Why is the use of Viagra on the rise among Arab youth?
Why is the use of Viagra on the rise among Arab youth?
Rabi al-Habashi, a herbalist at a Bab al-Sharia pharmacy in central Cairo, shows us his “magic compound.”
The Abyssinian has made a name for himself in the Egyptian capital in the manufacture of pharmaceuticals and sexual remedies from natural ingredients. However, in the last few years, they have noticed that the attitude of most consumers has changed.
“Most men now want drugs like Viagra made by Western companies,” he says.
Numerous studies have shown that young Arab men are increasingly using sildenafil (commercially known as Viagra), verdiafil (Lloystra, Staxon) and tadalafil (cialis).
Despite the evidence, when the BBC asked young men on the streets of Egypt and Bahrain if they used drugs such as Viagra to treat their penis problems or if they knew about it, most said no. ۔
Some even refused to talk about the issue because “it is against the principles of ethics in society.”
In fact, according to a 2015 study, Egypt is the second most used sexual medicine in the Arab world. Saudi Arabia tops the list here.
The Saudi newspaper Al-Riyadh, which published the report, estimates that Saudis spent 1.5 1.5 billion on sex-enhancing drugs. The report also states that the use of these drugs in Saudi Arabia is 10 times that of Russia, which has a population five times that of Saudi Arabia.
A recent study by the Arab Journal of Urology found that 40 percent of young Saudis who took part in the study admitted that they had used Viagra or similar drugs at some point in their lives.
Egypt is still ahead in this race. According to state figures for 2021, sexually transmitted drugs sell for 127 million annually. It accounts for 2.8% of the overall pharmaceutical market in Egypt.
Pressure on men
Sometimes everyone has to experience this.
During 2014, Egyptian shops introduced a sex-soluble drug in the form of chocolate called Alfenkosh. It was being sold for one Egyptian pound (0.0 0.05 on today’s currency exchange). Shortly after entering the market, the delivery and production of Alfankosh was stopped and its maker was arrested by security forces. Local media reported that it was also being sold to children.
It is generally believed that sexual enhancement drugs are used more by older people than by younger people. However, figures from the Yemeni Ministry of Health show that they are mostly used by people between the ages of 20 and 45.
According to local media reports, Viagra and Cialis have become known as “party drugs” among young men since the 2015 civil war between the Houthi rebel movement and the Saudi-backed government.
Mohamed Fassi, a professor of urology and reproductive surgery in Tunisia, told the BBC that such drugs do not provide sexual gratification but are often used to treat diseases that affect the elderly.
Meanwhile, a Middle East sexologist says young Arab men are turning to drugs to solve sexual problems due to social trends.
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“Such reasons point to a larger problem facing young Arab men,” said Sharin al-Faqi, an Egyptian-born British journalist and author of a book on sexual orientation in the Arab world.
Commenting on the 2017 UN-sponsored Gender Equality Survey in the Middle East, she said: “Nearly all male participants are scared about their future and worried about how to support their families. Will do
“Many men have talked about how much pressure they have on being men. While many women said that men are no longer men.
“What it means to be a man, there’s pressure, and when it comes to the concept of being sexually active,” he says, “the pressure is on.”
Shrin believes that the pressure of performance in sex is linked to the misleading perceptions surrounding it, and one reason for this is that pornography has given rise to unrealistic expectations. It changes the way young men think about what is normal and what is not.
Historically found concepts
The use of drugs for sexual gratification may be considered a modern trend in Arab societies, but such medicine has been a well-known field in Arab history.
Ibn Qayyum al-Jawziyyah, a 14th-century Islamic scholar and author, included herbal remedies to increase sexual satisfaction in his book Zad al-Ma’ad on the solution of Shari’ah problems.
“In Arab traditions and Islamic culture, women are thought to be more sexually active than men and have more ‘sex drive’, while men feel the need to It should be increased.
Such views are reflected in the Ottoman Empire. For example, at the request of Sultan Salim I (who ruled from 1512 to 1520), the author Ahmed bin Sulaiman wrote the book Rajo Sheikh Al-Sabah. This book lists natural tips to increase sexual desire in men and women and traditional treatments for sexually transmitted diseases.
Hundreds of years later, Arab men are still looking for such solutions, and there are many contenders in the market for them.
