[Technics]

Yes, quite true about the differing standards for foreigners acting with other foreigners in some of these countries.

Also, I notice the countries that are common in our lists are pretty much ranked the same, with the exception of Iran.

Why do you place Iran with Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan?

(12-28-2012 10:45 PM)naswanji Wrote:  

When it comes to morality type laws, most countries in the Middle East apply a double standard depending on whether you're a foreigner or a local. Governments in these countries usually don't care what debauchery foreigners get up to among themselves, but they do have a paternalistic attitude toward their own citizens, and put in place laws that try to hinder them from breaking Islamic rules with regards to alcohol, premarital sex, etc.

These laws can vary from quite strict to somewhat lax. For example:

In Saudi Arabia and Iran, it is illegal for unrelated males and females to associate with one another, and there is gender segregation at all levels of society. In Egypt, on the other hand, you see young men and women out on dates all the time, holding hands, going to poorly lit public gardens for who knows what. How does the government cockblock them there? It makes it illegal for hotels to give rooms to unmarried couples or for landlords to rent out to unmarried couples (although this rule only applies to those with Egyptian citizenship; it doesn't apply to foreigners). There is also the possibility that a woman could be prosecuted for prostitution if she goes up to a man's apartment alone, but this is more of a vague threat than a frequent occurrence.

As I said, however, they usually leave foreigners out of this whole racket. Partially because they don't want to drive away tourism, partially out of a recognition of cultural difference, and partially because foreigners are perceived to have wealth and status.

As a result of this immunity, this means that a foreigner in these countries is often in a better position to score with local women than are the local guys even. As is often the case, this comes down to logistics.

Foreign men have their own apartments, which they can bring girls up to, local law enforcement is not going to bother them, they aren't plugged into the social circles there so they can't spread damaging rumors about the girl's reputation, etc. They're anonymous and safe.

Of course, this varies from country to country, with the lax to sort-of lax countries being the best for foreigners to hook up. Based on my own experience and anecdotal evidence, I would rank the region as follows:

Lax: Turkey, Lebanon
Somewhat lax: Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco
Somewhat strict: UAE, Qatar, Bahrain
Strict: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Afghanistan

I rank the Gulf countries as somewhat strict mostly because there is too much of a stigma in these countries against mingling between foreigners and local women. The mentality in the Gulf is an amalgam of tribalism and nouveau riche snobbery, which leaves the women fairly closed off toward dating Westerners -- unlike in other ME countries, where there is often a significant gringo effect.