Karachi: On the second Sunday of May, referred to as Mother’s Day in many countries, gifts and tokens of love are showered upon moms by their children.
However, on the same day, like any other evening, many women will continue to be seen selling their flesh on the streets of Karachi and other parts of the country, for their children’s sake, to those hungry for sexual gratification.
Most of them may not even be having the slightest of idea that the very day is marked in the calendar for mothers. Probably, their clients too, forget all about the respect that society as well as the religion associates with women, especially mothers.
Shama (a pseudonym opted to suit her profession), a 54-year-old woman whom the society very conveniently tags as a sex worker, is one such example. A mother of two teenaged children, she has no option except to wait for her clients on the streets of Bahadurabad to earn some money for her sons’ education as well as to make both ends meet. Her family is unaware of what she does and believes her when she says that she works in homes of the patients who need to be taken care of.
Her sons study in school (one in class IX and the other class X), and she wishes one of them to become an artist and the other a civil services officer.
Both, she says, are good at studies but are at times quite mischievous. Her younger son works as a helper in some medical store and earns Rs1,500 per month while the elder one (who is more sensitive by nature) is also seeking a job so that her mother doesn’t have to work anymore. Her children, she says, are quite sensitive and try not to bother her much about money.
Shama in her heart of hearts doesn’t want to remain part of this vicious circle, as she fears for the day when her children will find out her reality. “But I cannot give it up till the time my sons complete their education and get themselves job,” she says.
Failed marriages and two sons born out of it were not the only reasons for Shama to choose the career which the society looks down upon. “When my husband left me in 1989 with one nine-month-old, I tried to work at a clinic and then at a beauty parlour,” she says. As she had no one to take care of her kids, and while she used to work, she barely managed to concentrate on her work. “They kicked me out of work. I was helpless and desperately looking for work,” she reveals.
As she had no specific education she could not find herself other jobs as well. It was then that a colleague of her gave her some money for her kids and promised her a job. She took the money without knowing the consequence. After few days, devastated by her children’s hunger, she went to the same man. He made her meet another man who had money in his hand but wanted her to do whatever he would ask her to do. She was in a mousetrap and the thought of her malnourished kids made her say ‘yes’.
“I couldn’t say no. I know it might sound very immoral, but what do you expect from a mother whose children are starving to death,” Shama says with tear-filled eyes. “My family, that initially supported me, was fed up with it, they showed me clear signs of having enough of it,” she continues. “My kids were my responsibility as their father had abandoned them and had no intention of supporting them,” she adds with a tinge of anger in her tone. She even tried to convince her husband that she wouldn’t disapprove of even his second marriage but he didn’t pay heed to what she said.
After being in this ‘line’ for more than 15 years, Shama blames no one for what she is. In fact, she does not even blame her husband for deserting her and kids. “I feel dead within; you cannot call this life, a life at all. I know there is no forgiveness for me in this world as well as in the world after this,” Shama acknowledges.
Interestingly, she believes that men are weaker than women and can easily give up when faced with hard times. However, she does not hesitate to share her observation that her clients usually are maniacs who, if not satisfied by their spouse, opt for prostitutes.
She has come across certain good-natured men too, who just want to listen to her or need a solace and a person with whom they can share their worries and walk away after giving a lofty sum.
When asked if she thinks of herself as a good mother, she replied that she was satisfied with the fact that she had done all that she could for her children. Shama believes if she hadn’t had kids, she wouldn’t have been in this profession at all.
No one knows for sure how many women like Shama are forced into prostitution for the sake of their children. But according to Shama herself, there are many, and the numbers were increasing day by day. Society should either take responsibility of such children or stop pointing fingers at women who take up this profession in order to rear their children.
Karachi: On the second Sunday of May, referred to as Mother’s Day in many countries, gifts and tokens of love are showered upon moms by their children.
