There have been 1 million
Bangladeshi and more than 200,000 Burmese women trafficked to Karachi,
Pakistan.
200,000 Bangladeshi women
were trafficked to Pakistan in the last ten years, continuing at the rate of
200-400 women monthly.
In Pakistan, where most of
trafficked Bengali women are sold there are about 1,500 Bengali women in jail
and about 200,000 women and children sold into in the slave trade. India and
Pakistan are the main destinations for children under 16 who are trafficked in
south Asia. More than 150 women were trafficked to Pakistan every day between
1991 and 1993. And now 100 - 150 women are estimated to enter Pakistan
illegally every day. Few ever return to their homes.
There are over 200,000
undocumented Bangladeshi women in Pakistan, including some 2,000 in jails and
shelters. Bangladeshis comprise 80 percent, and Burmese 14 percent, of
Karachi¹s undocumented immigrants. A Bengali or Burmese woman could be sold in
Pakistan for US$1,500 - 2,500 - depending on age, looks, docility and
virginity. For each child or woman sold, the police claim a 15 to 20 percent
"commission."
Women kidnapped at the
Pakistan-Afghanistan border are being sold in the marketplace for R600 per
kilogram as of 1991.
Auctions of girls are
arranged for three kinds of buyers: rich visiting Arabs (sheiks, businessmen,
visitors, state-financed medical and university students), the rich local
gentry, and rural farmers.
19,000 Pakistani children
have been trafficked to the United Arab Emirates. Orphaned girls are sold too.
Methods and Techniques of Traffickers
Bangladeshi and Burmese
women are being kidnapped, married off to agents by unsuspecting parents,
trafficked under false pretenses, or enticed by prospects of a better life,
into brothels in Pakistan. Border police and other law enforcement agencies are
well aware of the trafficking through entry points into Pakistan like Lahore,
Kasur, Bahawalpur, Chhor and Badin. Nepalese and Bangladeshi woman and girls
are trafficked under false pretenses, such as jobs, then are forced into
prostitution in brothels in Pakistan. A rise in trafficking of girls, aged
8-15, in Pakistan has occurred during this last decade.
Policy and Law
Trafficked women are
further victimized by the police and the legal system, which treat them as
criminals. The women are booked under Pakistan's controversial 'Hudood
Ordinances.' The Zina Ordinance, which comes under the Islamic Hudood
Ordinance, makes adultery or sex outside marriage a crime against the state.
Women and girls in prostitution are often charged with Zina. Sometimes, they
are booked under the Passport Act. Either way, they have to spend long periods
in prison. For illegal immigration, the sentence is four years, but many women
end up serving three or four years extra, either waiting for trial or to clear
immigration formalities.
The governments of Pakistan
in the last 26 years have established three commissions of inquiry into the
sexual exploitation of women. However, the government under Bhutto in the seventies,
the Zia regime of the eighties and the present government have all disregarded
the commission's recommendations.
Prostitution in the Islamic
nation of Pakistan, once relegated to dark alleys and small red-light
districts, is now seeping into many neighborhoods of country’s urban centers.
Reports indicate that since the period of civilian rule ended in 1977, times
have changed and now the sex industry is bustling.
Early military governments
and religious groups sought to reform areas like the famous “Taxali Gate”
district of Lahore by displacing prostitutes and their families in an effort to
“reinvent” the neighborhood.
While displacing the
prostitutes might have temporarily made the once small red-light district a
better neighborhood for a time, it did little to stop the now dispersed
prostitutes from plying their trade. Reforming a neighborhood, instead of
offering education and alternative opportunities, appears to be at the core of
early failures to curb the nascent sex industry. This mistake would become a
prophetic error as now the tendrils of the sex trade have become omnipresent in
cities like Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Karachi and Lahore, not to mention towns,
villages and rural outposts.
An aid worker for an
Islamabad-based non-governmental organization recently related a story: quickly
after his arrival in the capital, he realized the house next to his own was a
Chinese brothel. The Chinese ability to “franchise” the commercial sex industry
by providing down-trodden Chinese women throughout Asia, North America and
Europe would be admirable in a business sense if it were not for the atrocities
human trafficking, sexual slavery and exploitation which cloud its practice.
Chinese brothels, often
operating as “massage parlors” or beauty salons, are across Pakistan, even
spread even to war-torn and restive locations such as the Afghan capital Kabul.
Chinese in the sex industry have developed a cunning ability to recognize areas
where the demand for sex far outstrips the supply.
The NGO worker said that
after months of living adjacent to the brothel things were shaken up literally.
One evening a drunk Pakistani drove his car into the brothel. Later the driver
told authorities the ramming was a protest by a devout Muslim against the
debauchery of the house and its inhabitants. The NGO worker, however, had seen
the same car parked peacefully outside the house the night before.
The local sex industry
comprised of Pakistani prostitutes has also grown in recent years. One can
easily find videos on YouTube that show unabashed red-light areas of Lahore.
The videos display house after house with colorfully lit entranceways always
with a mamasan and at least one Pakistani woman in traditional dress. The women
are available for in-house services for as little as 400 rupees (US$6) to
take-away prices ranging 1,000 to 2,000 rupees. These districts are mostly for
locals, but foreigners can indulge at higher prices.
Foreigners in Pakistan have
no trouble finding companionship and may receive rates similar to locals in
downtrodden districts. More upscale areas like Lahore’s Heera Mundi or “Diamond
Market”, cater to well-heeled locals and foreigners. At these places prettier,
younger girls push their services for 5,000 to 10,000 rupees for an all-night
visit, and the most exceptional can command 20,000 to 40,000 rupees for just
short time.
Rumors abound online that
female TV stars and actresses can be hired for sex. “You can get film stars for
50,000 to 100,000 rupees but you need good contacts for that,” one blogger
wrote after a trip to Lahore.
“The Lahore, Karachi and
Rawalpindi sex scenes are totally changing and it’s easier and easier to get a
girl for sex,” another blogger wrote. “Most of the hotels provide you the girls
upon request.” They also said: it is easy to find girls prowling the streets
after 6 pm, and foreigners can find young women hanging out near Western
franchises like McDonald’s and KFC. Such women, the bloggers claim, can lead
the customer to a nearby short-time accommodation.
Short-time hotels offering
hourly rates can be found all over major cities, underscoring the profits being
reaped by the sex industry.
Pakistan can also
accommodate the gay community with prostitution. Unfortunately, this has also
given rise to child prostitution.
A Pakistani blogger wrote,
“We Pathans are very fond of boys. The wives are only. There are lot of gay
brothels in Peshawar – the famous among them is at Ramdas Bazaar. One can go to
any Afghan restaurant and find young waiters selling sex.”
As in many societies,
access to technology, the Internet and mobile phones has only facilitated the
sex trade in Pakistan. “Matchmaking” websites serve the male clientele, while
providing marketing for prostitutes.
The root causes of
prostitution in Pakistan are poverty and a dearth of opportunities. Widows find
themselves on the streets with mouths to feed, and for many prostitution offers
a quick fix. A local Pakistani prostitute can earn 2,000 to 3,000 rupees per
day compared to the average monthly income of 2,500 rupees.
Forced prostitution is not
rare. Women in hard times are often exploited and pushed into prostitution.
Sandra (not her real name), said that after the death of her father she was
left alone; friends and relatives deserted her after the grieving period. As a
middle-class, educated woman she was surprised to find herself forced into
prostitution from her office job.
“My boss initially spoiled
me at first,” she told Khaleej Times. “now I am in [the sex industry].” Sandra
first thought her boss was being gracious, but quickly learned he was grooming
her for sex for his own pleasure, and then acting as her pimp.
Many of Pakistan’s
contemporary sexual mores may have evolved from traditional practices. For
example, the polygamy permitted in Muslim society stemmed from the need for
larger family units, the better to support familial ties and tend for widows.
Until such ancient customs are updated, women such as Sandra will continue to
be bought and sold.
It’s time for Pakistan to
admit that prostitution is doing a roaring trade within its borders, and will
continue to prosper until it is addressed in a modern manner. Let us hope that
the people and government of this proud Muslim country will stop pretending the
problem simply isn’t there.
Awais Zahid
Sec F