Dance bars are places in Kathmandu that pose as convenient fronts for prostitution. They litter the streets so that in a ten-minute walk we passed eight. Men stand outside to enthusiastically invite anyone giving the provocative sign a glance. Tonight we went to such a dance bar to do ministry. It was a difficult experience for me. I went in having expectations of grime and filth, drunk men being obscene and women stuck at their mercy, but that wasn’t what I walked into. The settings are clearly exploitative of women, but they are dressed up prettily so that it looks almost just like a karaoke bar. Lounge chairs are organized around tables throughout the room, there is a bar in the back, and at the front is a small stage with colorful lights and huge speakers. The stage is where girls take turns dancing, mostly by themselves, but occasionally in groups, while the audience watches quietly. The girls are fully clothed in dresses and high heels. When they finish dancing, they come to mingle with the crowd while men buy them drinks. The stage is open to anyone and many of the men who worked there went up on stage excited to show their choreographed performance. Strictly based on appearance, there is very little that stands out as sinister, at least at first… The place might not strike you as odd until you notice the male employees shuffle girls to and from groups of customers to mingle. You might not raise an eyebrow unless you are close enough to notice that underneath their makeup, the girls are only 14 or 15. You also might find yourself wondering after a couple of songs why the girls don’t seem to be on beat or really skilled in dancing at all. Another peculiarity that, if you found yourself in a dance bar, might peek your interest is their hours of operation. The dance bars are supposed to close at 11, but ours was busier between 10:30 and 11 than it had been all night. It turns out that is because after 11, the kind of business available escalates from just dancing to any sexual favors the men are willing to pay for. I was the only man in my group of World Racers and I did not interact much with the dancers. I wish that I had, but my intentions might have been misinterpreted. Meagan, Courtney and Hannah sat with a girl who kept coming back to them to talk when she could. She explained the hours of operation and how she did not finish working until 1:00AM.
I stayed in a corner observing while my teammates befriended some of the girls and copied down their phone numbers so they could meet for coffee. I learned later that the dancers confessed to my teammates they did not want to continue dancing in the bars. One girl of 21 said she had children and the money was good, so she stayed to pay the bills. The girls my team spoke with ranged from 21-25 (they said), but some of them looked hard-pressed to pull off 16. The vibe in the dance bar was an attempt at easy fun with the men bustling about smiling and bringing drinks, but knowing the real purpose makes the immediate friendliness all the more unsettling. I was expecting raw ugliness, but was even more upset by how it was dressed up under the facade of innocent entertainment. The lie in their operation just made the reality more disturbing. I left feeling heavy and frustrated, seeing God’s sons exploit his daughters. I was also overwhelmed by my good fortune. My life circumstances afforded me escape from the desperation that built those dance bars. I could have been one of the young men profiting from women’s mistreatment, but I was born into a safe family in the United States.
The circumstances surrounding these dance bars’ employees varies from case to case. Some girls employ themselves willingly at these bars, usually under circumstances of extreme poverty, like parental abandonment. There is also a great possibility that the women were trafficked in from villages with the promise of working in a café or restaurant. The good news is that our ministry host has a lot of experience in extracting women from lives of prostitution and bondage so the girls that said they want a way out will be provided the chance for a new life, God-willing. Now it is prayer time! Please pray for the success of our host in helping these girls. Also, please be praying for the Johns that visit the dance bars and the men that work there. We want to see a culture of respect for women take over in Nepal as its people realize their worth. My T-shirts for the World Race have the verse Amos 5:24 on them, saying, “but let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream.” These are my prayers here in Kathmandu.
Thank you for reading. Much love and many blessings.
