An online Islamic sex shop selling condoms, massage
oils and perfumes has been launched in Turkey, becoming the first of its kind
in the predominantly Muslim country.
The "Halal Sex Shop" website presents its
products as being "entirely safe," and in compliance with Islamic
norms.
What
is Halal sex?
Halal sex shops also can't display pornographic
imagery, since such images expose a person's awrah, the Arabic word for areas
forbidden from the public eye. According to some, women are not allowed
to see the region stretching from the navel to the knees on another woman, and
men are permitted to see only a woman's face and hands. Although Turkey is the
only Muslim country where porn is technically legal, huge black markets
dedicated to it run through Muslim countries with stringent anti-porn policies,
with Pakistan leading the entire world.
A
Turkish entrepreneur has opened what he says is the country’s first online sex
shop for Muslims, selling everything from lubricants to herbal aphrodisiacs and
offering advice on how to have “halal” sex.
Haluk
Murat Demirel, 38, said he had been inspired to launch the site (below) by friends who wanted sex advice and products but found the content on other websites and in specialist stores too explicit.
“Online
sex shops usually have pornographic pictures, which makes Muslims
uncomfortable. We don’t sell vibrators for example, because they are not
approved by Islam,” Demirel said. Sexual
mores provoke frequent debate in the majority Muslim but constitutionally
secular country. There are relatively few sex shops, even in major cities,
although in parts of Istanbul those that do exist advertise themselves with
bright lights.
Internet users who enter the site find two different
links directing them to separate sections for male and female products.
Other sections of the website are designed to
discuss sex in the context of Islam under various headings: "Oral sex
according to Islam", "Sex manners in Islam" and "Sexual
life in Islam."
The founders of the website said they
believed the online shop would help correct prejudices against Islam which they
claimed is perceived as "against sex."
"The religion of Islam has praised sex under
certain circumstances," is written on the site. "The use of every product on sale is in
compliance with Islam."
Turkey does have so-called "erotic shops"
in its streets, however Islamic conservative Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
Erdogan suggested last year they rename themselves "love shops."
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