Murderous Economies: Sex Trafficking and Political Economic Change in Alexandria, Egypt, 1914-1921

In this article, I analyze the relationship between political economic change and sex trafficking in early interwar Alexandria. During World War I, the decline in foreign trade and migration had created new opportunities for local women in Alexandria to engage in part-time clandestine sex work to supplement their incomes. The reintegration of Alexandria into the world economy, combined with the removal of capital controls and trade restrictions, resulted in a sudden influx of foreign goods and populations, a surge in the circulation and price of gold, and rapid inflation. This enriched the colonial bourgeoisie, while simultaneously harming local businesses, thereby contributing to the rise of domestic sex trafficking networks and the murder of independent sex workers who were considered a threat to trafficking operations. The changing political economy of Alexandria thus forced many women who had sold sex independently during the war into sexual servitude or death. By situating the investigation records of the murder case in the context of census records, trade statistics, and media reports, this study will analyze the effects of Alexandria’s changing political economy on the lives of workers and will contribute to our understanding of the role of labor and political economy in the mass uprisings that culminated in conditional Egyptian independence from colonial rule in the early interwar period.