Sex workers and burkhas

Are sex workers only concerned with pleasure? Do women in burkhas (coverings that Muslim women wear to cover their entire bodies, and only reveal their eyes) repress themselves from freely showing their desirably bodies? Sex workers and women in burkhas are more similar than one could imagine.

Tanmeet Sethi recounts her life as an Indian doctor and her struggles as an Indian in American society. As she accepts some aspects of both Indian and American cultures, she compares and contrasts the norms of these two cultures in her narrative entitled, “Ladies Only.” As a doctor, she travels to her native homeland to educate sex workers about HIV. Unlike most people that pay a visit to the brothels, Sethi wants to focus on the stories of these women. Delighted to interact with another human, these workers cannot wait to share their stories of empowerment. It must be surprising to hear empowerment and sex workers in the same sentence. Rest assure, these women have come a long way from their troubled and horrific pasts.

One girl told Sethi that she was no longer wanted at her husband’s home. Her family was unable to give her in-laws a big enough dowry and her disgusted in-laws wanted nothing to do with their daughter-in-law. Scared, disappointed, ashamed, this young girl did not want to go back to her parents. She would forever hurt her younger sister’s chance of finding an eligible suitor. Many women have troubling stories that haunt their pasts, but prostitution has helped these poor uneducated women find a life of freedom. Sethi advises these women about the dangers of HIV, and they know that customers must use condoms at all times.  At home, these women were at the command of their husbands and his family. Now, they can live freely amongst friends and have the freedom to rule their own lives.

While in a café abroad, Sethi encounters two Western women sipping their lattes. The women see two fully covered women in burkhas and do not understand how these women continue to live in such oppression. Sethi agrees with their concerns, but tells them that these women are also making a powerful statement by covering their bodies. Unlike the Western women, they do not subject themselves to sexual remarks by men, and only reveal their eyes to their public. The world cannot judge their bodies or face and this sends a strong message to the public. As Sethi exclaims the independence these women experience, the western women simply cannot understand. How can covering your body and not showing the world how perfect your body is be so freeing? The western women wear tight shirts and capris and carefully reapply globs of makeup, Sethi ponders: Which women are really oppressed?

-Nidhi