BANGKOK - Prostitution in the Islamic nation of Pakistan, once relegated to
dark alleys and small red-light districts, is now seeping into many
neighborhoods of country's urban centers. Reports indicate that since the
period of civilian rule ended in 1977, times have changed and now the sex
industry is bustling.
Early military governments and religious groups sought to reform areas like the
famous "Taxali Gate" district of Lahore by displacing prostitutes and their
families in an effort to "reinvent" the neighborhood.
While displacing the prostitutes might have temporarily made the
once small red-light district a better neighborhood for a time, it did little
to stop the now dispersed prostitutes from plying their trade. Reforming a
neighborhood, instead of offering education and alternative opportunities,
appears to be at the core of early failures to curb the nascent sex industry.
This mistake would become a prophetic error as now the tendrils of the sex
trade have become omnipresent
clipped from: www.atimes.com