CULTURE: Woman Owns, Operates Bahrain's 1st Sex Shop!

Khadija Ahmed is a 33-year-old Bahraini wife and mother of three. But she is also a pioneer: the owner of the first public sex shop in Bahrain and possibly the Persian Gulf as a whole. Khadija Fashion House, which began as a profitable online outlet, supplies lingerie, massagers, sex toys, and even edible undies—all from its storefront in the market district of Isa. The store is so popular that she's preparing to open a second location, AOL News reports.

Khadija says male clients have no issues buying products or receiving love advice from a female proprietor. Her shop is likely successful because it remains sensitive to Islamic mores—advice on preserving one's marriage is doled out in equal measure as the tools with which to do so. “It's not a sex shop in the Western sense,” Ahmed explains, “but a place to help married couples, and only married couples, enjoy sex to the full.”