The perception of course is of a conservative, Islamic culture in Egypt, and one which prior to the war my impression would be of a fairly small European presence. I'm sure that there was always a sex trade present in the population centers such as Cairo which catered to the European population (and the locals), but with thousands upon thousands arriving during the war period, and mostly young men at that, I would expect that there would be a growing demand, and in turn a growth in the sex trade itself.
So what did it look like? How was the trade regulated there? What forms did it take? To what degree was it controlled by coercive forced? How was it generally viewed and accepted within Egyptian society? And what was the position of military authorities on it?
6 1940s 43 Egypt 7 Sexual Practices
I would love to be able to give a better answer but I work mostly on WWI Egypt (and there was, indeed, a flourishing sex work industry in Egypt at the time - both male and female (there was no law against male homosexuality), although the Anglo-Egyptian government tried to pretend otherwise.). The Muslim and Christian (European Christian and missionary) authorities took a dim view. There wasn’t much collaboration - European/missionaries tended to look down on the Muslims but reserved most of their contempt for the Coptic Christians. That’s another story. I found a letter written by a newly arrived worker for the European league against the so called “white slave trade” in the 1930s and she reported back to London that she’d met someone from al Azhar (the Islamic university) and reported excitedly that “Muslims hate prostitution as much as we do!” as if this were new information.
During the First World War, brothels were legal, and sex work could only be contracted inside. It was also understood that women who performed in bars and nightclubs as actresses and musicians were available for sex work as well (this was a gray area). Coercion was theorized by the Europeans who imagined a vast international network of where women being sent off to swarthy parts of the world against their will - the idea that a woman might engage in sex work of her own volition was never considered. (More on this: Liat Kozma, “Global women, colonial ports: prostitution in the interwar Middle East,” SUNY Press, 2017). Most of the coercion wasn’t force, it was economic: the cost of food and basic materials went up exponentially but wages held steady. People were starving, and desperate people do what needs to be done to survive.
I wish I could take this past WWI for you. Sex work was outlawed in the 30s, but it flourished during the Second World War as well. What I can do is recommend Francesca Biancani’s “Sex Work in Colonial Egypt: Women, Modernity and the Global Economy” (I.B. Taurus, 2018). She covers the period from the 1880s through WWI - it’s really well done.