Man scandalises Saudi Arabia with TV sex confession

By Asma Alsharif

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia (Reuters) - A Saudi divorcee with four children has shocked Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative countries in the world, with details of his sexual exploits on an Arabic television show.

Mazen Abdul-Jawad, 32, has gone into hiding after appearing two weeks ago on Lebanese channel LBC -- mainly owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal -- where he spoke to camera from his bedroom in the Saudi Red Sea city of Jeddah about how couples can spice up their sex lives.

"Everything happens in this room," he said on an episode of the salacious show "Ahmar Bilkhat al-Areed" (Wide Red Lines), before launching into descriptions of foreplay techniques and tricks for cruising women on the streets of Jeddah.

Clips of the racy confessions from the TV show, which can be seen via satellite in Saudi Arabia, have had nearly half a million hits on Youtube.

Saudi Arabia follows an austere form of Islam where religious police patrol the streets to enforce a strict moral standard including no mixing of unrelated men and women, as well as no drugs and alcohol.

Public beheadings are regularly carried out for a range of crimes, from murder to rape, witchcraft or insulting Islam.

But many young Saudis find ways around the draconian system to make contact with each other, and the clerics have tried in vain to limit mobile phone and other technology.

Men have been prosecuted for taking pictures of young women with phones in malls and many reports say such photographs are often used as blackmail.