Masud Alam Liton, Bangladesh: Requiem For Freedom

For a human being, freedom is always a relative term. We all have the freedom to think as we please, but can we always express what we think? We are free to fly through air using planes and dive in the oceans using underwater equipment but we can never take off on our wings like birds or breath underwater like the fish.
For the sex workers of Dauladia Ghat, Rajbari, Bangladesh, freedom is a dichotomy. Their profession has freed the sex workers from the ordeals of poverty by demanding they give up freedom over their bodies. They are condemned to be free from average norms and restrictions because sex workers are not free to live in conventional society.
A large number of sex workers have children of their own or ‘Adopt’ other children.
Domestic violence and poverty is the key force driving women and girls into sex work. Some are tricked into joining the brothel, some are sold, and others come after the separation of their parents, other still after being deserted or ­­­­­divorced by their husband.
Yet they have one freedom remaining to them that asks no price: they are free to dream. They dream they are birds that go wherever their imagination takes them. They dream they are living the lives of their fantasies. Their dreams are requiems for true freedom without Violence.