Dancing girls of Lahore calling time

 musicals anklets worn for centuries are now redundant spectacles from the city's famous dancing girls of Lahore came to an end because of deteriorating security. Many now face an uncertain future, with some turning to prostitution, Harun al-Rashid of the BBC.

The colorful musical girls dancing anklets in Mohallah ancient area of Lahore Shahi are now silent and sale.

This neighborhood crumbling old buildings is no longer a place for men to deviate from their arranged marriages and spend time with beautiful women trained in the arts of song, dance and seduction.

A few days ago, women in this area, popularly known as Heera Mandi, used to attract men wearing such anklets.

The vast majority of dancers did exactly as their name suggests-dance for a male clientele. Only a handful working in the sex trade.

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all Pakistani music festivals, theatre performances and other events have stopped being hosted here due to fear of terrorism "

historical end quote Dr Mubarak Ali Lahore In the 1950s, dancing girls were legitimised as" artists "by a high court order that allowed them to play for three evening hours. ' Secular ' Culture

Over the years, men of different backgrounds and social, economic and cultural, used to walk up and down this small road in search of beauty, dance, music and, in some cases, sexual favors.

The small and narrow road sleepy during the day, but awoke at night.

In the dark, the music used to ooze out of more than 300 small houses. But the bomb explosions near the bazaar have forced women to quit their businesses and leave for good.

Police spokesman Lahore Shahzad Asif Khan says that officers were able to provide women with adequate protection.

"This has been a secular culture," he said.

Many of the buildings in the area of Shahi Mohallah are falling into disrepair

"But unfortunately, for a period of time-and especially in the last seven or eight years-has grown extremism.

"Over the past 10 months alone, there were bursts of crackers forcing few women remaining to leave. Culture the girls dancing is almost non-existent now. "

' Very troubling '

ActionAid researcher that Daud Saqlain fears that the future bodes well for the former dancing girls, some of whom were forced into prostitution, because extremists are challenged to their performing relatively harmless dancing in public.

"In the last decade we have seen the unfortunate growth of domestic sex work.

"Due to poverty and limited opportunities, some women have had little choice but to switch from dance to the sex work.

"This is very worrisome and dangerous in General to our society."

While some women have moved into other areas of the city, others have led to places as far away as Britain and the United Arab Emirates.

Dr Saqlain says he is worried about their situation in these unknown places.

«If you engage in sex work there illegally, they have absolutely no right. '

Sanaa, 21, is a former ballerina and, like many of his contemporaries, is reluctant to talk in detail about its existence.

Shahi Mohallah area musicians are now finding it difficult to make ends meet

She said the BBC, she was in the United Kingdom three times and had made several visits to Dubai.

"For us, no matter where we just until we get the job," he said.

The departure of the dancing girls meant that dilapidated buildings in Shahi Mohallah now are full of shops, advertising skills of musicians who used to run for the dancing girls, but now they are offering their services for weddings and parties.

"Playing music for weddings and parties, we can hardly make ends meet. Previously, the work associated with dancing girls meant a lot of money, "a performer told the BBC.

' Buzz ' is gone

Many former dancers do not have turned to prostitution, but they have adjusted to the threat of security by setting up their own web sites in order to attract well-heeled customers to privately owned homes in middle class areas.

Aid workers say that this, too, presents dangers that women were much easier to protect where they were located in a particular area.

Punjab law Minister Rana Sanaullah Khan told the BBC that dancing girls performed a plea came at the end was because "security agencies have their apprehensions about activities until late at night".

"But if it can be a convenient timeframe, we think that mutual allows once".

Shahi Mohallah area of Lahore is much quieter than it used to be

Meanwhile, suffered a business at restaurants in the vicinity of Shahi Mohallah.

"Yes, the closure has hit us hard. Levels of our customers now are half of what they used to be. All the buzz around here has unfortunately gone, '' said Shahzada Pervaiz, owner of a well-known restaurant of 60-year-old boy named Phajja.

Members of the public on the streets of the area seem to be in two minds over the disappearance of the girls dancing.

While some said they were "morally corrupt", others said that it was sad that a tradition that had lasted for centuries should disappear in the twinkling of an eye.

Historian Dr Mubarak Ali told the BBC that at the end of the tradition of dancing girls was another nail in the coffin of artistic heritage and culture of Lahore, who had been "reduced from" radicalization "from 1970.

"Lahore before partition it was a very cosmopolitan city," he said.

"Women rode bikes and nobody has objected to it. But the winds of change began to blow because of the support given by the former dictator Gen. Zia ul-Haq to religious groups.

"All Pakistani music festivals, theatre performances and other events have been hosted here due to fear of terrorism."

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