Agnes Montanari, photographer

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Daulotdia in Bangladesh is one of the biggest brothels in the world – a village of roughly 1,800 women who sell sexual services to about 3,000 men each day..The brothel looks like any other small town in Bangladesh with its fruit stalls, teashops, and workshops. The only difference is the unusual number of women in the street..Opened at the end of the nineteen-century, the ‘char’ of Daulotdia or river island, is situated at the confluent of two rivers, the Meghna and the Padma. Its location makes it a very important crossing. Thousand of trucks coming from the west and the southwest queue up there for days, waiting to be able to get on a ferry to cross the river and continue towards Dhaka, the capital..It is sometimes three generations of women from the same family who have lived or live in Daulotdia, each of them becoming in turn ‘tsukri’ (bonded prostitute), ‘bharatia’ (independent prostitute) and ‘bariwalli’/sardani (owner of rooms rented by the prostitutes and owner of prostitutes). The brothel is probably the only place where baby girls are welcomer than baby boys. Once old enough and having become a prostitute, they will be able to look after their mother..Once a woman is identified as a prostitute, it is very difficult for her to be accepted by the Bangladeshi society even if the profession of prostitute has been declared legal and as such can figure on the election cards..How do these girls see their mothers? How do they grow up in the brothel, why do they become themselves prostitute? How do they start, who teach them, how do they become ‘bharatia’ or ‘bariwalli’?.These are the questions we ask ourselves during our visit to Daulotdia..
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Agnes Montanari
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Daulotdia in Bangladesh is one of the biggest brothels in the world – a village of roughly 1,800 women who sell sexual services to about 3,000 men each day..The brothel looks like any other small town in Bangladesh with its fruit stalls, teashops, and workshops. The only difference is the unusual number of women in the street..Opened at the end of the nineteen-century, the ‘char’ of Daulotdia or river island, is situated at the confluent of two rivers, the Meghna and the Padma. Its location makes it a very important crossing. Thousand of trucks coming from the west and the southwest queue up there for days, waiting to be able to get on a ferry to cross the river and continue towards Dhaka, the capital..It is sometimes three generations of women from the same family who have lived or live in Daulotdia, each of them becoming in turn ‘tsukri’ (bonded prostitute), ‘bharatia’ (independent prostitute) and ‘bariwalli’/sardani (owner of rooms rented by the prostitutes and owner of prostitutes). The brothel is probably the only place where baby girls are welcomer than baby boys. Once old enough and having become a prostitute, they will be able to look after their mother..Once a woman is identified as a prostitute, it is very difficult for her to be accepted by the Bangladeshi society even if the profession of prostitute has been declared legal and as such can figure on the election cards..How do these girls see their mothers? How do they grow up in the brothel, why do they become themselves prostitute? How do they start, who teach them, how do they become ‘bharatia’ or ‘bariwalli’?.These are the questions we ask ourselves during our visit to Daulotdia..