We are prostitutes...

reading this amazing book, about the rough childhood of a  boy growing up in a family of  courtesan´s under matriarchy, who finally turns into Pakistans most famouse painter, one rainy sunday afternoon, put me on the track of  IQBAL HUSSAIN

self portrait

 Hussain between Rembrandt and Delacroix

... born and raised in Pakistans disputed red light district Heera Mandi, he soon had to learn that in a family of sex workers and no men, boys are not very welcome, the only way to escape the boredom was painting
.....nowadays Iqbal Hussain is known as enfant terrible of Pakistans art scene, his  paintings of women from Heera Mandi (prostitutes), are for many people in the strictly islamic Pakistan a thorn in their side, thats why a lot of galleries refuse to display his works...

..... his paintings show real life secens, women crying, holing a mirror reflecting their past or just waiting and then there are other women, fat but beautiful with kids, their clothes awry, ravishing girls waiting what the day will bring, either anxiously or selfconfident and just admiring their own beauty

... still living  in Heera Mandi, where he gets all his inspiration from, he owns now a little cafe, there in the darkness of the small rooms he exhibits all the paintings this is also the place where he works and where the women come to, to pose for THEIR artist, in the morning, sometimes also in the afternoon depending on their mood however they please