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Living with Risks of Abuse, Harassment, and Vulnerabilities: Explaining the Experience of Female Sex Workers in Sylhet

Corresponding Author : Md. Fakhrul Alam (fakhrulsust@gmail.com)

Keywords : Female sex worker (FSW), risks, abuse, harassment, vulnerabilities & exploitation

Abstract :

This qualitative study is an attempt to disclose the nature and extent of the risks of abuses and vulnerabilities that the female sex workers (FSWs) experience after embracing sex work as a profession. By using semi-structured interviewing, the author conducted the study on 53 sex workers working in Sylhet city of Bangladesh. The study argues that sex workers are vulnerable to manifold risks of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, exploitation, and harassment of the customers, the police, and the local thugs. There is also a risk of public beating while operating sex work in residential areas or outside the city. The sex workers often tolerate the abuses and exploitation and try their best to avoid the common risks and vulnerabilities. The findings further divulge that majority of the women do not want to be publicly exposed, as sex workers want to save the family honor and protect themselves from police harassment, arrest, and mass beating. It is evident that although many street-based sex workers struggle to ensure a regular and steady income, they often fail to purchase foods and daily essentials. Appalling evidences further suggest that coerced by drug addict customers, a few sex workers have become addicted to drugs while few others have become vulnerable to HIV/AIDS infections, as those customers forced into unprotected sex. The study concludes that sex work in Sylhet is not free from violence; instead, many of them are vulnerable to abuse, harassment, exploitation, drug abuse, and HIV/AIDS infection. 

Published on June 30th, 2020 in VOL 31, No. 1, Social Sciences