The Dancing Girls of Lahore: Selling Love and Saving Dreams in Pakistan's Ancient Pleasure District

WOW! An amazing well-written documentary on life in Pakistan's prostitution business. Not only does Louise Brown clearly describe what life is like for these women and girls, but she makes a great effort to be non-judgemental and give you enough background information about why they continue this existence. From a Western perspective it is hard to comprehend. Reads like a great novel - you want to know what's going to happen next. Even if the subject is not something you would normally read, this book is definetely worth your time.

I cant say enough about this book. Its soooo good and riveting. I have lived in Pakistan all my life and never known that part of Lahore- just heard about it. So its naturally interesting to me to learn of what actually transpires there. I am also amazed at the courage of these women. The fact that they have nothing and can still enjoy life is just amazing to me- makes me realise that living in the moment is truly an art. I think I have enjoyed it more because I am from that part of the world but perhaps and outsider would find it sad. The key thing that hits you is that we are all similar with the same aspirations and desires no matter where we are from. Good job Louise- I am proud of you for have written this book.

I haven't read the book yet. But I am anxious to find out what is this Heera Mandi about? I'm from Pakistan Lahore and I have spent my childhood years in Lahore. I used to hear things from my friends about guys in my school are going to Heera Mandi and spending money on girls to sleep with them(and I'm assuming going to Heera Mandi while in school only applies to rich and spoiled guys). So us girls would talk about things like that and hate girls from heera mandi and give them bad names. Why give them bad names? Well! Because that's just how it is in Pakistan. One day my friend told me that her brother brought a girl home and is keeping her in a separate house because her parents didn't agree to keep her in their house. Later on I found out that the girl was from Heera Mandi and she is very pretty and the guy married that girl. The parents abandoned their son and I don't know what's going on in their family now. When I told this to my mother and asked her what is Heera Mandi really about and why does it exist? She was really mad at me for asking her such questions because it's considered disrespecting and really wrong to ask about prostitutes or to even discuss them. After all they are considered curse to our society. It is sad how and what women give-up and become prostitutes because of no support of their parents or whatever the reason makes them one. I hope this book can help me to expose the things I want to know about "Heera Mandi".

Unique, important and beautifully written. Louise Brown is clearly an expert in her field. Not only are we transported to life in Heera Mandi, the ancient brothel quarter of Lahore, but we are introduced to Maha, a middle-aged courtesan and her children, Nisha, Nena, and Ariba, who take to Brown immediately. It seems at one moment we are heartbroken and devastated by the reality of these women's lives, and at another intrigued and in awe of their ability to have some happiness, however small. Brown's flair for description, and wondrous sense of humour brings this Walled City and its activities to life, creating a invigorating and wonderful read. It is amazing that one human-being can find the courage, bravery and determination needed to record Heera Mandi, a world un-known to western culture, and its inhabitants. This book should be read for its sheer importance, not only for Brown's exquisite novelist's touch.

A stunning, heartbreaking and amazing book, that reveals the shocking depravity that lies beneath convential Islamic Pakistani society -- the generation prostitution, sexual slavery, abuse of underage children of both sexes, appalling poverty, filth and disease. Besides making one profoundly glad to be have been born into Westernized civilization, this book raises many very relevant questions about modern Islamic society -- especially the contradiction between the very strict and upright interpreation of the Qu'ran resulting in extreme female modesty and chasity and the resulting opposite, which is a society based on degrading sexual abuse and slavery of an utterly dominated female "second class" of citizen. Ruthless, wealthy older men prey on young women...paying great sums of money for the virginity of girls as young as 12. By the time these girls have "aged out" to their 20s, they are virtually worthless and must in turn raise their own daughters to be prostitutes. Without any ability to earn money from anything but sex (with the very youngest girls), this degradation carries on from generation to generation, often with grandmother, mother and daugther all prostituted to the same depraved wealthy men. With a absurdly exaggerated "cult of virginity" and a tradition of polygamy, men are able to not only accumlate several wives but keep mistresses who are a kind of second-class wife or concubine. They are also able to marry women on a "short term, renewable" contract, which is accepted as a kind of marriage and legitimacy for children, while enabling the men to continuously disgard women as they age into their 30s. Under this arrangement, children concieved this way must be supported by their fathers, leading to families comprised of children who are all treated very diffently based on the status of their fathers...the lowest caste children being horrifyingly neglected, even to the point of dying of easily treatable medical problems. Virtually all the women and children are entirely illiterate, with no way out of their situation. This excellent, no-holds-barred book raises a lot of questions about Islamic tradition and Pakistani society in particular. Why does this go on? Why is nothing being done about it? Where are the missionaries and social agencies while all this is going on? It also calls for us to take a closer look at our own culture -- don't we have some of the same source problems, with our obsession with youth and physical perfection? the way we dismiss women when they are no longer young and beautiful? the way "no fault" divorce allows men to enjoy "sequential monogamay" with progressively younger and younger partners throughout their lifetime? A treasure trove of fascinating ideas and arguments here...a fabulous book which demands more than one reading, and discussion if at all possible in a group. HIGHLY recommended for book clubs!!!!!