Having Sex With Lolita in Tehran

Throwing mud on the notion that sexual relations in the Muslim world are but chaste couplings in poorly lit rooms for purely procreative purposes, merchants from Morocco to Indonesia are increasingly catering to buyer demands for the thin and frilly.

Sex and its accountrements has traditionally held limited space in the Muslim world, at least in the western imagination. In many conservative Muslim countries, bras and lingerie are only peddled by men. It’s an uncomfortable situation that many Saudi Arabian women are seeking to reform by buying their under garments on the internet or exclusively patronizing the country’s few women-owned stores.

In Syria, things are a bit more liberal with many sellers offering garb that would be considered racy in the West. “This allows the husband to nibble the underwear off of his wife’s body,” says one Damascus lingerie merchant, explaining the mechanics of edible underwear to a Der Speigel reporter. The full range of Syrian lingerie is catalogued in The Secret Life of Syrian Lingerie.

Egyptian author Alaa Al Alswany described physical relations between partners in more modest terms at Big Think.

Further Reading and Engagement:

Lingerie makes the difference, a Facebook group seeking to reform lingerie sales in Saudi Arabia.