The brothels of Daulatdia: Sex workers to get 'honourable' funeral

Daulatdia is one of about 12 legal but frowned upon brothel areas operating in Bangladesh. [AFP / Munir UZ ZAMAN]

Often treated as less than human in life, there has been little dignity in death for the sex workers of one of the world's biggest brothels: their bodies frequently tossed into unmarked graves or dumped in the river. Until now.

On Thursday, Hamida Begum became the first sex worker from Bangladesh bordello Daulatdia to receive a formal Islamic funeral, breaking a longstanding taboo in Muslim majority Bangladesh where prostitution is legal but regarded by many as immoral.