Prostitution in Tunisia is regulated [ 1 ] [ 2 ] [ 3 ] and confined to two small areas, one in Sfax and the other, Sidi Abdallah Guech in Tunis. Outside these two areas prostitution is illegal. Although the number of registered prostitutes is low, many work illegally, especially since the closure of most of the red-light districts as a consequence of the Jasmine Revolution in During the Ottoman period in Tunisia , prostitutes were taxed according to appearance; the better looking the woman, the more she had to pay.
Prostitution was also connected to slavery in Tunisia. The Islamic Law formally prohibited prostitution. However, since the principle of concubinage in Islam in Islamic Law allowed a man to have sexual intercourse with his female slave, prostitution in the Islamic world was commonly practiced by a pimp selling his female slave on the slave market to a client, who was then allowed to have sex with her as her new owner; the client would then cancel his purchase and return the slave to her pimp on the pretext of discontent, which was a legal and accepted method for prostitution in the Islamic world.
Due to the destitute state of former female slaves and the lack of professions for women in Tunisian society, many former female slaves turned to prostitution after manumission; and several decades later, many prostitutes were of slave descent.
Tunisia became a French protectorate in At that time brothels and prostitution were legal in France and therefore also in Tunisia. Clients of illegal prostitutes were also criminalised as accomplices. Regulated areas of prostitution were present in most cities. After Tunisia was occupied by Axis forces in WWII, as in other occupied territories, military brothels were set up, often using interned Jews.
In , the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior amended the decree to reflect the social and legislative developments the country had undergone. All but those in Tunis [ 1 ] and Sfax [ 15 ] were closed, those two being saved by the action of locals preventing the fundamentalists entering the areas until police and military arrived. In there was a petition to the Ministry of the Interior to allow the red light district in Sousse to reopen but this was unsuccessful.
