She briefly found work with an NGO, before being let go, and then spent two months learning how to weave carpets, before the factory shut down and she was again out on the streets of Mazar-i-Sharif. Determined to support her mother, two sisters and young brother, she turned to a profession that has long been practiced the world over but remains deeply suppressed in conservative Afghanistan — prostitution.
And there is anecdotal evidence, supported by doctors concerned about the potential for the spread of HIV and AIDS, that more and more young women across northern regions of Afghanistan are turning to sex work to escape grinding poverty.
Mohammad Khalid, a doctor who runs an AIDS awareness clinic in Mazar-i-Sharif, says he has seen a rise in infections, although from a very low base, and fears that women working in prostitution are reluctant to come forward to be tested. Nasrin, a stylish year-old dressed in a white burqa but wearing fashionable jeans underneath, works as a prostitute in Kunduz, to the east of Mazar-i-Sharif. She says she was urged by her mother to take up the work as there was no other way for the family to earn a living.
One day she encouraged me to have sex with a man who came to our house. Nasrin said she was ashamed, but felt she had no choice. Others are more satisfied with their work, even if they acknowledge it means a normal life is out of the question. I really want to live like the others do. But who will marry me?
Bribes take care of unwanted police attention. It is something only my customers know about. Once police took notice of what I was doing but I paid them a bribe. For clients, paying for sex gives them easy access to women that they otherwise would not be able to meet or could only have contact with if they were married — a costly exercise in itself. I have their telephone numbers and invite them to many places. The government and other organizations should launch awareness programs to let these women know about the harm caused by prostitution.
