Sex Work in Iran: Nearly Half of Survey Respondents Have Been Clients of The Sex Industry
Despite the sporadic information available about sex workers, commonly known as prostitutes, there is little information about their clients in Iran. In a new survey conducted by Iran Open Data, more than 40% of participants stated that they have used sexual services at least once. Among the respondents of the poll, 30% of customers were married, 7% solicited services from the same sex, and 4% of women used these services. Female clients solicited sexual services from the same sex more than from the opposite sex.
Some call it “the oldest profession”, while others consider it a sign of the degradation of human relationships. The fact of the matter is, that more or less and legally or illegally, escort, prostitution, or sexual services exists in all societies.
And Iranian society is no exception. Despite religious prohibitions, moral opposition, and legal sanctions, prostitution continues to be present in Iran today. For the same religious, moral, and legal prohibitions, prostitution takes place in secrecy. Like any other covert activity on the black market, information about the sale of sexual services is unclear and inaccurate, and incomprehensive.
Unofficial data suggests that there are at least 10,000 prostitutes in Tehran. Other data shows that the female prostitution age has dropped to near 13 years of age. It is certainly conceivable that the rise of poverty and inequality has contributed to the rise of prostitution in recent years.
The quantitative expansion of prostitution has been accompanied by an expansion of supplier and delivery methods. In addition to the younger women, more married women and men are entering the sex services market. Also, more and more women provide sexual services to other women.
Suppliers use cyberspace to connect with customers and use massage parlors, private massage services, and religious pretense to provide their services. With the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, sex market has experienced fluctuations.
Although there is some sporadic information about the supply side of this business, there is no information about the customers of these services. To somewhat remedy this deficiency, Iran Open Data posed a few questions about this subject to social media users in Iran. The results show a glimpse of the characteristics of demand in sex markets in Iran.
This poll was available to users for about a month, from February 12 to March 11, 2022. During this time, 3,407 individuals have participated in the poll. The attributes of the received data are: 97% of the participants were urbanites and the rest were living in rural areas; they were from 31 provinces; most of the participants lived in Tehran; South Khorasan had the lowest participation; participants' average age was 33; 84% chose male, 15% female, and 1% “other” as their gender; 55% were single, 38% were married, and 6% were separated or divorced.
Number of Customers
- About 43% of participants state they have purchased sexual services for a fee.
- Women purchase sexual products less than men. 4% of women and 25% of men state that they have purchased sexual services.
- 30% of married individuals state that they have paid for sexual services.
- Single, separated, and divorced individuals are more likely to pay for sexual services than married individuals.
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Frequency of Use
- Clients state that they use these services, on average, 17 times a year.
- Half of clients paid for sex less than 5 times, and the other half more than 5 times, a year.
- About a third of clients paid for sexual services about twice a year.
- About 2% of participants state they use these services more than 100 times a year.
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Expenditure
- Participants who paid for sex paid, on average, 497,000 tomans ($120) each time.
- Half of the clients paid less than 100,000 tomans ($25), and the other half more than 100,000 tomans ($25), for sex.
- Forty seven percent of the clients paid 100,000 tomans ($25) or less to use these services.
- Seven percent of clients paid 1,000,000 tomans ($237), each time, for these services.
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Gender
- 90% of individuals who paid for sex were men.
- 7% state that they used the sexual services of the same sex; 3% used the services of both sexes.
- Women paid other women for sexual services more than men.
Introduction Method
- About a third of customers state they have met providers through friends and acquaintances.
- A quarter of customers said they met sex workers on the street; about a fifth met by finding a phone number.
- Social networks, websites, workplace, etc. have been other ways of getting to know sex service providers.
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This article was originally published in Persian (available here).