Kate Orne

Brothels and Fundamentalism

This body of work examines the uneasy peace between Islamic fundamentalism and profanity in the brothels of Pakistan. Pakistan’s little known sex industry survives under a blanket of modesty, pretense and oppression. This isolation with its inner conflicts drew me in. The sexual natures of their business interest me less. I find the women proud despite their stigma, yet modest in keeping with their Islamic upbringing; a woman sits on her bed, a madam. She recently sold her 14-year-old daughter’s virginity.

Arousing movie posters hang discreetly in a corner of a local cinema appear stark and uninhibited, though tame compared to what we are used to in the West. Here a hint of a cleavage or bra strap, or a woman not covering her chest with a hijab is a ravenous display of seduction. As we look closer, the sex workers themselves have censored exposed thighs and cleavage with a black pen. Repressive fundamentalist Muslim laws not only shun these women’s existence but also in some areas make their actions punishable by death. However, unlike any other place in Pakistan, in their brothels the women are the breadwinners. This underlying dualism surfaces in portraits of the women sitting proudly on the same beds where they not only service their customers but share with their husbands and children. These paradoxes forced me to set aside my in-grained expectations of how things should be or appear, to deepen my understanding of this culture and its complexities.

Full article and author info at Women In Photography