This book focuses on sex workers in Pakistan. Specifically, those working in Heera Mandi, or the Diamond District, which is located inside the walled city of Lahore. This area is known as a red light district, which I had only heard used to describe Amsterdam's infamous area. This area is just south of the Badshahi Mosque, which seems like an odd place to have a red light district. The market where the red light district is was known for beautiful girls and concubines, which is where the diamond part comes in. It isn't actually a district for the cutting of diamonds as one might think. The market was originally opened by the Mughals, who brought in beautiful girls from Afghanistan and other locations, to dance and provide entertainment for men. Prostitution came naturally, and was really cemented in the area during the British colonial period. The market operates as a regular market, and brothels above the shops open at night for entertainment. Girls and transgender people are most often those participating in sex work. The book focuses on one particular sex worker, who had her virginity sold to the Sultan of Dubai when she was fourteen. She was classically trained in dance and service, and was a beautiful girl. She eventually had daughters, and because they were born to a prostitute mother, they were also going to be prostitutes and never leave that business. That is gross to me. It is very like the caste system I learned about in India, and by their religious law they are unclean and that's essentially the only thing they will ever be good for. I cannot wrap my mind around that, even though I can logically see the reasoning. I cannot imagine having my daughters be prostitutes or selling their virginity to some old man at that age simply because I was a sex worker. That's insane to me.

I feel extremely obtuse after reading this book, because it legitimately never occurred to me that there were sex workers in Pakistan. I have no idea why I have never thought about that before, because sex work has been around for a multitude of years and is not just confined to one area. I did learn when I was googling the location of this, (I like looking at maps), that it is very Bollywood. That is the best way to describe the dancing that these girls do. When I was reading, my mind went to stripping, but that isn't exactly the case here. Sex work of this nature has seen a decline due to crack downs, online escorts, and free internet porn. I have no problem with sex workers, and certainly no problem with it being made legal. The only issue that I have with this is when people are having sex with underage girls. If you choose to be a sex worker, awesome, but don't sell your children into it. That was gross to me. I found this book to be very interesting and educational. I certainly learned more than I ever expected to from it. I would recommend.