Prostitution in Oman is illegal,
but women from
Eastern Europe,
South Asia,
North Africa, and
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...
engage in
prostitution
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in Sex work, sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, n ...
in the country.
Prostitution occurs in bars, hotels, nightclubs,
brothel
A brothel, bordello, ranch, or whorehouse is a place where people engage in sexual activity with prostitutes. However, for legal or cultural reasons, establishments often describe themselves as massage parlors, bars, strip clubs, body rub par ...
s,
massage parlors and health clubs.
Sex trafficking
Sex trafficking is human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. It has been called a form of modern slavery because of the way victims are forced into sexual acts non-consensually, in a form of sexual slavery. Perpetrators of the ...
is a problem in
Oman.
Legal situation
Only sex within a legalized marriage is permitted. Women's sex outside legal marriage is criminalised as ''
zina'' (
illegal sex,
adultery,
fornication
Fornication is generally consensual sexual intercourse between two people not married to each other. When one or more of the partners having consensual sexual intercourse is married to another person, it is called adultery. Nonetheless, John ...
). It is women, and not their clients, who are legally penalised for sex work which carries a jail sentence between three and five years.
Living on the proceeds of prostitution is a crime, punishable by a fine and up to three months imprisonment (criminal code article 221).
Additionally, any foreigner who commits an act against "public order or good morals" or who does not have a legal source of income may be deported (law 16 of 1995, articles 31
and 31
.
Police crackdowns are frequent. 43 women were arrested in raids in Bausher in December 2016 and over 100 in simultaneous raids in Al Khuwayr in August 2017.
Hundreds of
Southeast Asian women have been arrested for prostitution, and in November 2016 the issuing of tourist visas to women from Southeast Asia was restricted.
In the 3 years prior to August 2017, 273 people were arrested for prostitution and all received a minimum of 3 years jail sentence.
Sex trafficking
Oman is a destination and transit country for women, primarily from South and
East Asia and
East and North Africa, subjected to sex trafficking, often by nationals of their own countries. There have been anecdotal reports that female domestic workers from countries without a diplomatic presence in Oman are especially vulnerable to sex trafficking. Domestic workers who flee their employers are also vulnerable to forced prostitution.
During the 1990s and early 2000s, young women were trafficked from the former
Soviet Union for sex work. In 2005 Oman ratified the
International Labour Organization's 1959 convention prohibiting forced labour. By that time foreign migrant workers made up 60% of Oman's population, and their standard of living was lower than the Omani average (Oman is classified as "medium human development" by the
United Nations Development Programme).
Oman has a serious problem of
people trafficking involving women and is considered a "
Tier 2" country by the
United States Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons
The Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (J/TIP) is an agency within the United States Department of State charged with investigating and creating programs to prevent human trafficking both within the United States and internation ...
.
References
{{Asia in topic, Prostitution in
Oman
Oman
Oman
Society of Oman
Law of Oman
Women's rights in Oman
Human rights in Oman
Social issues in Oman