Garden Town, Lahore, is a study in contrasts. By day, it is a bustling, respectable enclave where the scent of jasmine and exhaust fumes mingle. Students spill out of universities, families visit the local parks, and the air hums with the commerce of middle-class Pakistan.
But as dusk paints the sky a deep indigo, another narrative begins to unfold beneath the streetlights and behind the high walls: the oldest profession, modernized and filtered through the digital hustle of a rapidly changing city.
The landscape of sex work has transformed dramatically in Lahore. Gone are the days when specific red-light districts were the sole nexus of the trade. Today, the profession is decentralized, discreet, and powered by technology, making areas like Garden Town—central, affluent, and transient—unwitting hubs.
The Digital Veil
The modern Lahore ‘call girl’ rarely solicits from a street corner. Her marketplace is the internet. Encrypted messaging apps, veiled social media profiles, and curated dating platforms serve as the new bazaar. The journey for the prospective client often begins with a few targeted keywords, leading them to a network of handlers, agents, or the women themselves.
In Garden Town specifically, the ecosystem thrives on its anonymity. Many of the women operating here are transients—students supplementing meager incomes, women escaping abusive situations, or those simply drawn by the higher earning potential afforded by the area’s wealthy clientele. Their rented apartments, often in high-rise buildings near busy commercial centres like Kalma Chowk or Barkat Market, serve as temporary safe havens or meeting points.
The transaction is defined by speed and discretion. A photo is shared, a rate is negotiated, and a location pin drops. The entire exchange is designed to minimize risk and maximize efficiency. Clients are often professionals—businessmen visiting from Islamabad, expatriates, or local elites who rely on the area’s central location for clandestine meetings.
Navigating the Double Life
For the women involved, life in Garden Town is a fragile balancing act. They must maintain the facade of a normal life—a student, a working professional, a tenant—while navigating a perilous, highly judgmental environment.
The stress is immense. Beyond the danger inherent in meeting strangers, there is the ever-present threat of exposure, exploitation by handlers, and harassment by local authorities who often demand bribes to look the other way. They live perpetually out of sync with society, where judgment lurks in every glance and whisper.
Yet, for some, the life offers a form of independence denied to them in traditional domestic structures. They control their own finances, their own hours (to an extent), and make choices that, while socially condemned, offer immediate economic security in a volatile economy.
The Economic Undercurrent
The reality is that sex work in Garden Town—and across modern Lahore—is fundamentally an economic phenomenon. It is driven by the stark financial inequalities of a developing nation where opportunities for women are often limited and poorly compensated.
The price of discretion is high, and the women of Garden Town know their market value. They offer not just intimacy, but temporary escape from the rigid strictures of Pakistani society. They represent a secret freedom purchased in hushed tones, away from the scrutiny of family and community.
Silent Witnesses
The residents of Garden Town are often silent witnesses to this hidden economy. They may notice the expensive cars arriving late at night, the women who seem to leave their apartments only after dark, or the peculiar blend of affluence and secrecy that defines certain blocks.
Yet, a mutual agreement of silence often prevails. The respectable façade of the neighbourhood must be maintained. The unspoken rule is: what happens behind closed doors, stays behind closed doors.
Garden Town, then, is more than just a place on the map. It is a microcosm of modern Lahore: a city struggling to reconcile its deeply traditional values with the forces of globalization, technology, and economic necessity. Here, the scent of jasmine gives way to the scent of secrets, a quiet testament to the economic desperation and complex freedoms found in the city’s shadows.
