Avani

The 14-year-old Avani used to live with her mother in a small village in Bangladesh. Her mother is a sex worker by profession. She realized that her profession as a sex worker could never give her daughter a regular happy life. She wanted her daughter to go to school and provide her with a bright future. That is why she wanted Avani to complete her education, because she then would be able to find a better job and secured life.

Avani’s mother made it possible for her to go to school. But because of COVID-19, the formal education institutions remained closed. Because her mother wanted Avani to be safe, she sent her to a relative. But the local teenage boys, men in that area, repeatedly teased her in the means of expressing their love for her, sending her gift and money etc.

One day Avani was on her way to her relative’s house, when a man unexpectedly blocked her road, grabbed her to a nearby bush and jumped on her. The man raped and beat her before she could even scream for help. The attacker left her there on the bush.

After this, Avani only wanted to go to her mother again. With the help of the locals, she returned to her. Her mother listened to everything that had happened and felt sad and helpless. She felt even more petrified while her co-workers, other sex workers, started saying she should involve her daughter in her profession too. But she didn’t want her daughter to work there or experience anything she had to experience.

The mother took her daughter to another relative in the nearby village. But what Avani’s mother did not know was that this relative would push Avani into forced sexual exploitation outside the brothel while the mother was working inside the brothel.