Categories
Books

A Dignified Life

Several years ago I was invited to conduct a research study on female sex workers in Chittagong, Bangladesh. Chittagong with about 6.5 Mio. people living in the wider area is definitely not a touristic hotspot. Even the city itself looks quite rural. Once there, our hosts proved to be extremely kind to not only connect us with the sex workers, but also to give us an intimate insight into their living conditions in this poverty- and environmentally devastated country. It was an incredible experience to see how these people dealt with the most difficult living conditions, how they managed to bring order into the omnipresent chaos. The camera accompanied me rather casually and allowed me to detect in these open faces an incomparable human dignity, whether sex worker, social worker, teacher, student, children, housewife, volunter or casual passer-by on the streets. A truly dignified life under most difficult life circumstances.

With many thanks to Md Nazrul Islam and the Rehabilitation Centre for Prostitutes And Rootless Children (PARC)