‘Halal’ Sex Shop for Muslims to Open Doors in Mecca

A sex shop will soon reportedly see the light of day in Mecca – the last place anyone would have thought possible, for an establishment of this sort.  The ‘halal’ sex shop is the brainchild of one Abdelaziz Aouragh, who announced his intentions last year, but is only now “almost” ready to open his doors. He claimed to AFP that one Saudi cleric said the idea could lead to an “improvement of the sexual relationship between husband and wife.”  [2] The establishment is going to sell a range of 18 ‘halal’ or “islamically approved” toys. [1] [2] But it won’t just be any shop – it will only strictly cater to Muslims in Mecca, Aouragh told Morocco-based news website Alyaoum24. [2]   Muslims are typically viewed as not very sexually active, and many people think Muslim women are repressed sexually within their marriages, but  Aouragh said he hoped the Makkah store would bring married partners closer together and challenge the stereotype of women in Islam. [4] Aouragh said: “The image of women in the kitchen with burqa is not a true picture… There is a lot of love and respect Islam has for adult women. Our store puts women at the center, offers information, and provides answers to frequently asked questions on sex”, reports the International Business Times. [7] [17] “The products we’re putting on the market have nothing to do with blow-up dolls or vibrators,” Mr Aouragh told the AFP news agency. [6] He went on to explain: “It’s not about the sex act, it’s what’s going on around it. Our products increase the atmosphere and heighten feelings of sensuality.” [6]  Hamza Yusuf, an American Islamic scholar, told Foreign Policy that Islam is not repressive about sex – in contrast to popular belief – and both the Quran and hadith encourage sex as long as it is within the confines of marriage.  [3]  Muslim clerics and Saudi sheikhs have reportedly been consulted to ensure the business complies with local laws and customs.  [5] [6] [17] Aouragh already runs online Arabic sex shop El Asira, which promotes itself as “a unique Arabic collection for a sensual love life” and sells products such as scented candles, creams and oils, the Huffington Post UK reported. [9] It opened in 2010 and was an instant hit with the Netherlands’ Muslim population, achieving “70,000 hits in the first four days,” as Aouragh told the Telegraph back then.  [2] A range of products, from aphrodisiac oils to lubricants, was on sale in the online store.  [2] In 2013, the first online sex shop in the Muslim world to operate in line with Islamic teaching opened in Turkey. “Despite what outsiders may believe, sexuality is a normal human necessity in Islam,” the site’s founder Haluk Demirel told the BBC News. [5] [16] At the time, he said he had been inspired to launch the site by friends who wanted sex advice and products, but found the content on other websites and in specialist stores too explicit. [8] Keeping this in mind, halal sex shops should be careful not to use “pornographic” language, he says. “For example, instead of ‘horny’ we use ‘desiring’. These details are important.” [5]

For his Mecca project, Aouragh is not going to do this alone. He will enlist the help of German company Beate Uhse (a company founded by former Nazi German pilot Beate Uhse-Rotermund in 1946), which is the largest sex company in the world. [7] [18] The brand is one of the biggest retailers of sex toys in Europe and it already cooperates with Aouragh’s Dutch firm. [2] But if you are a liberated muslim women in mecca waiting to take your pleasure in your own hands, don’t get your hopes up too fast though, because no vibrators will be sold at the store because those aren’t approved by Islam.  [2] [3]  Masturbation is forbidden under Islam, so the store would obviously not stock sex toys or pornographic DVDs but rather “include items that increase feelings of sensuality and improve the atmosphere between the couple in the sexual relationship between them,” Aouragh explained. [2] [3] Saudi Arabia has become known for its association for the strictest brand of Sunni Islam practiced by an existing state. However, Muslims note that the Prophet Mohammed was supportive of a healthy sexual life when it involves a husband and wife, which isn’t that different to Christianity. Mohammed even told men not to leave home for a period of longer than six months, so their wives do not feel sexually abandoned. [2]