Uncover Behind The Veil Of Vice: The Business And Culture Of Sex In The Middle East Produced By John R. Bradley Categorized In Printable Format

Bradley seems to have a tremendous amount of contempt for women and really hates feminists, which often skews his research and conclusions, His sources are often unreliable and certainly not scholarly by any stretch of the imagination, He actually spends the first few chapters decrying statistics of sex trafficking, claiming it is all exaggerated by feminists, His evidence A guy in a bar in Syria told him so,

I decided to give the book two instead of one because, in spite of his insipid tone and snark, I did learn some things about the Middle East.
Next time, however, I believe I will stick with someone who has conducted actual research, Not nearly as tawdry as the cover/title wants you to think, this is mostly a wellreasoned book about the inevitability of prostitution and how different countries in the Arab World deal with it.
Suitably skeptical of humantrafficking panic,

But veered weird in the last chapter when it dealt with homosexuality and rent boys, an issue clearly dear to the author's heart, I bought about half of his argument that Mid East attitudes toward gay sex and identity are better than Western ones, but then just got creeped out by the stridency of his writing.


It was also published in, meaning all the political analysis has been revealed as wrong, That actually made it more interesting, to be reminded how everythingwebelievetobetrue Tunisia is heaven, especially can be upended overnight, The Middle East has long been something of a mystery to Westerners, and in particular, the sexual mores of the region continue to fascinate, Arabs are often described as being in a state of Islaminduced sexual anxiety and young Muslims frustrations are said to be exacerbated by increasing exposure to the licentiousness of the West.
Here, Middle East expert John R, Bradley sets out to uncover the truth about sex in countries like Egypt, Syria, Morocco and Yemen,   Among many startling revelations, Bradley reports on how "temporary" Islamic marriages allow for illicit sex in the theocracies of Iran and Saudi Arabia "child brides" that are sold off to older Arab men according to ancient tribal traditions the hypocrisy that undermines publicized crackdowns on the thriving sex industry in the Persian Gulf and how, despite widespread denial, homosexuality is still deeply ingrained in the region's social fabric.

Richly detailed and nuanced, Behind the Veil of Vice sheds light on a taboo subject and unravels widely held myths about the region, In the process, Bradley also delivers an important message about our own societys contradictions, Intriguing and wellwritten look at one of the most misunderstood topics, Pierces the mediadriven myths and shows that outsider "dogooders" such as feminists, homosexual activists, and various NGO's do much more harm than good, and how their interests even intersect with those of fundie nutters.
I did find his ridicule of Christian missionaries to be kind of odd, but overall a great read, Bradely is unafraid to be decisively opinionated about controversial topics, but backs every statement up with wellresearched material and a kind, very human journalistic voice, The subject matter of sex, politics, religion, and hypocrisy is deftly batted between the Western and Arabic world,

If only the cover wasn't a perfect example of the Exotic Other, a posterperfect example of Said's orientalism, I worried that people thought I was reading a Harlequin Romance novel about a widowed sultan and his lovelorn au pair, This was a disappointing read, Journalist John Bradley tells a bunch of anecdotes about sexual attitudes in the Middle Eastparticularly Saudiin this underresearched book, Given that we have a limited number of international correspondents I suppose that any account of foreign cultures is valuable, and I'm glad he wrote it, but the journalism seems to mostly involve random conversations he has over a beer with foreign friends.
His efforts at contextualizing and providing history and analysis to his observations are surprisingly sophomoric, The author seems like a nice guy, but a philosopher he is not, I'm sure his thoughts on these topics are, in reality, much more sophisticated than we see here on the page, He could've used an editor to push him, His research was not great either, The paltry index, consisting mostly of newspaper stories, is evidence of this,

Also, it so happens that I just read a book about the story of ayearold Yemeni girl who was forced to marry a much older man and sought a divorce after enduring rape and beatings.
Bradley discusses this story at length, but the information he provides is inaccurate, I checked the index, and it's because he was getting his information from short newspaper articles about this highly sensationalized international story, He did not bother to reference the full booklength treatment of the topicif he had, he would have discovered that the basic facts that he presented were not correct.
This made me question all of his sources, Oh well. If you're interested in reading a quality book on this topic, check out "Sex and the Citadel" by Shereen Feki, Written by a seasoned journalist and correspondent, Beyond the Veil of Vice provides excellent insights into a culture many Westerners do not understand, I highly recommend this reflective and unflinching book for anyone interested in the role of women in the Middle East, As in his book on Saudi Arabia, Bradley demonstrates here a rare combination of firsthand experience, historical context and journalistic wherewithal that opens a lens into the usually hidden Muslim world.
His singular focus on prostitution and its close cousins, such as temporary marriage, however, disappointingly narrows the field of view, For example, he skips over the entire realm of sexual culture that is not for sale, coming of age, infiltration of Western or Egyptian television and movies with more liberal sexual attitudes, etc.
He also dulls his insight by harping too many times on published allegations that prostitution in the Middle East necessarily involves trafficking in children or other slavery, rather than the perhaps unfortunate economic choices of adult women.
He is probably correct, but it is an argument that only needs to be made once, I hope in his next book, Bradley can shine his special light on a wider spectrum of the hidden Middle East, An interesting read that offers a point of view rarely heard in western media, If I consider the fact that I read the book through indays, I should say it was interesting and easy reading, It was my first book subject on prostitution in Middle East, so being easy to read was very welcoming, Disadvantage was that time has passed and the situations in these countries are definitely not the same anymore,
I definitely expect more analytical and strategically built research from the next book I read, though, It was very interesting and more like giving You an idea what and where is occurring, but no actual research was given,
Book is built up on the "conversations" he had in different countries with additional reading ideas/history notes, but they weren't actually strategically built up interviews which gives You information You can make conclusions on, only assumptions.
It was very interesting reading, but I probably would not see any paper that I would cite it on, because it just did not make me feel to be credible enough.
It reminded me more like journalist put his most interesting small talk conversations together into one book without actually taking advantage of the information/possibility to interview these people at that time.
But again, I really did enjoy reading the book as I had no previous information regarding the subject, . .

so to sum up, if You are looking academical research about prostitution in Middle East, don't waste Your time, but if You are looking just introduction to the subject, go ahead and enjoy John R.
Bradley: A British reporter was born in, Established in the Middle East in the period betweenand, Bradley speaks Arabic fluently, and wrote four books dealing with the situation in the region and are based largely on the personal experience, Among these books in the heart of Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs on the brink of revolution, which was published for the first time in,

and met with high praise from critics.
In this book, Bradley succeeded in drawing a very precise scenario for revolution twenty fifth of January, .