Business Booms at Gulf's First Sex Shop

Just as many women shop in the Fashion House as men. They often come with their husbands, who stand to the side while their wives shop.

Just down the road in Saudi Arabia, men aren't allowed to talk to women in public, but the phone at Khadija Mohammed's Bahrain sex shop hardly stops ringing. One favorite item: fruit-flavored edible underwear.

King Fahd Causeway connects Saudi Arabia to the island kingdom of Bahrain, where some of the rules are rather more relaxed. If you leave Manama, the kingdom's capital, take a right down Baghdad Avenue and drive south to the traffic circle by the Last Chance supermarket, you'll find a place far removed from the strictures of Saudi morality, enforced chastity and prudishness.

"By the traffic circle … next to the laundromat. Yes. No, I don't have any dildos, only massage devices … Good. See you later. Maa al-Salama." Khadija Mohammed's telephone rings every 10 minutes. The last call was from a number beginning +966. "A lady in Saudi Arabia," Khadija explains. In other words, the typical customer of Khadija Fashion House in Manama.


Later that afternoon the lady comes by, concealed by a hijab that reveals nothing but her eyes, and purchases a magenta-colored "Oui", described on the packaging as a "simple, elegant personal massager, so thin it can fit in the palm of your hand."

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,719188,00.html