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.
Tunisia became a French Protectorate in At that time brothels and prostitution were legal in France and therefore also in Tunisia. Still controlled by Vichy France, the Tunisian government legalised the status of sex workers as "fonctionnaires" civil servants in 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 [13] 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.
Except in the cases provided for by the regulations in force, women who, by gestures or words, offer themselves to passers-by or engage in prostitution even occasionally, shall be punished from 6 months to 2 years' imprisonment and 20 To dinars of fine. Everyone who has had sexual intercourse with one of these women is considered as an accomplice and punished with the same penalty.
Generally clients are dealt with less severely, and usually only fined. Tunisia is a source, destination, and possible transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking.
