LAHORE , Pakistan ( CNN ) -- It 's hot and sweaty in a rat-infested room in Lahore 's historic red light district , a neighborhood of narrow alleyways lined with brothels . A dancer does the `` mujra , '' a traditional dance banned by a judge for being `` vulgar , '' in Lahore , Pakistan . A barefoot , long-haired woman is gyrating and twirling on the carpet , to the beat of a four-man band whose drummer sweats profusely as he pounds out a furious rhythm . The dancer , who only gives her first name , Beenish , is performing a kind of Pakistani belly-dance called the mujra . Her harmonium player , a skinny bald man who squints through coke-bottle glasses , has been performing like this for the past 50 years . But he says the art form is dying out . `` That spark , the way it was in the past , is no more , '' said Ghulam Sarwar . Last fall , a judge in Lahore 's high court declared the mujra dance `` vulgar '' and banned it from being performed on stage . Some here say the government is cracking down on easy , `` immoral '' targets in an attempt to appease religious hard-liners like the Taliban . Islamist militants are believed to be responsible for a recent wave of bomb attacks in Lahore , targeting cinemas , theaters and cafes where young men and women fraternize together . `` It is a gesture of good will to pacify the mullahs and the Taliban , '' said Samia Amjad , a lawmaker in the provincial assembly . Though she is a member of an opposition political party , she said she supported the crackdown on vulgarity . `` I see it as an essential part of Islam . '' Dancers are n't the only targets of the court censors . In late March , the Lahore high court banned two female singers from recording new albums after ruling that they sang sexually explicit lyrics . `` If the current circumstances persist in Pakistan , '' said Noora Lal , one of the banned singers , `` then singing will die out in this country . '' Pakistan is a deeply conservative Muslim nation , where the punishment for blasphemy is the death sentence . But there is one person in Lahore who openly mocks the conservative establishment : painter and restaurant owner Iqbal Hussain . Though he said he has received multiple death threats from Islamist fundamentalists , Hussain continues to be Pakistan 's most vocal defender of prostitutes . All of the models portrayed in his paintings are sex workers . `` I portray them on canvas , portray them as human beings , '' Hussain said , `` They feel pain . They want their children to be educated . '' Hussain knows the industry intimately . He was born to a family of sex workers . His mother , a former prostitute , passed away last month at the age of 98 . The small , soft-spoken painter has turned the house he grew up in , an old four-story building with ornate wooden balconies , into a popular restaurant for tourists and wealthy Pakistanis . On one side of the house there is a brothel , on the other side , the 17th century Badshahi Mosque , one of the largest mosques in the world . In his subversive paintings , which Hussain said sell for more than $ 10,000 each , he highlights the overlap between Lahore 's sex industry and its religious community . In one canvas , hundreds of worshippers are depicted prostrating themselves around the mosque , while in the foreground , two women apply lipstick and makeup on a balcony . Hussain explained that the prostitutes in the painting were preparing to receive new customers as soon as the prayers in the mosque were over . Watch the dance being called `` immoral '' in Pakistan » . The painter claimed that on religious festivals , the brothels and dance halls in his neighborhood overflow with customers . `` They come from the northern areas with their turbans , '' Iqbal said , laughing . `` All coming to this area . They 're not going to the mosque ... but to the brothels ! '' Nevertheless , the rising tide of the Taliban in northwestern Pakistan has some residents of Lahore 's red light district worried . `` May Allah keep us safe from them , '' said Beenish , the mujra dancer . `` We are poor , humble people . They should not target this place . '' Photography by CNN 's Farhad Shadravan .
In Lahore 's red light district , Iqbal Hussain mocks Pakistan 's religious establishment . `` I portray [ sex workers ] on canvas , portray them as human beings , '' Hussain said . Painter has turned home into popular restaurant for tourists and wealthy Pakistanis . Rising tide of Taliban and threat of violence has some residents worried .