SFAX, Tunisia — Sirine stared over the table, the look in her eyes as convincing as her words. "I have no plans for the future but suicide," she said. "Without the brothel, there's nothing else."

Until last year, Sirine, like others, was employed as a sex worker in partnership with Tunisia's state. That is, while Sirine and her employer were responsible for their day-to-day dealings, the state and the police controlled prices, provided protection for the house and ensured a minimum of health care was provided. Now she finds herself out on the street and forced to run the gauntlet of predatory police and criminals as she practices the only trade she's ever known.

Private prostitution in itself has long been illegal in Tunisia. Anyone convicted of carrying out the practice is liable for a jail sentence of anywhere between six months and two years. However, until recently, sex work practiced in houses controlled by Tunisia's police remained legal. 

There are similarly blurry arrangements in neighboring Algeria where sex work is legal but solicitation and brothel keeping are not. The regulation of sex workers dates back to the days of Ottoman and then French colonial rule. For the French, the main concern was apparently to shield lustful citizens from sexually transmitted diseases.