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Documentary Photography and Video


The Garment Girls, Bangladesh

2015 - 2016

Women count up to 85% of the more than 4 million workers in ± 5000 garment factories. They are cheaper than men and more vulnerable in dealing with the management, in accepting the bad and unhealthy working conditions.

The ‘Garment Girls’, as they are called, work hard to support themselves and their families, but their most pressing concern is the lack of dignity in this job. They live with roommates in poor neighbourhoods or in dormitories that are mostly located in slums and often without their children, left behind with the grandparents in the countryside.

Most of the women have no choice. A side effect is that the job makes them more independent and they escape being married off young.