Another sex worker of Daulatdia brothel gets Islamic funeral
As local Imams refused to perform janaza of Rina, the Imam of Goalanda Thana Mosque Abu Bakar Siddique led the funeral prayers
Another sex worker from the world's largest brothel in Daulatdia village of Goalanda upazila in Rajbari district received a proper funeral on Thursday.
Rajbari Police Super Md Mizanur Rahman took the initiative to give Rina Begum, 55, a proper Islamic burial, reports a Bangla daily Samakal.
As Imams at the village mosques refused to perform janaza of Rina, the Imam of Goalanda Thana Mosque Abu Bakar Siddique led the funeral prayers.
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Police Super Md Mizanur Rahman, Zila Parishad Chairman and Freedom Fighter Fakir Abdul Jabbar, Additional Police Super Md Salahuddin, Assistant Commissioner (land) Abdullah Al Mamun, Officer-in-charge of Goalanda Ghat Police Station Ashikur Rahman and Daulatdia Upazila Parishad Chairman Abdul Rahman Mondal, among others, attended Rina's namaz-e-janaza.
"If we did not organise the funeral of the dead, it would be an injustice," Mizanur Rahman told Samakal.
He also said this practice will continue.
For decades Islamic leaders have rejected funeral prayers for sex workers because they view prostitution as immoral. Their bodies were thrown in the river or buried in the mud.
In the early 2000s, local authorities cleaned up parts of an abandoned land for unmarked graves, and the families would pay drug addicts to carry out the burial. The process usually took place during the dark of the night and without formal prayers.
On February 12, Hamida Begum became the first sex worker from Daulatdia to receive a formal Islamic funeral. This broke a longstanding taboo in Muslim majority Bangladesh where prostitution is legal but regarded by many as immoral.
