In Foreign Parts: Seedy life of Pakistan's world-weary 'dancing girls' is caught on canvas

Plump courtesans such as Naila usually laze away the afternoon in darkened rooms, since most clients don't arrive at Lahore's old Heera Mandi quarter before 11pm. She laments that late-night customers prefer the vulgar "bump and grind" routines inspired by pop videos or Bollywood movies as a teaser for perfunctory sex.

Very few "nautch" (dancing) girls still perform the classical Urdu love songs and erotic dances that enchanted maharajas in Mogul times.

Naila, age 34 and tipping the scales at 15 stone (95kg), swigs liquor to get in the mood. Her baritone imbues the old lyrics with a palpable longing. "It's the voice of the whisky," she giggles. Her two youngest kids listen to rap, while her teenage daughters pout and primp.

She cranks up the volume on her tape recorder and huffs through the classic steps, fixing her gaze on Iqbal Hussain. Mr Hussain, a local painter who has chronicled her life on dozens of canvasses, champions the nautch traditions that his mother and sister used to practise.

Mr Hussain's campaign to preserve this remarkable neighbourhood of "Punjabi geishas" as a heritage site has met staunch opposition, particularly from Pakistan's religious fundamentalists. "The mullahs condemn me for promoting whoredom," he said, "and the cops resent me for showing their brutality towards prostitutes."

No one denies that nautch girls may be willing to have sex with paying clientele. This includes well-heeled politicians and industrialists as well as frustrated Lahori labourers. Though Naila's three daughters did not start turning tricks until they were 14, she began dancing when she was seven.

Generation after generation, these women are born into the flesh trade; in fact, a baby girl's birth is celebrated in this neighbourhood, unlike in most Pakistani communities.

Mr Hussain, who has witnessed the despair of his neighbourhood, added: "Things are changing for the worse. Fear of police drives the women to work through pimps. The women's work has become more dangerous."

Hina, who is Naila's middle daughter, was raped when she was 12. Earlier, three policemen turned on the girls in the bazaar and beat them with sticks, incensed that the comely teenagers had "the intention of inviting people upstairs".

Mr Hussain was astonished when Naila suggested this brutal episode as a theme for a painting, even though his narrative art usually reflects the family's personal routines.

Nowadays, working women are paid to drink shots and mime to songs in city bars. The women are often raped and robbed of their night's takings. There's no use reporting the crime, since a judge would blame the women.