Prostitution
Meet the madam of Bangladesh’s oldest brothel
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The light was still dim when Monowara Begum (
pictured) shuffled into her sandals and began her morning patrol. With a slight wheeze, the 44-year-old paced the alleyways, scowling behind gold-rimmed glasses as she listened for sounds of trouble coming from within the corrugated-metal and cinder-block buildings. A foul-smelling stream of sewage and used condoms ran between the makeshift homes. Several times, she flicked a bangled wrist to disperse a cloud of flies. Her other hand was tense, ready to grab a wooden stick if a situation called for it.
Her turf was the walled-off community of Kandapara, Bangladesh’s oldest brothel. Sitting on the edge of a textile town north-west of Dhaka, the capital, it is one of 11 such “brothel-villages” in Bangladesh, which are among the less well-known legacies of British imperialism.