As I used to deal with US military personel in Bahrain I did get their perspective, which frankly was pretty scewed by the attitudes of their command. It was justified to an extent as they were often in uniform, but did leave them paranoid about certain aspects of Muslim culture. We, civilians, spent much of our time hanging out with the locals as many were our co-pilots. As long as you put in the effort they would always be very accepting; even so far as to invite some of our guys to Ashura.

I heard of one rape commited on a western woman the entire time I was there, and it was no different then what happens in western countries as far as being in the wrong place and wrong situation. There were two other rapes but they were both commited by US service men on US service women, on base. Bahrain was one of the safest places I have ever lived, and that includes Auckland.