Prostitution is illegal in Saudi Arabia , [ 1 ] and is punishable by imprisonment and fines. The Religious Police are responsible for carrying out floggings. Prostitutes may be whipped in public. Some of these have been carried out excessively and deaths have resulted.
Historically, prostitution was connected to slavery in Saudi Arabia. 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.
Saudi Arabia is a destination country for women subjected to forced prostitution. Saudi Arabia is one of the largest consumers of domestic workers. The Law requires that all of the expatriates in Saudi Arabia should have an employment contract while they are in the country.
Runaways are often kidnapped and forced into prostitution. In , the government did not report any prosecutions or convictions of alleged human traffickers. Contents move to sidebar hide.
Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikidata item. Sex trafficking [ edit ]. See also [ edit ]. Notes [ edit ]. Archived from the original on 23 December Retrieved 21 April Retrieved BBC News. Retrieved 25 October Saudi Arabia A Country Study.
