Poverty Drives Pakistani Women to Prostitution

It’s midnight on the ninth of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar. In Karachi’s red light district hundreds of prostitutes and eunuchs are singing religious mourning poems or Nohas. Barefooted and wearing black dresses, they beat their chests.

Humera, a 25-year-old sex worker explains why. “During the first 10 days of the sacred month of Mu…