Prostitution in Morocco: Facts and Social Realities

Nov 07, 2025 0

Prostitution in Morocco is a multifaceted issue influenced by poverty, social norms, and legal frameworks. Despite being illegal, it persists in various forms throughout the country. This article examines the realities of prostitution in Morocco, including the factors that drive individuals into sex work, the challenges they face, and the efforts to combat human trafficking and exploitation.

In Morocco, a North African and mostly Muslim kingdom, extramarital sex is illegal, and women are supposed to be virgins before they marry. But prostitution is common in Morocco and is transacted openly in cafés, hotels and certain clubs.

The Realities of Prostitution

Souad, 39, hastily enters her second-floor apartment in Tangier's old walled neighborhood of souks, mosques and ancient houses. She rips off her long, traditional robe and headscarf and squeezes a green sweatshirt into her jeans, touching red lipstick to her lips, swollen and bruised by a recent beating from a client. Souad has been a prostitute for more than 20 years. In the next room a baby boy-her roommate's-crawls through the doorway. "This is the real prostitution in Morocco," says Souad, walking a pan of yesterday's couscous over to where the boy's mother, also a sex worker, is dressing her older child. "Prostitution that feeds these kids, that pays for a place for them to sleep, that buys the next meal."

Souad, who didn't want her last name to be used, has been selling sex in Tangier since she left her family because of the shame of her divorce at the age of 15. She still sends them money each month, but they are not aware of how she gets it.

A Moroccan government study, released last May, counts over 19,000 prostitutes in the cities of Rabat, Agadir, Tangier and Fez. A majority are separated or divorced, and about half have dependent children. One 1 in 4 does not use condoms.

The threat of physical violence is a reality for many Moroccan sex workers, including Hanan, 33, a friend of Souad's in Tangier. Her mouth is swollen from a beating given her by a client after she tried to get him to pay for their sexual intercourse.

Hanan describes her life as a gamble. Orphaned as a child, she says, she escaped abusive brothers and married an abusive husband, who threatened her with a knife and threw her onto the street, pregnant.

"You can imagine the situation-if you talk with someone to get help and he wants your body," she trails off, tears beginning to spill over her eyeliner onto her black fur-lined sweater. Her curly jet-black hair is pulled back into a bun, showing a round face and full features. During our interview, Souad holds Hanan's hand and holds back her own tears.

According to a Moroccan government study, there are more than 4,200 prostitutes in Tangier, Morocco's port city and a hub for expatriates like Paul Bowles and William Burroughs. Souad lives on one of many alleys in the old medina, where children kick around deflated toy balls in the narrow streets and everyone knows one another by name. But most Moroccan men don't have money here; many are jobless, with unemployment at 10 percent nationally. Souad says she finds her clients at the few remaining discotheques in town. Before leaving her apartment for the night, she checks the contents of the box on her cluttered dresser-keys to clients' houses.

"You have to be careful of being raped or abused by some clients," she says. "The streets are so dangerous nowadays...and they abuse us."

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Social Perceptions and Legal Status

Many Moroccans hold harsh views of women who prostitute themselves. Rachid, 30, a security guard in Rabat, Morocco's capital, is perhaps typical. Rachid, who refused to give his last name because of the subject of our interview, says he believes blaming poverty is a feeble excuse for women who break holy rules and bring dishonor to their families. "A girl must never forsake her dignity, no matter what the reason is," he says. "Her honor is her capital, and selling it is an unforgiven crime that is totally against our education and religion."

Yet men and women meet in cafés, in hotels, in nightclubs to negotiate la passe, or the price for a sexual transaction. In many cafés in the late afternoon, female prostitutes sit by themselves drinking tea or coffee, wearing leather or tight clothing and makeup, waiting for potential clients to approach them.

Abdessamad Dialmy, a researcher on sexuality and identity at the University Mohammed V in Rabat, says Moroccans are aware that prostitution exists in their country. "We know that we do that, but we don't say that we do that, and we don't want others to say that we do that," he says.

Prostitution is prohibited by law in Morocco, punishable by imprisonment, Dialmy says. Still, the Ministry of Health financially supports public medical centers and nongovernmental organizations where anyone, including sex workers, can get anonymous HIV screenings and other services without being turned in to the authorities.

Dialmy says the government allows prostitution because it is an answer to unemployment. "The state prefers prostitution over poverty," he says. "The law is there, but it is not always totally applied."

A majority of the women in the health ministry study said they are financially supporting at least one other person, often at least three others. Women who frequent cafés and public places, acting independently and without any sort of "pimp," make an average of 200 dirhams, or about $20, per sexual transaction, according to Azzouz Ettoussi, president of the Rabat section of Organisation Panafricaine de Lutte Contre le Sida (Pan-African Organization Against AIDS), which is part of the Ministry of Health.

Some find clients only occasionally, perhaps to pay an electric bill or support a child's educational needs. Ettoussi says there are also some prostitutes who attract a well-heeled clientele at expensive bars and nightclubs, men who can pay from 300 to 2,000 dirhams (between $30 and $200).

Though poverty and domestic abuse are primary factors driving women to prostitution, some Moroccan sex workers say they enjoy lives that are liberated and independent.

Selma, 22, left an abusive father just six months ago in Salé. She supports herself through sex work with a wealthy clientele and says she enjoys her life, which consists of daily trips to a popular nightclub in the Hassan district of Rabat.

"Leaving my family and leaving home, I got a new punch, a new power," Selma says, cigarette in hand as she sits in a café in an upscale neighborhood of Rabat. "No one controls me now."

Selma is a devout Muslim, praying every day and going to the mosque. This is common among Moroccan sex workers, says Dialmy, the sex researcher. He says many have strong religious beliefs and feel a sense of guilt about their work, praying to God for forgiveness and hoping to go back to a "normal" life, one involving marriage and other work. Some use drugs or alcohol, like Souad who sometimes shares a joint with her peers in the dark corner of a café in Tangier's old medina.

Abdel Issaoui, 24, a student in Tetuoan in northern Morocco, says many young men turn to prostitutes because they need to learn how sex works and they have easier access to sex workers than to Moroccan girls who are encouraged to be virgins. These same men often judge prostitutes as sinful and undesirable. Selma, for one, scoffs at this paradox, refusing to care what those around her think or say about her work.

Human Trafficking and Exploitation

Morocco is a source, destination, and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to forced labor and sex trafficking. According to a November 2015 study conducted by the Moroccan government, with support by an international organization, children are exploited in Morocco for labor, domestic work, begging, and sex trafficking.

Some female undocumented migrants, primarily from Sub-Saharan Africa and a small but growing number from South Asia, are coerced into prostitution. Criminal networks operating in Oujda on the Algerian border and in the northern coastal town of Nador force undocumented migrant women into prostitution.

Some female migrants, particularly Nigerians, who transit through Oujda are forced into prostitution once they reach Europe. International organizations, local NGOs, and migrants report unaccompanied children and women from Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, and Cameroon are highly vulnerable to sex trafficking in Morocco.

Moroccan women and children are exploited in sex trafficking, primarily in Europe and the Middle East. Moroccan women forced into prostitution abroad experience restrictions on movement, threats, and emotional and physical abuse.

Given its easy accessibility to Europe, the large number of impoverished children and the taboo nature of this issue, Morocco is the perfect destination for sex tourism and child sexual exploitation. Moreover, the weak legal and law enforcement structures in implementing and protecting children’s rights is another key element in continuing this form of violence against children.

According to the US Department of State’s 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report on Morocco, states that sexual exploitation of children in the context of travel and tourism persisted in major Moroccan cities; and that the sex offenders involved were predominantly from Europe and the Middle East.

Government Efforts to Combat Trafficking

The Government of Morocco does not fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. The government demonstrated increasing efforts compared to the previous reporting period; therefore Morocco remained on Tier 2.

The government demonstrated increasing efforts by investigating and prosecuting more trafficking cases and convicting slightly more traffickers compared to the previous year-all under the 2016 anti-trafficking law. It also established an inter-ministerial anti-trafficking committee to coordinate anti-trafficking policies and programs across ministries and created a specialized unit to combat trafficking among Moroccans overseas and migrants in the country.

The government increased its law enforcement efforts. Law 27.14 criminalized sex and labor trafficking and prescribed penalties of five to 10 years imprisonment and fines of up to $53,465, which were sufficiently stringent, and with regard to sex trafficking, commensurate with penalties for other serious crimes, such as rape.

The government maintained minimal efforts to identify and protect trafficking victims. As in past years, the government remained without a formal process and did not report proactive efforts to identify trafficking victims, including within vulnerable populations such as irregular migrants.

The government increased efforts to prevent human trafficking. In November 2017, the government finalized a decree to establish a national inter-ministerial anti-trafficking commission as required by the 2016 anti-trafficking law, which remained pending approval by the Councils of Government and Ministers at the end of the reporting period.

The Film "Much Loved" and its Impact

Prostitution has become a major topic throughout Morocco since Nabil Ayouch's Much Loved, a film highlighting prostitution in Marrakech, was banned by the Ministry of Communications. The movie, which is fiction, focuses on the lives and camaraderie of four Moroccan female prostitutes-featuring vivid party and sex scenes and frisky language.

Its May premiere at the Cannes Film Festival prompted a fiery reaction from some Moroccans, who protested outside the parliament headquarters in Rabat, held heated online discussions and even made death threats to the actors. Loubna Abidar, an actress who played one of the prostitutes in the film, fled to France after being attacked in Casablanca last November by what she said was a knife-wielding gang.

Prostitutes say their daily struggles-abuse, financial problems, run-ins with police and the fear of AIDS-are not the main focus of the film, Much Loved, with its focus on luxury prostitutes.

It wasn't just conservative Moroccans who took issue with the movie. Some moderates and liberals, especially women, were also upset. "We don't deny there's prostitution but you can't make it sound like it's that big."

But not everyone in Morocco was dismissive of the film. "It's the reality Moroccans don't want to see," said one man in an online video, external. Others put the anger this film stirred down to a cultural tendency to avoid airing dirty laundry in public.

And despite the ban, there still seems to be a large interest in the film. BBC Trending found clips and copies of the film - including raw footage unseen in the final version - circulating widely online.

Mariam El Maslouhi, , externala Moroccan blogger and activist, told BBC Trending why she thinks Moroccans reacted so strongly towards the film. "Westerners and French Moroccans loved the film because it gave them a window into a forbidden world, but for people who live in Morocco this is a story we know well and the film didn't offer anything new," she told BBC Trending.

But Maslouhi says she doesn't support the ban: "In this issue of course I stand by Ayouch (the film's director). We can't always just do nice films about Morocco."

Alongside the dark seaboard of Tangier, where construction on a new port has torn down all but two discotheques on the shore-which means fewer clients for her-Souad stops in her tracks to give a few dirham to an injured woman begging on the sidewalk.

Shrugging, she says, "That could be me one day."

Kayla Dwyer spent several months in Morocco on an SIT Study Abroad program and produced this story in association with Round Earth Media (www.RoundEarthMedia.org).

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Table: Key Facts on Prostitution in Morocco

Aspect	Details
Legality	Prohibited by law, punishable by imprisonment
Estimated Number of Prostitutes	Over 19,000 in Rabat, Agadir, Tangier, and Fez
Common Locations	Cafés, hotels, nightclubs
Government Support	Financial support for HIV screenings and medical services
Average Income	$20 per sexual transaction for independent sex workers
Driving Factors	Poverty, domestic abuse, unemployment
Vulnerable Populations	Undocumented migrants, unaccompanied children