Baniashanta: One of the Worst Places on Earth

AT OUR MAY 7TH BENEFIT FUNDRAISER IN PASADENA, CALIFORNIA, I WILL BE SPEAKING ABOUT OUR PLANS TO WORK IN BANGLADESH ON ISSUES OF CHILD PROSTITUTION AND SEX TRAFFICKING.  HERE IS A REPRINT OF AN EARLIER ARTICLE ABOUT THESE ISSUES. 

BANIASHANTA. Some places are almost too sad for words, and the Banishanta brothel area in southwestern Bangladesh is one of those terrible places.  Situated on the muddy banks of the River Posur near Mongla, Bangladesh's busiest seaport, the brothel is a row of shacks which house at least 200 Bangladeshi women and the children born to them in prostitution.  These women, and likely many young girls, sell their services to dockworkers, sailors and hordes of other men who stream to Banishanta for sex on the cheap.  In the most densely populated and one of the poorest countries on earth, this is what semi-legalized prostitution has come to: scores of young women living in meager shacks on a polluted riverbank, reduced to selling themselves day and night for a few dollars to a never-ending stream of lustful men.  Sadly, Banishanta is not the only place like this on earth.  But in an age where life is cheap and sex is a commodity, Banishanta, and places like it, are the inevitable result.  

 THE MUDDY SHACKS OF THE BANIASHANTA BROTHEL

In December I visited Bangladesh on an exploratory trip for Speak Up to connect with a group of organizations who are playing a part in bringing justice to the most vulnerable and exploited people in the country, particularly girls born into brothels or trafficked into prostitution.