The following are case histories of sex workers in the Goalondo Brothel.
Mitu. Mitu was born in a very poor family of a rural village of Kushtia District. Mitu was the firstborn of four children. Her father could not afford adequate food. As a result they often went hungry. Mitu's father died suddenly when she was 10 years old. Her mother was left with severe economic problems and her four children to feed. One day a female relative of her neighbor approached Mitu's mother and assured her she could arrange a good job for Mitu in Dhaka. Mitu's trusting mother agreed to hand over her daughter to the lady, who took Mitu with her.
What the woman did was take Mitu to the Goalonda Brothel and sell her to a woman leader (Mashi) of the brothel. At first, the Mashi let Mitu do some smaller jobs in the brothel in exchange for food. But Mitu realized the situation of the brothel and tried to escape several times in vain. Mashi beat her severely every time. Mitu spent several months this way. She had not had her first menstruation yet.
One day at noon, Mashi took Mitu to a room in the brothel where a male customer was waiting. Mashi told Mitu to take off all her clothes, but Mitu would not agree to do so. At one point both Mashi and the client took off all of Mitu's clothes. The client raped her with the active assistance of Mashi, who held Mitu down.
After the rape Mitu became very sick. She had heavy bleeding, urinary trouble and severe weakness for 12 days. Mashi arranged treatment for Mitu to protect her own interests. Since then Mitu has been working in this brothel as a professional sex worker. But her entire income is going to the pocket of Mashi. Whenever Mitu wants to leave the brothel, the Mashi asks for TK 20,000, claiming that she purchased Mitu for that amount. Mitu is now approximately 17 years old.
Mosheda. Morsheda is a 21-year-old sex-worker from the village Panchful of Trisaal Upazila under Mymonsing district. Her family name was Helena. She is known as Morsheda in the brothel. She has two sisters and two brothers in her family at Trisaal, Mymonsing.
Helena's father was a day laborer who provided for her family in hardship and lived from hand to mouth. When Helena was 14 years old, three unknown young people came to her village, rented a house and said they liked the village very much. They expressed their desire to marry in this village. They announced that they would marry without dowry. One day the young men went to Helena's house. One of them proposed to marry Helena and her parents were very pleased and accepted the proposal, but told the young man that they were unable to arrange the food and other materials for the marriage ceremony. The strangers gave them money to arrange the wedding. They were married that very night.
The next morning they left the village for Comilla. Helena stayed with her husband there for three days. Then they went to Durgapur in India and handed over Helena to a broker from the Durgapur Brothel. Helena burst into tears and sought their sympathy, to no avail. She was forced to stay in the brothel as a sex worker. After three months, a Bangladeshi went to the brothel and met Helena in her room to have sex with her. The man did not pay for having sex with Helena. Instead he promised he would get her away from the brothel.
He returned and took her with him, but he did not set her free. Instead he sold her to the Goalonda brothel in Dhaka City, where Helena was renamed Morsheda. Morsheda has been in the brothel for seven years. She has a daughter who is three years old.
Rehena. This 18-year-old comes from the village of Norsingdi. Rehena became an orphan when she was about seven years old. She has one brother and one sister. Her brother and sister in-law were her only relatives to look after her, but her sister in-law did not give her enough food and often punished her unnecessarily. When Rehena was nine years old, she got out of the house at about 11pm. The policemen on duty caught her and three of them gang raped her. The policemen kept her in prison for about four days and raped her every night.
When Rehena become very sick and feverish, the policemen released her. She was walking down the road in severe pain when an aged man asked her where she was going. Rehena replied that she was very sick and she had no destination. She asked for help. The man assured Rehena he would give her job and he took her to Dhaka City.
The man took her to a residence that looked very nice from outside. There were other girls in the house. She was given medicine and provided with good food. But the following day she was again victimized. She was kept in a room by force where she was raped every night and she was severally punished if she refused to enter that room. This went on for about three months. By that time she was very sick from STDs.
One day Rehena managed to escape from the house through an open gate. On the way, she met a lady and asked for her help. The lady assured Rehena she would help and find her a job. With these promises, she took her to the Naraynganj Brothel where she sold her for Tk. 500. Rehena spent about two years there before she was able to escape once more, but she could not return to a normal life.
At present, she is working as a street-based sex worker to earn money for her livelihood. She got a small house in the slum area on a rental basis where she is not free from danger and other abusive people. She has become addicted to drugs and continues to suffer from serious STD infections.
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