What Crimes Have Sex Workers Committed? Criminalization of Sex Work and Violence Against Women in the Post-July Uprising Bangladesh

https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20161011

Abstract

This paper attempts to examine how the criminalization of sex work is affecting women’s lives by imposing patriarchal domination on women. Drawing on Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis, this writing analyzes newspaper articles, journalistic reports, social media commentaries, and public narratives on sex work, brothels, and women’s social position in the aftermath of the July 2024 uprising. This essay argues that the stigmatization or criminalization of sex work not only affects the lives of those associated with the profession but also other women within society in many ways. The study demonstrates how stigmatization surrounding sex work and informal brothels contributes to the reproduction of oppressive meanings attached to women’s presence in public spaces.
By tracing visiting cards as signifiers within Dhaka's public spaces, this text explores how the concepts of “Resident Hotel” in Bengali ‘Abashik Hotel’ and sex work produce new types of oppressive meanings that enforce social control, gendered surveillance, and patriarchal authority on women in contemporary Bangladesh. Moreover, it highlights how the rise of religion-based politics, radical far-right politics, militancy, and patriarchy in post-July Bangladesh weaponize social constructs to systematically suppress women's voices.

Keywords: Sex Work, Informal Brothel, Visiting Card-based Sex Work, Criminalization, Patriarchal Dominance, Violence Against Women, Tauhidi Janata, Moral Policing, Post-July Uprising Bangladesh

Introduction

The regulations that human society tries to impose on its citizens are not always beneficial for all (Marx, 1970). There are sections whose rights and voices fall behind the mainstream decisions (Spivak, 1988). Therefore, in human society, a complex kind of interactional reality has emerged proclaiming the ignored or the objectified groups (Blumer, 1969). Sex work and people related to the business are a group among them.

In Bangladesh, discussions regarding sex work and brothels generally revolve around several dominant ways, such as sex work is considered a severely immoral activity; sex workers are frequently portrayed as an entity that is corrupting society, particularly the younger generation; sex work and brothels are seen as threats to human civilization and must be eradicated in order to protect social ‘purity’; brothels and sex work are blamed for their link to human trafficking and sexual exploitation of women, especially the minor female children, while also being associated with the rise of drug use and smuggling.

Sex work in society is largely practiced in concealment (Sanders, 2005; Ham & Gerard, 2014). The historical identifiers of sex work in a society are brothel and sex worker. Though sex work is not illegal in Bangladesh, the societal stigma and criminalization of the job made the idea of a brothel a vile space, devoid of morality and honor. Therefore, the commercial sex trade, involving formal brothels and residential sex workers, is not a public trend in the present time. Apart from a few established brothels such as Daulatdiya and Ganginapara, brothels are rarely visible within society. The only visibly identifiable sex workers are often mobile, street-based prostitutes. Alongside street-based prostitution, a comparatively new phenomenon has emerged, the circulation of visiting cards. These visiting cards can often be found lying on the streets of Dhaka without solicitation.

It is necessary to explain why this discussion incorporates visiting cards. The scattered presence of these cards throughout the urban social spaces reflects the social taboo related to sex work and brothels. Bangladeshi media regularly publishes reports on these visiting cards and residential hotels. In most cases, these investigative journalism reports highlight issues such as the use of underage girls in sex businesses and instances of human trafficking occurring in these hotels. Apart from these serious concerns, there is a tendency in such reports to advocate for the outright cancellation of these forms of businesses to establish ‘purity’ in society, as though the removal of sex work is desirable and no one within the society has any need for sexual services. These reports weaponize the concept of the “Resident Hotel” in Bengali the ‘Abashik Hotel’ or sex work to justify the criminalization of sex work and encourage the vilification of other women in society. In this discussion, the residential hotels mentioned on visiting cards are viewed as unique social spaces that point toward the underlying sexual desires and demands of the society. At the same time, the absence of physical location and details on these cards reflects discriminatory attitudes toward sex work, sex workers, and sex businesses. These residential hotels or the informal brothels, therefore, need to be examined through the sociological lens to understand societal perspectives on sex work, particularly within the shifting realities of the post-July 2024 uprising.

This text does not aim to determine moral boundaries of good and bad. Rather, it seeks to shed light on certain social realities. It examines the process through which sex work is constructed as taboo and draws attention to the institutional constraints and discriminatory perspectives directed toward sex work. Instead of criminalizing sex work, it is important to analyze specific crimes within their own contexts. The exploitation of children in sex work or human trafficking and the labor of a professional adult sex worker cannot be understood or analyzed in the same way. Questions may arise, why is it so important to think about the criminalization of sex work? But we need to understand that sex work exists within our society, sustained by societal demand, yet it remains stigmatized in patriarchal structures. This stigmatization has its impact on all women as patriarchy weaponizes sex workers’ social status to suppress women’s voices and enforce male domination. This research originates from the necessity of unpacking the underlying politics inherent in this phenomenon. It investigates how the criminalization of sex work serves as a mechanism to establish patriarchal domination over women. To understand how this criminalization persists, this study utilizes the most visible signifiers of Dhaka’s sex work - visiting cards and Abashik hotels (informal/illegal brothels). The emergence and the proliferation of visiting cards and Abashik hotels are not merely a social phenomenon in the sociopolitical context of Bangladesh; rather, they function as signifiers that reinforce and fulfill patriarchal agendas.

The objectives of this analysis are as follows:

● To examine the social attitudes towards sex work and sex workers in contemporary Bangladeshi society.
● To investigate the forces that establish gendered misogynistic narratives and to scrutinize the underlying politics behind them.
● To explore how social stigmas and criminalization’s related to sex work are affecting other women in society and how political actors are using these to maintain their control over women within the sociopolitical landscape of the post-July Bangladesh.

Overall, this writing attempts to highlight the consequences of the criminalization of sex work on women in Bangladesh by tracing the existence of visiting cards and Abashik hotels within the post-July 2024 uprising society.

Literature Review

A substantial body of research has been conducted on sex work in Bangladesh. In their study on commercial sex workers in Dhaka, Alam and Faiz (2012) highlighted the social exclusion experienced by sex workers. In another study, Haque M. R. (2011) examined the oppression faced by floating sex workers in Dhaka and demonstrated how their human rights are violated. He identified rural poverty and patriarchy as two of the major factors behind women entering sex work and also discussed the legal and policy frameworks surrounding sex work in Bangladesh.
Hossain and Saha (2022) worked on the vulnerabilities of street-based floating female sex workers. They explored the sexual behavior of sex workers, issues of sexual protection, knowledge regarding sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and HIV, and their health-seeking behavior by conducting surveys across nine municipalities in Bangladesh.

However, most of these studies repeatedly frame sex work through the lens of public health concerns and human rights violations. These works tend to criminalize sex work and sex workers in one way or another, if not directly, then indirectly. The stigmatization of individuals or entities constructs what Erving Goffman (1963) termed a “spoiled identity,” which ultimately leads to social exclusion (Goffman, 1963; Vanwesenbeeck, 2017).
Beyond the direct or indirect criminalization framework, only a limited number of studies have focused on the agency of sex workers.
Moral and Tahmina (2004), in their book “Sex-workers in Bangladesh Livelihood: At What Price?”, briefly examined the brothels of Bangladesh. This journalistic research was conducted between 1999-2000 and 2003-2004. The authors identified brothels as spaces of exploitation and oppression. They discussed the real-life stories of underage sex workers, the children of sex workers, and various governmental and NGO interventions within brothels. The authors themselves described the work as being “more about sex-workers, than on sex work.”
Ine Vanwesenbeeck (2017), in her work, demonstrated that imposing control over sex work and criminalizing it cannot eliminate the crimes associated with it. Incorporating the concept of neo-abolitionism, she illustrated how anti-trafficking discourses tend to overlook voluntary sex work as a profession and instead frame sex work as violence and sex workers as victims. She also criticized the feminist policy approach known as the “Swedish Model,” particularly its “End Demand” strategy that criminalizes the buying of sex. She argued that contemporary commercial sex work should instead be decriminalized and acknowledged.

Jana et al. (2014) examined the conflation of sex work and trafficking within the dominant anti-trafficking paradigm. They showed how this paradigm only forces sex workers to go underground, increases their vulnerability, justifies police harassment, and denies women’s agency within the profession. Shewly et al. (2020), through an ethnographic study, explored the mobility and invisibility of female sex workers in Dhaka. They demonstrated how surveillance, pressure from authorities, and social stigma compel sex workers to change their workplaces and thereby produce a form of “invisible mobilities”. In another study, Parkman and Statton (2025) conducted a qualitative study involving twenty-four sex workers from the Kandapara Brothel. Their work highlighted the lived experiences of these women, focusing on how they entered the brothel, societal attitudes toward them, whether they would be able to leave brothel life, and the uncertainties surrounding their lives. These discussions were organized through themes such as early life, internal life, external life, and brothel life, demonstrating how these themes overlap with one another.

In this paper, I primarily examine how sex work is criminalized through various social forums and how such criminalization affects not only sex workers but also others within society. I will explore how slut-shaming is produced and how it is intertwined with the existing stigmatization of sex workers. The political use of such stigmatization will also be discussed. This research will be conducted entirely outside the conventional frameworks of public health, disease, and trafficking discourse.

Methodology

This study adopts a qualitative research design, grounded in Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis (FCDA) to explore societal perceptions, sociopolitical events, and the impact of the criminalization of sex work on women in Bangladesh. As this study requires an in-depth understanding of the complex social mind, sociopolitical events, and power dynamics embedded within public discourse, qualitative inquiry is considered most suited as a research design. Rather than being limited to statistical data or reviewing the outcome of policy planning and interventions, this research focuses on interpreting meanings, institutional attitudes, policies, laws, and societal structures through examining discourses. FCDA was selected over traditional content analysis because the primary objective is to investigate how political speeches, social perspectives, patriarchal ideologies, and gender inequalities are linguistically produced within public and political discourse (Lazar, 2005). In this paper, analyzing the impact of the criminalization of sex workers and major sociopolitical events are prioritized. FCDA enables the researcher to link micro-level linguistic expressions, such as social media comments and news reports, to macro-level social theories to unpack the underlying trends, biases, and institutional mechanisms that are crucial to understanding the criminalization and marginalization of sex workers in Bangladesh. For this textual analysis, data was gathered through purposive sampling from secondary sources to ensure that the selected resources were directly relevant to the research objectives.

To capture a holistic understanding of social perception, data was cross-checked from both institutional and public spheres utilizing the following sources:

● Media Portals: Mainstream online and offline news portals (e.g., Prothom Alo, The Daily Star, New Age, Dhaka Tribune, etc.) were utilized for news reports, journalistic writings, editorials, commentaries, etc., regarding sex work and key sociopolitical events from July 2024 to May 2026. Around 75 texts have been analyzed within this timeline.
● Social Media Platforms: Facebook posts (public), YouTube videos that covered relevant sociopolitical events, and comment sections under these social media posts and videos were used to understand public reactions, patterns of moral policing, and counter-narratives. Mostly, the public discourses regarding women and sex work were observed through these sources from July 2024 to May 2026. In total, 20 videos of Maitree Jatra, 11 videos of assaults on women, and 7 political speeches have been observed and analyzed.

The analysis of the data mostly emphasized the intersectional framework (i.e., social class, geographic location, and identity) along with three interconnected analysis approaches: micro-level textual analysis, meso-level intertextual analysis, and macro-level sociocultural analysis (Lazar, 2005).
The timeline and context of this study are situated in the aftermath of the 2024 July movement in Bangladesh. This period serves as a critical juncture, as the sudden toppling of the previous government creates a void in political leadership, resulting in sociopolitical shifts that trigger intense public debates regarding morality, human rights, and law enforcement. The study specifically observes major sociopolitical events during this timeline that acted as catalysts for shifting or reinforcing societal perceptions surrounding sex work. The privacy of the individuals has been preserved with the highest priority throughout the process of writing this paper.

Societal View on Prostitution: Politics, Prejudice, and the Long-Searched Language for Dignity

The social position of sex workers is still at the bottom of the hierarchy. Regarding dignity, sex workers are the most marginalized in Bangladeshi society and often viewed as an ‘outcast’ (Walkowitz, 1980). They are even used as examples to insult other women. Manifestations of the defamation of women by comparing them to prostitutes can be found in daily social life, in literature, in fiction, in the entertainment industry, on social media, and even in the stage of politics. The core of this kind of defamation lies in the intention to stigmatize women’s character, as if ‘character’ is a woman’s only valuable asset. The patriarchal structure has a tendency to glorify the ‘purity’ of a woman’s character (Douglas, 1966; Lerner, 1986). In Bangladeshi society, to compare women with sex workers, students from schools, colleges, and universities who receive general education are often insulted as ‘prostitutes’. Women who do not wear burqa, hijab, niqab, or those who wear western dress or even saree, are sometimes called “abashik hotel er kormi” (sex laborer of residential hotels/informal brothels) on social media. Additionally, women who are vocal or against social injustices are labeled as ‘whores’ or ‘sluts’ as a way to objectify their powerful presence.

One recent example of using comparisons with prostitutes to insult or defame women is a post shared from the verified X (formerly Twitter) account of the ameer of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami, Dr. Shafiqur Rahman on January 31, 2026 (Prothom Alo, 2026). That post stated that women, especially those who go out of the house, are actually being pushed in the name of ‘modernity’ and it is “another form of prostitution”. It also suggested that women should not hold leadership roles. This derogatory remark instantly incited intense public outrage on various forums. Subsequently, Jamaat issued a public statement claiming that their X account had been under cyberattack and asserting that the post’s content is highly contradictory to the party’s manifesto (The Daily Star, 2026). However, this statement was rejected by the public as the cyberattack claim was only announced 40 minutes after the offensive post was shared from the same verified account. Many pointed to the Jamaat ameer’s Al Jazeera interview (January 29, 2026) as proof that the party chief holds similar ideologies to what the X post contains. Refuting the X account hack claim, students from DU, JU, JnU, and other universities and members from various organizations erupted in protests demanding a public apology. A protest rally and broom procession took place at Dhaka University, arranged by working women against the offensive remark made on X by Jamaat ameer Shafiqur Rahman. Jatiyatabadi Mahila Dal also staged a march against Jamaat ameer holding broomsticks in their hands as a symbol of protest (Dhaka Tribune, 2026). Interestingly, all these protests were held based on the ‘offensive’ remark against women. The profession of prostitution or sex work itself is ‘offensive’, ‘disrespectful’ or ‘derogatory’ from the perspective of society. The alleged X post objectified modernity and made a comparison between working women and prostitutes. According to this equation made by the X post, it implies that prostitutes embody the ‘modern’ era, where this modernity supposedly diminishes women’s dignity.

Do the protests against this misogynist narrative, by any mean, stand against the dehumanizing of the prostitutes? The answer is no. In this case, prostitutes are rejected twice; first, by the right-wing patriarchal structure, and second, by the liberals who view the comparison of working women to prostitutes as an insult to women’s honor.

In another case, six Bangladeshi women sent a legal notice to Hefazat-e-Islam to protest the party’s derogatory remarks against women on May 5, 2025 (The Daily Star, 2025). The legal notice was issued against Hefazat-e-Islam for calling women ‘bessha’ (prostitute) during their rallies and processions organized to oppose the Women’s Reform Commission’s proposals. The notice stated that no one has the right to use derogatory slurs such as ‘prostitute’ against women in public spaces.

It is worth noting that the Women’s Affairs Reform Commission had recommended the recognition of sex work as a profession in its proposal. The Hefazat’s remark on women derived from many of the demands, including the recognition of sex work. This case shows that although a group fights against the defamation of women, it is arguably contributing to another kind of defamation of women (Pheterson, 1996). At the same time, the incident pointed out the complexity of positionalities of the progressive groups in public discourse as political parties or actors often struggle with the question of how to speak against oppression without reproducing other forms of marginalization (Alcoff, 1991).

It is not a debate on the protestors’ ‘true’ intentions; rather, the heaviness progressive factions feel in their positionality in terms of discussion. The entangled social issues sometimes require articulation more holistically. Maybe the body called for and participated against the misogynistic and derogatory remarks is not against the prostitution and their dignity. They just need a language to stand for it.

The language in which the dignity of prostitutes could be restored is found in the Women’s Reform Commission’s proposal, and activism or merely visibility has been observed in an event called Moitree Jatra, organized in Dhaka on May 16, 2025 . With the motto “Narir Dake Moitree Jatra” (March for Solidarity at the Call of Women), Moitree Jatra successfully demonstrated massive participation of diverse groups that include working women from different backgrounds, students, teachers, tea workers, Dalits, housewives, garment workers, development workers, cultural activists, LGBTQIA+ individuals, indigenous communities and many more (The Daily Star, 2025). The groundbreaking slogans that were chanted at the event were “Cheyechilam Hisshya, hoye gelam Besshya” (When I wanted my right, I became a slut), “Aamra shobai Besshya, bujhe nebo Hisshya” (We are all sluts, we will claim our share), “Aamra Besshya, to?” (We are sluts, so what?) (GTV News, 2025). These slogans are brave in many ways. These slogans are not conventional and break the glass ceiling while directly opposing the humiliation of a profession called ‘prostitution’. At the same time, these slogans directly question the authoritarian structures of patriarchy and ask for women’s agency.

The Socially Accepted Way of Traditional Moral Policing and the Rise of the Tauhidi Janata in Bangladesh

Morality police forces are active in many countries, for instance, the Kano State Hisbah Corps (Nigeria), JAWI (Malaysia), Gasht-e-Ershad (Iran), the Taliban’s Ministry of the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Afghanistan, the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice in Palestine (Gaza Strip), Polisi Syriat in the Aceh province of Indonesia, Saudi Mutaween (CPVPV) in Saudi Arabia, etc. These aforementioned units exercise law enforcement over their citizens through various repressive measures. Individuals are arrested or physically assaulted for their attire, hairstyles, alcohol or drug consumption, sexual conduct, sexual orientations, for men and women conversing, public intimacy, etc. Sometimes they also target businessmen and entrepreneurs for displaying mannequins (as seen in Iran and the Gaza Strip), selling Valentine’s Day or Christmas gifts, including items like Barbie dolls or Pokémon toys (as seen in Saudi Arabia previously), and the arrests of barbers in Afghanistan for trimming beards and giving ‘inappropriate’ haircuts (Wikipedia, 2026; Arab News, 2026).

Bangladesh has had no such units since its independence. However, through moral policing without a state-supported, authorized group, a section of Bangladeshis is policing over women, minorities, and organizations. According to the annual report of the Human Rights Support Society (HRSS) in January 2026, Bangladesh witnessed more than 56 attacks on Sufi and Baul shrines (mazaar), involving murder, vandalism, looting and destruction (HRSS Annual Human Rights Report, 2025). Additionally, there were 28 attacks on minority communities and 292 incidents of mob lynchings and violence recorded. On December 18, 2025, the office of The Daily Star was set on fire. On the same day, a worker named Dipu Chandra Das (27) was beaten to death and set on fire over blasphemy allegations in Mymensingh. Renowned cultural institutions like Chhayanaut and Udichi also suffered massive vandalism (HRSS Annual Human Rights Report, 2025). None of these actions is permissible under the country’s existing legal framework.

When the perpetrators are searched, an entity named ‘Tauhidi Janata’ appears. Who are they? Tauhidi Janata is a politically constructed loose identity or a fluid crowd. When searched, no affiliation, registration, or identity will be found for them. However, they are no covert group. They organize crime and attack in broad daylight. Tauhidi Janata usually uses Islamic religious identity and emotion to justify their violent activities. Sometimes they receive moral endorsement from various religious political parties, which helps them manufacture consent. Digital incitement plays a key role in these incidents. Some political actors generate narratives on social media and digital platforms to trigger violence (BBC Bangla, 2025; France 24, 2025; Prothom Alo English, 2026; The Business Standard, 2025).

Are the newly emerged Tauhidi Janata the only moral police in Bangladesh? No, the moral police have always been in society in many forms. The rise of the Tauhidi Janata has rendered them visible, powerful, and active in the post-July Bangladesh.

Moral polices in Bangladesh have always criticized men and women for their clothing, peer circles, lifestyles, romantic relationships, skin colors, hairstyles, etc. However, they did police on a ‘very lighter note’. Mostly, elders from the family and society used to criticize youngsters, mostly based on a generational gap in understanding. Though these should also be counted as moral policing, and there is no space for romanticizing them in the name of bygone days.
However, we need to remember that there was no legitimized ‘morality policing’ unit active in Bangladesh as a force. When no such police force was legalized by the constitution, formal attacks were tough, let alone impossible. Nowadays, especially after the July revolution, Tauhidi Janata started terrorist activities and moral policing on clothing, personal life, and choices. A recent example illustrates how the newly emerged ‘Touhidi Janata’ in Bangladesh exercises moral policing and instills fear of their dominance. On March 5, 2025, a Dhaka University male employee stopped a female student near the Shahbagh area and disrespectfully questioned her attire regarding the placement of the orna (scarf). Consequently, the female student handed the man over to the Shahbagh Police Station with the help of other students. Following the arrest, a group of people disguised as Tauhidi Janata besieged the station and demanded the alleged man’s immediate release. The Tauhidi Janata argued that the harasser was innocent because he was simply giving ‘Islamic Advice’ on modesty. Subsequently, when the man was released on March 6, 2025, the ‘Tauhidi Janata’ greeted the harasser as a hero with flower garlands and the Quran. Tauhidi Janata attempted to project the ‘victory of Islam’ through this act, which directly indicates that anyone can be subjected to moral policing over their clothing or lifestyle, as this ‘advising on modesty’ is ‘allowed in Islam’ (The Business Standard, 2025). Moreover, they established that this kind of moral policing will get significant support in the future.

Therefore, it is evident that even though Bangladesh never had a constitutional morality police force, social morality policing has always existed here. However, in the post-July period, the emergence of the Tauhidi Janata has empowered moral policing and established it, showing utter disregard for the legal system.

Assaults on Women Based on Allegations of Prostitution

In the aftermath of the July uprising, a common trend has emerged among the youth of Bangladesh to take various social responsibilities in the name of nation-building, such as managing traffic on the roads and working at administrative levels to enforce law. Alongside this, some overenthusiastic individuals, driven by a quest for personal recognition or by the inner urge to project themselves as a ‘hero’ to the public, have resorted to vigilantism by taking the law into their own hands. As a consequence, this has led to public rights violations in various forms.

On May 9, 2025, a postgraduate male student publicly beat up two women using his belt on a launch at the Munshiganj Launch Terminal. Police arrested the accused man after a video of the assault went viral immediately after the incident. Later the accused stated that he “punished them as a brother” (New Age, 2025). Before that incident, another man attacked a former female sex worker at Shyamali on August 29, 2024. On the same day, another sex worker was beaten near the National Assembly Building area. As per the NEW AGE report, police refused to take the complaint.

In September 2024, seven videos went viral on Facebook showing several men led by an individual named Farukul publicly beating women at several tourist locations in Cox’s Bazar. These videos were uploaded by the perpetrators themselves from their personal Facebook accounts. They were reportedly attacking the women on suspicion of their involvement in prostitution. Later, police apprehended the lead perpetrator, Farokul (Dhaka Tribune, 2024).
These incidents represent assaults on women based on the mere suspicion of their involvement in prostitution. Under the guise of a ‘nation-building’ narrative, a segment of Bangladeshi youth has become violent towards sex workers with an utter desire to remove them from society. While attacks on sex workers existed previously, it intensified with the rise of Tauhidi Janata in the post-July Bangladesh. It is important to note that these attacks occurred without any proof of the women’s prostitute identities. The perpetrators’ belief that it is morally justified to beat a prostitute is actually derived from long-practiced patriarchal knowledge. These acts can be labeled as misogyny if we dive deep into the tendency of these attacks. Men felt the need to beat these women had an underlying reason deeply connected to misogyny. The claim of ‘protecting social morality’ by punishing women who are provoking others by being in the public spaces or acting without male consent, is nothing but misogyny. The patriarchal males framed women as criminals and monstrous to justify their acts. According to Gilmore (2010), misogyny is a combined form of fear, disgust, and hatred toward women expressed through various forms. On the other hand, Manne (2018) does not view misogyny merely as ‘hatred’ toward women; rather, it functions as a tool to punish and control women who challenge men’s authority.

These attacks on women point fingers at some of our deeply rooted structural failures. First, women are assumed to be a gender identity that is weak. Second, women are kept under the subordination of men in Bangladeshi society, implying that men are the sole protector of women. Third, instead of their individual identities, patriarchal society focuses more on their roles as mothers or sisters based on perceived gender roles. All these facts reject women’s agency. Men use women as a shield in the name of protecting religion, society, and culture on purpose, while continuously suppressing women’s accessibility, authority, and desire. When we discuss informal brothels disguised as residential hotels or the visiting cards scattered on Dhaka’s streets, it becomes clear that there is no trace of women in it. There is no sign of the women as they have been kept away from the public in the same way. The attacks clearly remind us that our patriarchal society does not want to see women in the public sphere as a public subject. Whether as a sex worker or otherwise, the independent existence of women in a patriarchal society is considered a direct challenge to male authority. Furthermore, sex work is criminalized in society to establish patriarchal dominance over women.

How it Feels to be in a Patriarchal Society

Prostitution is considered a feminine job and related to non-victim crime committed by women (Smart, 1977; Lombroso and Ferrero 2004). Society tends to view women’s crimes through a harsher lens. It is often believed that women should not commit crimes, as it is the opposite of traditional ‘feminine’ traits and therefore should be punished more severely than their male counterparts (Messerschmidt, 1993).

The discriminatory system towards women did not establish itself overnight. To understand how this discriminatory system against women emerges, it is essential to examine current social dynamics. In Bangladesh, the activities of Tauhidi Janata are a clear manifestation of a discriminatory patriarchal ideology that wants to keep women under men’s control. This process is eliminating women’s agency from the discussion. The patriarchal structure sometimes colonized the consciousness of women to the core in a way that they became hegemonized and started to think that what society is trying to impose on them might bring benefits for them. This scenario should be understood politically. In a society like Bangladesh, women are largely dependent on men and have no room for disagreement with men’s opinions. Their dependency made it impossible for them to put their opinion or true voice in the question of survival. At times, misogynistic propaganda is used for political gain as a part of a political tool. For instance, in post-July Bangladesh, a popular female DUCSU leader Fatima Tasnim Juma, expressed her opinion on media that she never believed in equal rights of men and women. She stated that she will be happy with less “where she was prescribed to have less” (What the Story,2025). She further claims to believe in “Insaaf (Justice)”, prioritizing “equity” over “equal rights” (What the Story, 2025). Although her stance might appear innocent at first glance, it is crucial to understand that she made this statement in the post-July political context where Jamaat-e-Islami and other political religious parties are issuing discriminatory remarks regarding women’s leadership and inheritance rights. Therefore, her rejection of “equal rights” appears to be driven by political agendas. Many women who are positioned as ‘empowered’ in leadership roles and presented as ‘icons of agency’ are merely parroting their political male counterparts. These female political actors have their own political calculation with their highly male-dominated right-wing heteropatriarchal political party. While society traditionally positioned women as ‘weak’, these female leaders’ representation often ended up proving that women are really ‘weak’.

The feminist discourse on prostitution between schools is complex and sometimes conflicting. The core debate centers on the concepts of agency versus exploitation. Liberal feminists advocate for the recognition of sex work as a legitimized form of labor emphasizing on individuals’ decisions and authority over their bodies. The liberal feminist calls for an emergency to legalize sex work as a recognized labor to secure labor rights and safety of sex workers to reduce stigma and discrimination (Nussbaum, 1998). In contrast, radical feminists view sex work as a form of male dominance over women’s bodies and violence against women. They reject liberal feminist labor discussion and consider it a strong form of patriarchal oppression where the consent of the sex worker is questionable (Dworkin, 1997; Mackinnon, 1989).

In this patriarchal society, female sex workers are criminalized. But how can we place men in this whole scenario? Perhaps the question itself is irrelevant here. It is because we live in a male-dominated society where men possess the power to criminalize anyone as per their interest. In such a patriarchal structure, it is impossible to grasp the true extent of these social inequalities without viewing them from the lived experience of the marginalized entity. In this perspective, female sex workers are the minority, and the male sex consumers represent the dominant males who always remain behind the discussion. Bangladesh does not follow neo-abolitionism and clients (mostly males) are not criminals legally; however, society criminalizes sex work to a degree that the whole industry goes underground. From a feminist lens, although radical feminism’s critique holds some strong logic, viewing the entire sex trade as a monolithic trend or a generalized issue tends to objectify those women who enter the profession voluntarily. At the same time, the neo-abolitionism model implemented in Sweden and Ireland, intending to save women from objectification, ultimately ended up criminalizing sex work and sex workers (Irish Independent, 2019). On the other hand, hybrid policy regarding sex work in Bangladesh reinforces the idea that policy alone cannot improve the lives of women in sex work in patriarchal society. It requires social decriminalization of sex work.

The Situationality of the Abashik Hotel

In the contemporary sociopolitical context of Bangladesh, there is a need to explain the concept of Abashik hotel (informal brothel). Following the July uprising, female participants in women-led movements were deliberately subjected to the slur “Abashik hotel er kormi/sramik”. The specific use of the term “kormi” or “sramik” (laborer) stems from the recent proposal by the Women’s Affair Reform Commission to grant sex workers professional recognition and labor status (Dhaka Tribune, 2025). However, what exactly constitutes an “Abashik hotel” and where to find them? Within the Bangladeshi context, these are the informal brothels (and illegal), typically identified through visiting cards scattered unsolicited throughout various parts of the city. Despite the informal and hidden nature of these hotels, they regularly appear in public discourse through news and documented accounts of police surveillance and raids.

According to a report by NEW AGE (2025), on October, the Savar police raided a residential hotel and detained 22 individuals (including nine women) over allegations of “involvement in immoral activities”. Law enforcement agencies do not conduct these raids solely based on arresting the sex workers. Rather, they often look into other cross-connecting components of this special social ecosystem that is constructed within the reality of the brothel. Brothels are often categorized as hubs of criminal activities (Brantingham and Brantingham, 1995). Brothels serve as popular hubs for illegal activities such as drug dealing, gambling, and smuggling. Furthermore, brothels or red alert zones are often connected with human trafficking networks where young girls are kidnapped, sold, and forced into the sex trade. But do the police have the right to raid such social spaces? According to the current law in Bangladesh, under the Prevention and Suppression of Human Trafficking Act, 2012, police can enter a brothel without a warrant and raid. To prevent human trafficking, a police officer can search under Section 20 of the Human Trafficking Act 2012. Apart from these, police can raid residential hotels using Section 290 of the Penal Code (public nuisance) or local ordinances to arrest individuals for suspicious, indecent, or immoral activities.

Since informal brothels operate within residential hotels to escape from legal and social consequences, a constant hide-and-seek game persists between the police and the associated groups. Raids on these hotels are common globally, with reports coming from India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. These hotel-based sex trades are often linked to wider sex rackets and human trafficking networks. Sometimes, they even reveal connections to the trans-border sex industry. For instance, a sex trafficking racket was discovered in Dubai in 2020, where women from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan were brought under the guise of employment and then forced into prostitution (The Daily Star, 2020). In another case, police in Gurgaon, India, conducted a raid by masquerading as customers and busted a sex racket involving women from Bangladesh and Uzbekistan (The Times of India, 2024).

Many believe that raids, displacements, and the syndicate of brothels have led to the increase in floating sex workers. Since brothels and specific hotels are fixed in terms of their identifiable locations, the sex workers working there easily become targets of identity disclosure. To escape this visibility and maintain their anonymity while living within the mainstream population, many sex workers choose a floating life. Instead, they operate from various public spaces while concealing their professional identity. But for many, both floating sex workers and their clients, interacting directly from the streets or other public spaces is difficult because their presence and bargaining happen in ‘public’ (Goffman, 1963; Ham & Gerard, 2014).

This is likely why the culture of visiting cards started. These cards allow individuals to fulfill their sexual desires simply by collecting a card and making a phone call. The entire process can be done secretly without being ‘visible’ in public. In the circulation of these scattered unsolicited visiting cards, it is only the card that remains visible. The sex worker, the client, and the hotel (or informal brothel) all remain invisible. Visiting cards found on Dhaka’s streets and foot overpasses also exhibit a kind of anonymity. They only feature a mobile number on them, devoid of any specific address, location, or any sex worker’s name. Instead, these cards are typically issued under the name of some ‘Bhai’ (brother). This representation of women in the context of sex work reinforces the discourse that women have yet to become a subject of the public; they remain in the private.

How can we interpret these visiting cards? They suggest that access to an ‘Abashik Hotel’ (a residential hotel or informal brothel) can be managed by calling the provided number (Bhai’s number on the card), and this can allow one to spend time with a sex worker of their choice in these hotels. These residential hotels can be viewed as a ‘field’ where various forms of capital are shared and distributed, involving diverse authorities and hierarchies functioning within the space. Furthermore, as these Abashik Hotels remain anonymous on these cards, they are not static in terms of their characteristics (Bourdieu, 1984; Wacquant, 2007). Yet, these unsolicited visiting cards indicate a space where sexual pleasure could be found. We can consider these Abashik hotels as a form of social reality. In his work Reassembling the Social, Bruno Latour views society as a constructed reality where actors interact and establish mutual relationships, thereby ‘assembling’ the social. He does not perceive society as a static entity. These Abashik hotels, with all their inherent characteristics, bring Latour’s concept of the ‘social’ into the discussion. As Latour argues-

"Social is not a glue that could fix anything including what the other glues cannot fix; it is what is glued together by many other types of connectors. It is not a specific domain of reality but rather a name for a movement, a displacement, a transformation, a relay, an enrollment." (Latour, 2005, p. 5)

The neoliberal economy has expanded the scope of sex work. Like all businesses, multiple methods have emerged in this business. The concept of “brothel” has evolved over time. The monopoly of traditional brothels has been dismantled as well. In Bangladesh, once 3500 sex workers were active in Narayanganj’s Tanbazar; however, that Tanbazar no longer exists (Hossain, 1999). At present, Daulatdia is considered the largest brothel in Bangladesh and one of the largest in the world. Many individuals involved in sex work do not wish to continue their profession within the syndicates of established brothels in a modern-day free-market economy. Other than the traditional brothel, various self-regulated entrepreneurial methods of sex work have developed globally aiming to make the job more independent and empowered. Adult websites, webcam services and platforms like OnlyFans are prominent examples of this. In this neoliberal era, one can claim oneself as a product and can commodify the ‘self’. In this regard, one can essentially function as a ‘brothel’ themselves online. However, according to Bangladeshi law, there is no scope to pursue sex work through these legalized digital platforms. Consequently, the use of visiting cards has become a visible alternative to traditional, established brothels in mainstream sex work. While sex workers from established brothels can be evicted easily, and despite numerous attacks by religious and social reformers on brothels in Tangail, Mymensingh, and Narayanganj, the modern visiting card-directed, hotel-based sex work remains concealed and makes them technically impossible to evict. Rather, these informal brothels or Abashik Hotels persist by existing in a state of flux, in between formation and destruction, entirely relying on a network of actors (Latour, 2005).

No matter how and in which ways these Abashik hotels are defined, they are used as a tool for character assassination of women in the context of Bangladesh. There is a tendency to shame women by labeling them as ‘immoral’ as prostitutes by using slurs like “Abashik hotel er Kormi/Abashik hotel er sramik” (residential hotel-based sex workers). These terms are found in social media commentary and other forums. It is impossible to deny the connection between women's oppression and constructed phenomena like Abashik hotel. Therefore, these spatial constructions, whether visible or invisible, hidden or open, should not be viewed merely as social establishments; rather, they must be articulated with the specific meanings and stigmas they have created socio-politically.

The Price of a Crime Involving Consenting Adults: How Criminalizing Sex Work Contribute to Violence Against Women in Bangladesh

Sex work is never discussed without linking it to issues like human trafficking, child abuse, and drug dealing. But is sex work truly the hotbed of these crimes? Or have these crimes always been associated with sex work from the very beginning?

Sex work policy has seemingly changed to anti-trafficking policy universally (UNDP, 2012; Hoff, 2014; Weitzer, 2015; Vanwesenbeeck, 2017). As a result, trafficking creates confusing meanings relating sex work (Burns, 2015; Weijers, 2015; Vanwesenbeeck, 2017). Vanwesenbeeck (2017) argues that the root cause of the criminal activities associated with sex work is the wrong strategy to get rid of these crimes. She stated that the miserable condition of sex workers’ lives lies in neo-abolitionism as it reduces sex work to trafficking and encourages policing and persecution. According to her explanation, the wrong strategy of removing crime is precisely the core reason for why the quality of life of sex workers is not improving and issues like forced prostitution, child prostitution, and human trafficking are not decreasing. Rather, the imposition of excessive regulations presents commercial sex work as a crime and pushes it into a ‘hidden’ sphere. As a result, in their concealed form, these businesses continue to flourish. When society begins to criminalize and tend to reduce these phenomena by uprooting commercial sex work, we must understand that no ‘improvement’ can be achieved through such measures. Criminalization and illegality utilize the sex workers’ “lack of rights” social status to create a profit-making market system for pimps, smugglers, and drug dealers and increase the crime rate in their concealed form (Vanwesenbeeck, 2011).


What, then, can improve this situation? First, we must determine exactly what we seek to get rid of. If we seek the removal of prostitution from society, then it must be said that this is never possible because prostitution is often conceptualized by scholars as labor rather than criminal activity unless it involves underage individuals or nonconsensual sex (Weitzer, 2012). We must accept commercial sex work and grant the legitimacy of the profession in order to eliminate the criminal activities embedded within this system (Nussbaum, 1998). Otherwise, not only will these crimes persist, but violence against women will also increase. By criminalizing and stigmatizing prostitution, society simultaneously paves the way for the patriarchal domination of other women as well (Overall, 1992).

Sex workers enter this profession for various reasons. Poverty is considered the primary driver for entering into this job. Other factors include trafficking or being born or raised in a brothel, gender inequality, domination, unemployment, etc. Regardless of the circumstances, sex work is a profession where it does not force anyone to buy sex. When adults engage in consensual sex in exchange for money, no crime is fundamentally committed. However, many people would link the question of morality to commercial sex work. In terms of the need for sex, such arguments are not valid in many cases. There are many individuals in our society who need to purchase sex; thus, morality becomes a subjective matter here. In fact, recognizing commercial sex work is essential to maintain social order. The decriminalization and recognition will allow those who need to buy sex while ensuring that sex workers receive their legal rights (Brents & Hausbeck, 2005).

If we analyze recent incidents involving violence against women in Bangladeshi society, we will notice that political parties are attempting to suppress women’s voices and actions through character assassination. By labeling women as prostitutes, sex workers, and “Abashik Hotel er kormi/sramik” (hotel-based sex workers), these dominant patriarchal groups tend to use the criminalized job of sex worker and their social position to maintain control over all women. Although sex work is a profession, society portrays it as a crime, even when the crime involves consenting adults. Bangladesh follows a regulated, quasi-legal model. According to Bangladeshi law, buying sex is legal. Still, it made the sex work a crime and stigmatized sex workers. Additionally, the policing is an ongoing process for sex work in Bangladesh. So, criminalizing is a reality in the Bangladeshi context that is pushing sex workers to go underground while producing meanings through phenomena like visiting cards and Abashik hotels.

Conclusion

The epistemological landscape has undergone radical transformations globally. Social phenomena have gained new dimensions and constructed new meanings over time. In this complex process, human involvement and interaction are crucial in understanding social realities. In this globalized world, it is essential to reinterpret social phenomena like sexuality, sex work, sex workers, and brothels. How these subjects are asserting their existence in this time of epistemological paradigm shift remains significant for future research. We need to understand that the criminalization of sex work also deprives sex workers of their economic rights. While the new world is busy keeping up with the fast-paced flow of globalization within the neoliberal economy by constantly dismantling the monopoly of authoritarianism, such as the online sex industries of OnlyFans and webcam services, how the national policies and class consciousness still drive these individuals to the antiquated system of visiting cards plays a vital role in understanding the socio-economic reality of Bangladesh. The existence of these scattered visiting cards in public places reveals how the same economic structure that promises human rights-oriented policies and a liberal economic system to keep all human potential and knowledge ‘open’ simultaneously establishes the reality of taking away the rights from a section of the population. Independent (broadly) online sex work or adult platforms such as OnlyFans and webcam services are not legalized in this country, nor is the porn business, because these are highly controlled and decided by male-dominated authority derived from patriarchal knowledge. If sex work were not criminalized in society, opportunities like online platforms would have financially benefited the individuals engaged in this profession. Yet, sex work continues to exist as evidence of societal demand, while sex workers are not recognized by the same standards of honor and dignity as other citizens of the country. On one hand, society refuses to recognize sex workers with respect and dignity, while on the other, it denies their economic liberation. Since sex work is still criminalized and stigmatized, it continues to be used as a means of degrading women. In a patriarchal system, it is the dominant males who perpetuate this. Just as visiting cards suggest a societal demand for sex, they also hint that sex work is a crime, impure, and destructive. In a strongly patriarchal society like Bangladesh, terms such as visiting cards, sex workers, and Abashik hotel are used to construct meanings that seek to control women and their agency through a dominating patriarchal framework.

Khalid Bin Shakhawat Ratul
Junior Research Fellow
Council for Policy Review

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