He insists he would have chosen another path “had I been given the choice”. This was not a lifestyle that he ever wanted, but something he says was forced upon him. Hassan, a 27-year-old Sunni from Iraq, is a male prostitute and has been selling himself for money in Beirut for a year. His work could have him arrested, beaten up and jailed.
When talking about his life “Hassan” hesitates, the words coming out with difficulty as he chain-smokes cigarettes and fiddles with his sweatshirt. Beirut, Lebanon – In an economically troubled, conservative country where homosexual behaviour is taboo, a growing number of men are prostituting themselves to scrape together a living.
