Why prostitution is illegal?

Its not illegal if you know what to say

Tell a "pro" that you would like to hire her if:
-you can have other people watch
-video tape the performance and sell the tape over the internet

This is why porn stars don't get arrested.

CALIFORNIA PENAL CODE

653.20.
(a) "Commit prostitution" means to engage in sexual conduct for
money or other consideration, but does not include sexual conduct
engaged in as a part of any stage performance, play, or other
entertainment open to the public.

Your state or country may be different.

Its only $1.50 from what I hear in Iraq...

Good point

Religon.

It's responsible for the majority of evil in the world. Now and in the past.

All religons 'preach' tolerance. All religons actually take tolerance away.

You have to be a complete moron or have some self-serving agenda to be religeous. Note: Religon is not the same as 'Worshipping/Believing in a God', or 'Being a Good person', you don't have to be religeous for that.

Because old men who write laws are married and have not thought about sex for a loooong time...

Unless the law in the UK has changed in the past 5 years, prostitution isn't illegal there. Soliciting - personally and actively trying to sell yourself to someone - is illegal. Brothels are illegal (which in the UK is any place being used by 2 or more prostitutes). But prostitution itself, no.

In addition, some police forces have a policy of ignoring soliciting, providing it only goes on in areas that don't generate local complaints.

Anti-prostitution laws appeared in a lot of countries many, many years ago, when in addition to the moral/religious objectors, sexually transmitted diseases among prostitutes were almost to be expected. In those days, such diseases were very often lethal.

Once such laws exist, repealing them hardly rates as a priority and lawmakers' time is usually short. Even when someone thinks about doing so, prostitution is one of those things where opponents tend to be much more vocal than supporters.

Another issue is that many of those who are not opposed in principle, don't want prostitutes operating in their neighborhoods and/or they may want health precautions to be enforced, etc. So they don't simply want existing laws repealed: they want new laws and enforcement, which in turn means more legislative time and afterwards money to be spent.

When people want better schools and health care, but don't want to pay for them, it isn't surprising that there is a lot of inertia when it comes to dealing with the topic of prostitution.

Prostitution is LEGAL (with some restrictions that aren't that bad) in Canada, most all of Europe including England, France, Denmark, etc., most of South America including most of Mexico (often in special zones), Israel (Tel Aviv known as the brothel capital of the world), Australia, and many other countries. It is either legal or very tolerated in most all of Asia and even Iran has "temporary wives" which can be for only a few hours!

Sweden has got a very different law making it illegal to buy sex but not to sell it..