Dancing Girls of Lahore

This book gives an incredible insight into the lives of the prostitutes that inhabit the red light district of Lahore. The author, an anthropologist from Birmingham University regularly visited the district over a period of five years and we follow the trials and tribulations on the characters she meets.

Ironically, Heera Mendi is one of the few places in Pakistan where people prefer girl babies, for the fact that they will bring in an income. Maha, the women the author befriends is fortunate in this respect as she has four daughters and the second eldest is somewhat of a beauty. We witness her daughters entering the trade and the virginity being sold off to the highest buyer. Startling however is that despite the obvious intelligence of many of the girls involved there seem few that have the belief that it's possible to break the vicious cycle of the daughter of a prostitute becoming a prostitute herself. A large part of the blame can have be placed on the society they inhabit.

Louise Brown writes without judgment, though even at times she is unable to maintain her professional distance and (very understandably) intervenes. Aside from the tales of the prostitutes there are also insightful passages where she talks about the hijab and describes the religious rituals of the area. The book is incredibly easy too read (though admittedly the short chapters were a little annoying) and its main fault is that often we are left wanting more information. However it still is worth 5 stars in my opinion and a must read for anybody interested in the fate of `working' women or society in Pakistan.

Excellent book (5/7 people found this helpful)

This is so much more than just a book about the prostitutes of Lahore. Louise Brown's book takes the reader beyond the usual fleeting superficial surface offered by most observers of foreign cultures (and specifically of the indian subcontinent which is the victim of the most dull and clichéd waffle possible) and places you right in the middle of the human, living, breathing, swearing, joking, fornicating, spitting, mocking, abusing, loving, seething mass of humanity that Pakistan actually is.

The book takes you down the side-alleys of Lahore, Pakistan, and up into the lives of the prostitutes, to their children, their pimps, their customers - it takes you on holiday with them, eats with them, hears their problems, their jokes, their schemes, their retirement, their success stories, their miseries, but it's written without judgment and the subjects are not treated as specimens but as the individuals and characters that each of them are.

Louise T. Brown

Reader Reviews:

Worth the read (10/10 people found this helpful)

Excellent book (5/7 people found this helpful)

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