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- Title
SOCIAL STATUS, RISK AND HIV: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC INTERPRETATION OF HEALTH AND WELL-BEING IN THE TRADITIONAL BROTHEL QUARTER OF LAHORE, PAKISTAN.
- Authors
Brown, Louise
- Abstract
Biomedical understandings of prostitutes' wellbeing, health and attitudes to risk may be subtly different from prostitutes' own perceptions of their health and risk. This article emphasises the importance of analysing the sociological and cultural context of prostitution when assessing health and attitudes towards risk in a brothel community. Using ethnographic research in Heera Mandi, the traditional brothel quarter of Lahore, Pakistan, the article examines key health-related issues such as sexually transmitted diseases, emotional health and drug use. It then goes on to examine HIV/AIDS, high risk behaviours in the sex trade, women's attitude to risk, and local conceptions of the virus and the threat it poses to women in prostitution. Central to this analysis is the incidence of poverty; the social marginalisation and vulnerability of sex workers, the status hierarchies of the brothel quarter's subculture; the changing structure of the sex trade; the belief in magic; and constructions of the stigmatised 'Other'. The article concludes that the transmission of HIV through groups of sex workers and their clients is highly likely in the near future.
- Subjects
LAHORE (Pakistan); PAKISTAN; BROTHELS; SOCIAL status; HIV; HEALTH; RISK; SEX work
- Publication
Pakistan Journal of Women's Studies: Alam-e-Niswan, 2006, Vol 13, Issue 2, p95
- ISSN
1024-1256
- Publication type
Article