The Dancing Girls of Lahore : Selling Love and Saving Dreams in Pakistan's Ancient Pleasure District
3 journalers for this copy...
ARC review book from First Look
The dancing girls of Lahore inhabit the Diamond Market in the shadow of a great mosque. The twenty-first century goes on outside the walls of this ancient quarter, but scarcely registers within. Though their trade can be described with accuracy as prostitution, the dancing girls have an illustrious history: beloved by sultans, their sophisticated art encompassed the best of Mughal culture. The modern-day Bollywood aesthetic, with it's love of gaudy spectacle, music, and dance, is their distant legacy. But the life of the pampered courtesan is not the one now being lived by Maha and her three little girls. What they do is forbidden by Islam, though tolerated: but they are gandi, "unclean", and Maha's daughters, like her, are born into the business and will not leave it.
Sociologist Louise Brown spent four years in the most intimate study of the family life of one Lahori dancing girl. With beautiful understatement she turns a novelist's eye on a true story that beggars the imagination. Maha, at twelve a classically trained dancer of exquisite grace, had her virginity sold to the man who was to become the Sultan of Dubai; when her own daughter Nena comes of age and Maha cannot bring in the money she once did, she faces a terrible decision as the agents of the sheikh come calling once more.
The dancing girls of Lahore inhabit the Diamond Market in the shadow of a great mosque. The twenty-first century goes on outside the walls of this ancient quarter, but scarcely registers within. Though their trade can be described with accuracy as prostitution, the dancing girls have an illustrious history: beloved by sultans, their sophisticated art encompassed the best of Mughal culture. The modern-day Bollywood aesthetic, with it's love of gaudy spectacle, music, and dance, is their distant legacy. But the life of the pampered courtesan is not the one now being lived by Maha and her three little girls. What they do is forbidden by Islam, though tolerated: but they are gandi, "unclean", and Maha's daughters, like her, are born into the business and will not leave it.
Sociologist Louise Brown spent four years in the most intimate study of the family life of one Lahori dancing girl. With beautiful understatement she turns a novelist's eye on a true story that beggars the imagination. Maha, at twelve a classically trained dancer of exquisite grace, had her virginity sold to the man who was to become the Sultan of Dubai; when her own daughter Nena comes of age and Maha cannot bring in the money she once did, she faces a terrible decision as the agents of the sheikh come calling once more.
reserved for Advance Reader Copy (ARC) relay.
Journal Entry 3 by cheesygiraffe at Bookrelay in BookRelay.Com, Bookrelay -- Controlled Releases on Wednesday, August 10, 2005
Released 18 yrs ago (8/10/2005 UTC) at Bookrelay in BookRelay.Com, Bookrelay -- Controlled Releases
WILD RELEASE NOTES:
RELEASE NOTES:
Mailed to CandyDarling as part of ARC relay.
Enjoy!
Mailed to CandyDarling as part of ARC relay.
Enjoy!
Journal Entry 4 by CandyDarling from Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Wednesday, September 28, 2005
The book arrived today, thank you cheesygiraffe! I'm looking forward to reading this!
Reserved for Lotusflower77 in trade for Dress Codes: Of Three Girlhoods--My Mother's, My Father's, and Mine.
Reserved for Lotusflower77 in trade for Dress Codes: Of Three Girlhoods--My Mother's, My Father's, and Mine.
Journal Entry 5 by CandyDarling from Helsinki, Uusimaa / Nyland Finland on Thursday, November 3, 2005
I haven't yet finished The Dancing Girls of Lahore, but as soon as I started reading it, I knew I wanted it for my personal collection. So I bought another copy, and this ARC is now traveling to Lotusflower77 in Canada.
The Dancing Girls of Lahore is a interesting look into one Pakistani subculture. Even though the book is mainly about hereditary prostitution in Pakistan, we learn a lot about other customs too, and about the Pakistani way of thinking. The author spent long amounts of time in Pakistan during 5 years, and she provides an intimate portrait about her closest friends there.
There are so many things in this book I'd like to discuss, but that would require leafing through the book again. But the most important aspect in my opinion is the realization of how deeply embedded in the society prostitution is, and how there is no easy way to help these women. For these women to truly have a chance for a better life, the way of thinking of the whole nation would need to change. In a lesser extent, traces of this way of thinking can be found in Western society too.
The Dancing Girls of Lahore is a interesting look into one Pakistani subculture. Even though the book is mainly about hereditary prostitution in Pakistan, we learn a lot about other customs too, and about the Pakistani way of thinking. The author spent long amounts of time in Pakistan during 5 years, and she provides an intimate portrait about her closest friends there.
There are so many things in this book I'd like to discuss, but that would require leafing through the book again. But the most important aspect in my opinion is the realization of how deeply embedded in the society prostitution is, and how there is no easy way to help these women. For these women to truly have a chance for a better life, the way of thinking of the whole nation would need to change. In a lesser extent, traces of this way of thinking can be found in Western society too.
This book arrived here this morning! Thanks, CandyDarling; thanks also, cheesygiraffe.
I caved in and borrowed the book from the library a few weeks ago, so I have read it; the link to my blog review is below. I plan on keeping this book for when it gets picked by my South Asian Women's Book Club for our monthly read.
Dancing Girls of Lahore
I caved in and borrowed the book from the library a few weeks ago, so I have read it; the link to my blog review is below. I plan on keeping this book for when it gets picked by my South Asian Women's Book Club for our monthly read.
Dancing Girls of Lahore
