This paper examines the struggle between colonial authorities and national resistance over illicit sexuality, specifically prostitution, and public morality in the first years of the British occupation of Egypt. It traces the deep-rooted anxieties concerning prostitution and sexuality as it was expressed in the popular press, literature, medical writings and laws in late 19th century and early 20th century. I argue that uncontrolled sexuality of prostitutes was used by Egyptian nationalists to dramatize the British occupation, the danger of Capitulations and Western influence. Although the presence of prostitutes in Cairo and Egyptian provinces was anything but new, regulating health inspection and registration of prostitutes shortly after the British invasion symbolized the debasement brought about by foreign influence and was amplified by the defeat. In demonizing and victimizing prostitutes, prostitutes were never seen as working women; they were symbol, a metaphor, and a symptom of broad socio-political concerns. Egyptian intellectuals shared colonialists concerns over health, security and social order and overlooked women’s work and rights of prostitutes as sex workers. I conclude that the nationalist discourses against prostitution and its regulation in semi-colonial Egypt is an example of the blurred line between colonial and anti-colonial hybridity. Regulating prostitution triggered a national-hybrid discourse that adopted European anxiety over security and health mixed with what was thought to be the authentic socio-religious ideals, and consequently opposed both prostitution and the colonial authority by labeling the colonizers as responsible for polluting the “virtuous nation”.