The tales of sex, love, vengeance, and prison continue to be narrated by those who lived during this era of madness, in the infamous Mutanabbi Street. Tales of girls who willingly chose sex work, or were forced into it, while others fell into the traps of madams.
Prostitution found its way onto Mutanabbi Street after World War I, before once again diminishing during the civil war that started in Between the wars, the street was home to countless madams and futuwwat street bullies. The scene ends with the performer bare-chested and near-naked. The dance continued as a form of theatrical prostitution for Arabs, beginning with the era of the Muhammad Ali dynasty, and continuing until the appearance of the Lebanese performer Shamlakan.
After the death of her husband and pimp, she moved to Beirut, where she performed in Mutanabbi Street, which had yet to earn its fabled reputation. Shamlakan was famed for her rendition of the Bee Dance, in which she stripped off all of her clothes, including her undergarments, particularly in exclusive shows in notables' homes. She performed until she was old and lost all her loyal clients.
Subsequently, she became impoverished and went hungry, until her death in the Al-Musaytibah district during the locust attack in After World War I, Lebanese authorities bowed to the pressure of legalizing prostitution. Organized by a Law in , many of the locals did not take well to the legalization, leading the government to claim that restricting prostitution to one street and legalizing it would protect the Lebanese women from the French and Senegalese soldiers.
According to the Lebanese Prostitution Law of , brothels were divided into two groups; public brothels, and escort houses. The legalized public brothels were only permitted to have one entrance, and visitors had to be at least 18 years old. Sex workers had to be older than 25 years old to obtain a full license, while year-old workers were granted a second-degree license. Virgins were forbidden from stepping inside these public brothels.
