Back in , my friend and colleague, Zigor Aldama and I visited the Bangladesh brothels for the very first time. I was 26 years-old, with not much experience in journalism, and was about to discover one of the most important and touching stories I have worked on and developed up to date. I have never gotten over the fact that the story could have been done better, if I had more time. It is a curse that never seems to be on my side. This feeling has been lingering in the back of my mind ever since.
Until this year. This year, we were given the opportunity to go back, exactly five years after from our first visit. I was over the moon! For once in my life, nothing could go wrong. We made our first step into the brothel. We are finally back! We wanted to start off on the right foot and make a first good impression; show them how happy we were to see them and to explain why we were there again. We kept all the gear inside our bags, taking it nice and slow.
Before we knew what was happening, we felt an immediate cloud of rage and disapproval in the atmosphere. Some girls started to run away, but most of them covered their faces.
We were clueless to what was going on. Not a good way to startβ¦. As many of you may already know, most of the sex workers have been forced into that world for different reasons, but their identities and their current situation always remained unknown to their loved ones. And obviously, they wanted to keep it that way at all costs.
Two years ago, a European news crew visited this brothel. Needless to say, the videos were also viewed by people who were closed to the sex workers so the humiliation, anxiety and pain were an inevitable outcome. From that point on, all the girls were and presently are understandably hostile with anyone related to the media and journalism. We the journalists have betrayed their trust and caused an irreparable pain.
