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Viagra sales soar in Iraq as its society transforms
Los Angeles Times
Posted on Sun, Jun. 20, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Life is violent, minds are frayed, and the little blue pill is selling big on Sadoon Street.
“People are depressed, so they need Viagra
and other drugs to give them interest in sex,” said Talid
Abdul-Amir Shebany, a pharmacist who tracks the changing ailments
of Iraqis in a worn ledger on his desk.
“Viagra sales have at least doubled since the war ended,” he said. “Lives are not good. There's bombs and tension. When you see bodies and destroyed houses, you have psychological disturbances that affect sexual desire.”
Emotional demons and persistent stress have disturbed the rhythm of life, from eating to having sex to strolling along the Tigris River. But a burgeoning black market in medicines and increased freedom of expression have allowed Iraqis to experiment with pills and remedies to fix what has gone wrong.
Viagra and its copycats — Kamagra
from India, Novagra from Britain and Vega from Syria — have
been available for several years, but importation was heavily regulated
by the former Iraqi Health Ministry.
Those barriers are gone. Drugs are cheaper — four Kamagra tablets sell for $2.50.
Sometimes even women in this
tribal, patriarchal society will whisper their husbands' dysfunctions
into the pharmacist's ear.
“The Qur'an does not forbid Viagra,” Shebany said. “In Islam, if a man can't sexually satisfy his wife, she can ask for a divorce. Viagra helps prevent this disaster.”
The popularity of Viagra points to new wrinkles in Iraqi society. Satellite TV — forbidden under Saddam Hussein — is beaming sex and its trappings into mud-brick huts and marbled mansions. Selling alongside Viagra in many pharmacies are breast-enhancement creams, skin-whitening gels and herbal slimming potions.
Shebany smiled at the way things had changed in a land caught between secularism and religion, between war and peace, between the sanctity of the bedroom and the fear on the street.
“Psychologically, there is a need for Viagra and these other things,” he said. “There are other reasons, too. More and more elderly men are marrying younger women, because young men have no jobs and no money and can't afford to get married. And these days, older men are going to need a little help if they have to satisfy three young wives.”
source :-http://www.kansascity.com
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