Lebanon’s prostitution paradox

Often referred to as “the world’s oldest profession,” prostitution has existed across societies for thousands of years. Governments have regulated it, tolerated it, criminalized it and attempted to eliminate it, yet the exchange of sexual services has persisted through vastly different legal and social systems. Lebanon is no exception, the country once had licensed brothels and a formal system regulating prostitution. Today, that system has effectively disappeared, while prostitution continues largely underground. Behind that legal history are vastly different experiences.

“I open my legs to feed my children,” one woman said. For her, prostitution was not described as liberation, a profession or even a choice. It was a way to survive. Others, however, argue that consensual adult sex work can be a choice and that treating everyone who sells sex as a victim removes their agency. If prostitution has persisted despite centuries of regulation and prohibition, how realistic is it to expect criminalization to eliminate it? And if it cannot, could legalization or decriminalization offer Lebanon a safer alternative?

When prostitution was legal

Lebanon’s modern legal relationship with prostitution dates back to the French Mandate, when a system was established allowing it to operate under state regulation. The area around today’s Zaitunay Bay was once part of Beirut’s wider Zeitoun nightlife district, near the licensed brothels of Mutanabbi Street that formed the city’s former red-light district. Under the 1931 system, brothels could not open or change ownership without a licence issued by the governor of the relevant area, after consultation with the police. Lawyer Mouhana Ishak, who works with women’s rights organization KAFA, said the old regulatory framework has never entirely disappeared from Lebanon’s legal texts. The legal framework survived on paper while the mechanism necessary to participate in it disappeared, prostitution itself did not.

A law caught between two systems

Lebanon’s Penal Code addresses prostitution through Articles 523 to 529. These provisions criminalize prostitution itself, as well as recruitment, coercion, facilitation and profiting from another person’s prostitution. They also punish attempted offences and impose harsher penalties when someone abuses a position of authority or trust. Lawyer Mouhana Ishak, who works with KAFA, said these provisions can conflict with Lebanon’s anti-trafficking law. A woman subjected to exploitation may be recognized as a trafficking victim while also facing prosecution for prostitution. The law contains another imbalance: although sellers, facilitators and profiteers can be prosecuted, the buyer is not criminalized simply for purchasing sex. “The client is not prosecuted in prostitution cases,” Ishak said.

Criminalization has not eliminated the industry in Lebanon; instead, it has adapted. One controversial manifestation is Lebanon’s ‘super nightclub’ industry, where foreign women entering under artist visas may face exploitation and trafficking. Operating underground can create risks of its own,one woman described being raped, beaten and robbed by a client. “I went to one man who raped me from behind, beat me and robbed me,” she said. “I could have died.” When selling sex can itself expose someone to prosecution, reporting violence becomes more complicated. This is one of the central arguments for decriminalization: someone should be able to report rape, assault or exploitation without simultaneously fearing prosecution for selling sex.

Legalization or decriminalization?

Legalization and decriminalization are often treated as interchangeable, but they offer different approaches. Under legalization, prostitution is permitted within a regulatory framework. Establishments may require licenses, workers may need to register and the state can establish rules surrounding health, safety and working conditions. Decriminalization generally removes criminal penalties surrounding consensual adult sex work without necessarily creating a separate licensing system. Trafficking, coercion, rape and assault remain crimes, but consensual sex work itself is no longer criminalized. For either change to happen in Lebanon, legislation would have to be amended. Ishak explained that because prostitution is defined as an offence through the Penal Code, removing its criminal status would require changing the relevant provisions.

Supporters of decriminalization argue that removing criminal penalties could allow sex workers to report violent clients, access healthcare and take measures to protect themselves without fearing arrest. Legalization could provide additional protections through regulated establishments, but it creates another problem: anyone unable or unwilling to obtain a license could remain underground. Registration could provide legal recognition while officially identifying someone as a sex worker in a society where prostitution carries enormous stigma. “It destroys your reputation,” one woman said. “It stays a stigma forever.” Decriminalization could avoid some of these barriers by removing the criminal offence rather than requiring government permission to sell sex. Neither system, however, automatically eliminates exploitation.

The argument against both

KAFA rejects both legalization and full decriminalization. Ghina, a representative of the organization, said KAFA views prostitution as a form of violence and exploitation against women. It supports an abolitionist approach in which women in prostitution are not criminalized, while buyers and people profiting from prostitution are targeted instead. This is not a universally accepted position. Supporters of full decriminalization and sex-worker rights advocates argue that adults can voluntarily choose sex work and that automatically defining everyone who sells sex as a victim can deny their agency. They also argue that criminalizing clients can continue pushing transactions underground.

The experiences of women in Lebanon show why neither answer captures every situation. One woman said she fled home at 15 after experiencing severe sexual violence from her father. Another described exploitation by her husband, “My husband took me as flesh and threw me away as bones.”  A third said $1,500 was paid to her husband before she was filmed having sexual relations with another man, the recording was then used to threaten her. These experiences involve coercion and should not be treated as equivalent to an adult independently choosing to sell sexual services. Poverty does not automatically remove someone’s ability to make decisions, but the choice between prostitution and homelessness is different from a choice made by someone with several secure alternatives. The challenge is creating a legal framework capable of protecting someone who chooses to sell sex while identifying and protecting someone who never meaningfully had that choice.

Could it realistically work in Lebanon?

Even if Lebanon decided to legalize prostitution, implementation would be complicated. Lebanon would need to determine licensing, registration, labour protections, inspections and how to prevent traffickers from exploiting the legal system. Migrant and refugee women create further questions surrounding residency and employment rights. Lebanon would still have to determine how businesses and third parties should be regulated and where legitimate activity ends and exploitation begins. If a woman wants to leave but cannot find another job, afford housing or escape an abusive partner, simply telling her she is free to leave accomplishes very little. Reform would therefore need to exist alongside housing, employment, healthcare, psychological support and stronger mechanisms for escaping trafficking and abuse.

An industry that has outlived the laws around it

Legalization could bring parts of the industry under state oversight, decriminalization could remove criminal penalties surrounding consensual adult sex work while maintaining laws against trafficking, coercion and violence. But maintaining the current system is also a policy choice. Under it, according to Ishak, a consenting adult selling sex can be prosecuted while the client is not criminalized simply for purchasing it. If prostitution has persisted across societies for thousands of years despite repeated attempts to suppress it, perhaps the more realistic question for Lebanon is no longer whether the law can make it disappear. It is which legal system gives the people living within it the greatest protection, autonomy and genuine ability to choose whether to stay or leave.