طوائف
ṭawā’if
courtesan
Arabic
ṭāʾifa "group, band" (root ṭ-w-f "to go around"), plural ṭawāʾif. In Mughal and Lucknow Urdu, the word narrowed to "courtesan-entertainer".
I was quite young when I mentioned in passing that I wanted to become a singer. The immediate response of my father was that it was something done by Tawaifs. I did not know what that meant but I immediately knew that it was something bad. There went that idea.