LAHORE, Pakistan: The Netflix hit “Heeramandi” depicts the plush and powerful lives of courtesans in the 1940s, but there is little glamor for modern Pakistani sex workers in the faded red-light district where the series is set.

The eight-part show — subtitled “The Diamond Bazaar” in English — portrays courtesans in the “royal neighborhood” of pre-partition Lahore, once a hub of culture and political intrigue.

With dazzling Bollywood-style opulence, it shows women consorting with aristocrats, forging influential alliances and rivalries against the backdrop of India’s struggle for independence from British rule.

But in the derelict remains of the neighborhood, 65-year-old former sex worker Shagufta scoffed.

“This is not what Heera Mandi is like,” she told AFP, using a pseudonym to protect her identity.

“Now the girls just put their bodies on display,” explained Shagufta. “There is nothing left in Heera Mandi.”

Shagufta can trace back seven generations of women in her family who worked as “tawaifs” in Heera Mandi, and she began dancing and being prostituted at the age of 12.

While courtesans did command respect for their artistry in dance and music during the Mughal period, the show exaggerates the wealth and glamor of the British-ruled era in which it is set.

“It was never like this,” she said.

The glittering jewels and swooning melodrama of the show attracted nearly 11 million views in its first three weeks on Netflix, as well as a deluge of interest on social media.

Fascination has been split across Pakistan and India, where TikTok has lit up with videos of influencers dressing in traditional costumes and lip-syncing to the show’s songs and dialogues.

A sequence from a seductive classical dance inspired by the gait of an elephant — considered regal and dignified — has gone viral, with the dancer gracefully moving her hips from side to side.

Some vloggers have performed in front of shops selling shoes and musical instruments that have replaced the once-grand brothels, their crumbling art deco facades framing filthy alleyways.

But whether the show is breaking down barriers around sexuality in deeply conservative Pakistan or simply compounding them with titillation is up for debate.

Naveen Zaman, a cultural researcher, is excited about the renewed attention Heera Mandi is getting.

“People are once again talking about the tawaif culture,” he said. “So actually, they are starting researching about these topics which were considered taboo in the past years.”

For Zaman, it is a step toward reviving an uncomfortable history.

“Old connections are being built here,” he said.

The courtesans were at the height of their power in the Mughal era, which lasted from the 1500s to the mid-1800s.

During British rule, Victorian morality codes were threatened by the women’s influence over the adoring local aristocracy, and the “diamond bazaar” was relegated to a red-light zone.

Decades after Pakistan gained independence, the dictatorship of President Zia ul-Haq introduced hard-line Islamic reforms which pushed sex work further into the shadows.

A police crackdown in 2009 finally shuttered Heera Mandi’s brothels and ended the music and dancing with which sex workers entertained their clients.

For 38-year-old Noor — also a pseudonym — the Netflix series does not wash away the stigma of being a sex worker from Heera Mandi.

Unlike in the series, where the term “tawaif” evokes ideas of art and etiquette, sex work in present-day Pakistan is a raw and dispiriting business.

Forced into sex work when she was a child to support her family, Noor is ostracized even by her relatives for the work she does.

“Women in this field are not considered honorable and are not treated with respect. It doesn’t matter how pious they become, they will never be respected. People will always call her a tawaif.”

“Even though in other areas of the city more sex work occurs — because of Heera Mandi’s reputation this place is still notorious,” she said.

Classical Indian dancer Manjari Chaturvedi has been working to reclaim the storied culture of courtesans for 15 years.

In her New Delhi studio, she called the Netflix series a “missed opportunity” which “could have created a different narrative for women, who were stigmatized for many centuries for the work they did.”

“The saddest thing that a cinema like this does is it again brings sexuality into the foreground rather than the art, and again it brings the same stigma,” Chaturvedi said.

KARACHI: Thousands of people, including a large number of women and children, on Sunday rallied in Pakistan’s largest city of Karachi to urge the world to force Israel to stop attacks on Gaza and hold it accountable for its “crimes against humanity.”

The war on Gaza broke out after Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7, which killed more than 1,100 people, in response to the deteriorating condition of the Palestinian people living under Israeli occupation.

Israel launched a retaliatory offensive, widely viewed as disproportionate, in which more than 35,000 Palestinians, mostly women and children, have lost their lives, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Sunday’s rally in Karachi was organized by the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party and attended by thousands of men, women, and children, with participants carrying placards and banners, and chanting slogans in support of the Palestinians.

“Israel should be tried for its crimes against humanity and it should be forced to immediately stop the genocide of the Palestinians,” JI chief Naeem-ur-Rehman said, urging Muslim rulers to get united in support of Palestine.

He hailed the youth worldwide, including in the Western world, for criticizing their own governments’ pro-Israel policies.

“The youth in Pakistan and worldwide are at the forefront to raise voice against the Israeli terrorism against people of Palestine,” Rehman said.

“The US and the West’s state-sponsored terrorism against the innocent people of Palestine by Israel has exposed all of them and their double standards.”

Zeb Irfan, an A-levels student, lamented that children were dying in Gaza, but the world leaders didn’t just care.

“People are dying, mostly like children, elderly people, mothers, fathers, all those people like over there in Palestine, mostly in Gaza, Rafah and all states are dying. We are living in this world, they just don’t care,” she said.

Irfan said she attended the protest to tell the people of Palestine that she stood by them. “My demand is like to tell them [world community] that they [Palestinians] deserve peace, they deserve freedom,” she added.

Usman Shaikh, who works at a private firm, urged more people to come out in support of the Palestinians and against Israeli strikes on Gaza.

“I want to let them [people of Palestine] know that we are standing with them and Pakistanis are also in solidarity with them, we have to come out,” he said.

Asma Saleem, a teacher, said what was happening in Gaza was a “genocide.”

“But we can just see the silence everywhere, there is no steps being taken, but except for the protest that we guys are asking the governments of all Muslim countries to get together and take a step ahead to stop this genocide,” she said.

“They [Palestinians] are trying to get shelter, they [Israeli forces] are targeting those sheltered areas, they are also stopping the aid from reaching those Muslims. We should stop this war as soon as possible.”