city life is the transport problem.

Transport in Bangladesh

In Bangladesh, transport is represented by four main types: buses, rail, water transport and taxis. In the cities, locals and tourists prefer to use the services of motorcycle and cycle rickshaws, as the roads are clogged and it is very difficult to get through traffic jams to the right place by public transport. The country has three main passenger airlines operating domestic and international flights: Biman Bangladesh Airlines, Regent Airways, United Airways.

Historical and cultural attractions

Bangladesh is not very well known to foreign tourists, although it is a beautiful country with wonderful nature, rich culture and very friendly people. One of the main attractions of the country are the world-famous architectural structures, including the largest Buddhist monastery in Paharpur, the Hindu temples of Shiva, Govinda and Jagannath, located near the Indian border. Among the UNESCO-protected sites is the lost city of mosques Bagerhat, located at the confluence of the Ganges and Brahmaputra.

See in the video: the lost city of mosques Bagerhat.

The palaces and mosques of the capital are its visiting card, the national treasure of the country. Of greatest interest is the inspection of such architectural sights as:

• Natore Rajbari Palace - former royal residence;

• Pink Palace Ahsan Manzil - National Museum of Bangladesh;

• Fort Lalbach - a palace-fortress of the Mughal era;

• Baitul-Mukarram Mosque ("Holy House") - the national mosque of Bangladesh;

• the Hussaini Dalan mosque - the house of the spiritual leader - the imam;

• Star Mosque - Tara Mosque;

• Khan Mohammad Mridha Mosque is one of the centers of Islamic culture.

Of no less interest is visiting national nature reserves, including the largest mangrove forest in the world - Sundarban, "Chittagon Hills" - the place of residence of ancient Buddhist tribes who have preserved nature in its original form, Lavachara National Park, Lake Kaptai, where divers have a unique the opportunity to swim in the underwater forest of lotuses and lilies.

View of the Chittagon Hills

A tourist who wants to combine a cultural holiday with a visit to the resort places of the country can be advised to go to the beach area of ​​the southeast of Bangladesh - Cox's Bazar, located near the border with Myanmar. There is one of the longest beaches in the world (120 km) - Inani Beach. Interestingly, the waters of the local resorts are absolutely free from sharks, which is not often found in these places.

Tourist Information

What does a Bangladesh visa look like?

80% of annual rainfall in Bangladesh falls from April to November, so the best time to travel is from December to March. Mild warm weather allows Europeans to spend their coldest months in comfortable conditions - at a temperature of + 18 + 25 ° C and no precipitation.

Trucks with goods for the capital Dhaka wait in line for several days. And this giant traffic jam stretched to Dautlatdia, the place where the river crossing is carried out. Truckers have nothing to do in the queue - and this area was formed. Then he gained such fame that lovers of prostitutes from the capital began to come here on purpose. Only two hours by train.

This "state" in the state is owned by pimps and brothel owners. Gangsters get their cut for protection.

Toilet on the banks of the Padma River.

In the resulting roadside slums, each of the 2,000 shacks has a prostitute. Garbage on the streets seems to hint at the status of the area. appropriate contingent. Women in saris, sweaty skinny brown men in alcoholic T-shirts.



About 1000 men a day are served here. The cost of a prostitute is from 2 to 4 dollars per hour. In a country where 60 million live on less than $1 a day, prostitution becomes an economic necessity.

The hierarchy of Dautlatdia is simple: at the very bottom are "chukri". Young girls who were sold to brothel owners as sex slaves.

Above - Madam. They own chukri and sex shacks.
Sold for pennies by their parents, the girls end up in sex slavery, serving 15-20 customers a day for food and water. Beatings are common here. Failure to do so can result in torture, gang rape and deprivation of food.

Young girls are bought more willingly by customers, all the proceeds from them all go to pimps. In order to attract clients in brothels, girls are fattened with the steroid Oradexon, which is used to increase the weight of livestock (cows) on farms.

Having worked off the amount spent by Madame, which her parents received for the girl (about $ 5,000), the girls can become independent prostitutes. Usually this is achieved by the age of 18, that is, when prostitution can be done legally.

Independent prostitutes are called bharati. Most of the money earned per day is spent on renting a room. Prostitutes, as a rule, have "husbands" and support them, exchanging their money for protection. These "husbands" are called "babu".


He may promise to marry, but in reality they only want her money from the prostitute. And everyone knows about these deceptions, and still all the girls take risks, because everyone wants to have a "happy life."

But having received freedom, the girl will still not get rid of her reputation. Because prostitution in Bangladesh is taboo. Something heavily stigmatized.

Even though Bangladesh is an Islamic country. The concept of defilement came from Hinduism, and began to apply to all girls, no matter what religion they belong to in this country.
Dirty" are considered and prostitutes, and their children, and even the area in which she lives.

syphilis rate of 40%, unprotected sex is not uncommon. Girls cannot tell a client who has already paid: "I will not have sex with you without a condom." The client is always right.

People come here from Dhaka to have fun with the girls. No one has any remorse. Neither from those who sleep with minors, nor from those who sell them here, stealing or buying from their parents.

Guys smoke the drug "ya ba". It is said to give them sexual confidence.

The sharing continues.

Which, according to all traditions, ends with a dance with a striptease.

This is how the so-called kitty parties go. Having worked, the girl again goes to the panel to earn money for tomorrow.