9 Questions for Jannatul Mawa

CDB_77 10/01/2014

The Bangladeshi photographer spoke about the Indian nanny controversy in Manhattan and why servants in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh are treated so poorly

Over the past few weeks, relations between India and the United States have been strained over the arrest of Devyani Khobragade, 39, an Indian diplomat in Manhattan who allegedly paid her housekeeper less than the New York minimum wage.
A great deal has been written about the appalling treatment of domestic help in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh (and how attitudes are slowly changing). But one of the most refreshingly original takes is a photo essay called Close Distance by #Jannatul_Mawa, a documentary photographer and social activist in Bangladesh. Mawa got more than a dozen housekeepers in #Dhaka and the women they work for to pose for her sitting side by side. The goal: Show the distance between two people who often live under the same roof.
In an interview with Vocativ, Mawa spoke about the Indian diplomat in Manhattan and what it means to be spatially close but far apart in every other way.