by: Hayeon Lee

The names in this article have been changed to protect the identities of the women interviewed

“I’m happy. Why not? I’m not going to be doing this forever,” says Sonya, who works at Rock Inn, a 50-year-old bar in Hamra, Beirut. Rock Inn is famous for its hostesses and prostitutes, and with its unique entrance and d’cor, the bar gives customers the illusion of entering a hidden stone dungeon. An elegant woman in spite of her short, slit skirt and black fishnets, Sonya says she is 25 years old and studied Civil Engineering in her native Moldova. Unsatisfied with her low salary back home, she first came to Lebanon for a six-month stint more than a year ago. She returned a few months ago, she says, because of ‘Papi’, the Russian word for ‘Dad’, referring to her employer and the owner of the bar, who she says is ‘nice.’ Still, she asserts, “Hopefully, I won’t have to come back for a third time.”

The well-known Lebanese night scene would not be complete without its fair-skinned foreign women, who dance and tend to the sexual needs of male clients. Dubbed ‘Lebanon’s worst kept secret,’ these women usually enter the country with “artist visas.” Their passports are taken away by General Security at the airport as soon as they land and then given to a sponsor, as is the case with housemaids.

According to an official at General Security who wished to remain anonymous, each super night club hires anywhere between 10 and 40 female workers, and there are around 60 to 70 super night clubs in the country, which comes to about 1,600 ‘artists,’ not counting all the illegal establishments and freelance sex workers. The women usually work every night from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. as exotic ‘dancers,’ and occasionally during the day as escorts. [Read more...]