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It is a strange way, in our eyes, of running the show. Muslims seek to remove from their society any form of temptation - and not just of a sexual nature.

I lived for 15 years in a number of countries in the ME, and I have a number of acquaintances there, but I am also a keen and reasonably impartial observer.

In the various ME societies the women are taught, to varying degrees and under the excuse of modesty, to humble themselves, cover themselves in various ways - from the complete 'Guinness bottle' arrangement (KSA) to a nonchalant hijab or no particular head wear at all (Oman), and not to look directly into a man's eyes (KSA and Kuwait), in Oman many women would meet your gaze and chat away quite happily independent of any male family member.

As for the guys, a different story, especially when I was with them outside the Islamic world. The Omanis seemed to get on fine with western women, being respectful or familiar where appropriate. Saudi and Kuwaiti men - I would not really want to be in their company. Speaking amongst themselves they would routinely refer to western women as whores, and remark on their physical atttributes in very lewd and somewhat perverted ways. (I speak - and overhear - Arabic).

The other significant problem has to do with the age of the females they are willing to have adult interchanges with. A girl of, say, twelve years old can be the target of adult approaches that we, in the West, would find very inappropriate. In fact, the culmination of one sad case who was being accommodated by a local UK family was that he was discovered one evening, in a clinch, trying to remove the jeans from their 12 year old daughter and was immediately shipped home to disappear without trace....

Analysis: In strict Muslim societies the male requires no self-control in his dealings with eligible females. The work is done for him by the conditioning within the society in which he lives. The problem starkly arises when he is let out of that society into one where females are not considered as another's possessions and then he acts (often totally) irresponsibly.