Ninety kilometres from the capital Dhaka. Three hours’ drive north. We are in Kandapara, the red light district of Tangail. A city within a city, made up of shacks where about eight hundred girls, amidst drugs and poverty, sell themselves to the highest bidder.
Prostitution was legalised in Bangladesh in 2000, but it has much older origins. It is a legacy of British rule and brothels have been open for many years. This is the second largest in the country. There are about 20 regular brothels, i.e. those recognised by the authorities. According to the law, only girls between the ages of 18 and 55 should work there.
But in reality this is not the case. You realise this immediately when you go through one of the metal gates that takes you inside. Many of them are very young. The girls look on curiously, some smile.
Their stories, however, tell of a life in black and white. Many were born in the brothel. Daughters of sex workers, they have never left the wall that separates them from the rest of the world.
