“She Will Eat Your Shirt”: Foreign Migrant Women as Brothel Keepers in Port Said and along the Suez Canal, 1880-1914

Prostitution as Business and Survival, 1880-1914

Abstract

This article explores the multiple ways in which those foreign nationals in Egypt between 1880 and 1914 who were involved in prostitution, especially female foreign keepers, navigated both extra-territorial legal privileges and local attempts at prostitution control. It argues that foreign women in the Suez Canal area and especially Port Said in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century did not simply remain untouched by local authorities but had to come up with ever-changing solutions to make their industry thrive in the face of evolving legislation. This article also highlights that an odd partnership came to be, wherein foreign women in the prostitution business sought and obtained assistance to circumvent regulation and surveillance from their consular representatives, who, in turn, used these subjects to advance their extraterritorial pretenses. Understanding the lives of foreign prostitutes and keepers in Port Said is only possible within the mesh of the consular system and of Egyptian police that they both tried to eschew and harness to their own benefit and, sometimes, for sheer survival. I contextualize the individual life stories buried deep within archival folders of the French and Italian diplomatic archives with sources from the Egyptian National Archive and published materials. Overall, legislating prostitution in Egypt was a fraught undertaking. It could potentially re-define the reach of local authorities over the foreigners dwelling in the country. At once, prostitution regulations, while imposing restrictions and making demands on bordello managers, actually recognized their right to conduct their trade. In turn, these migrant women were well aware of extant regulations, potential threats to their businesses, and the ways to actively dodge them.