“Every day, maidservants take care of the beds and sofas with their hands but they are neither allowed to sit nor sleep on them.”
This is Jannatul Mawa, a Bangladeshi social activist and documentary photographer who "believes in the medium’s potential to combat exploitation."
Through her photo series Close Distance, she attempts to draw attention to the nuanced dynamic between South Asian women and their housemaids.
All photos taken in households in Dhaka (Bangladesh) and posted with permission from the photographer.
Having live-in domestic help is ubiquitous in the South Asian upper middle class. Because of the gendered nature of household work, the help is typically female.
These women usually relocate from rural parts of South Asia to big cities, where they are employed to live and work for affluent families.
