At the time I was knee deep in Kuwait running around the city taking photos of locks, understanding locks and the society of locks in the middle east. Mind you theft in the Middle East comes from two things. Really crappy economic areas (slums, or select countries) and brutally dumb people. For instance in Kuwait you could leave computers, bags etc in a unlocked car in a decent neighborhood and nothing will go missing. Leave the door open with gold in it, or park in the Pakistan/Filipino/Indian area and you will be lucky to have seats in your car. If you aren't in the area known for crime, using stupidity to guide you, and negligence the main issue to security is not waving a banner saying come steal from me. (Side note a guy 3 buildings down was sleeping with a Kuwaiti's wife, he ended up cut up with no forced entry, and one paper said suicide the other homicide, the middle east works on beliefs and something close to heritage more then facts in many ways).
Now the unfortunate thing about this? Well a lock seems to be more of a voodoo witch doll then a security measure. Electrical boxes, gates etc are locked with old style skeleton key locks if you are lucky. Some gates were merely secured with security knots(might be wrong term for special knot that the owner knows but others wouldn't easily replicate). When I get a chance (now in Afghanistan) I will take a few photos of some of the old old locks they sell, but regardless the locks here are not only poorly constructed many are a sham, to include the safes.
Door locks
Many of you know the standard (upside down for Americans) European door lock setup. Where you can turn the key around 2 times even though once will lock the door. In fact most of the locks in the middle east from Dubai, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Saudi are all knock off European locks, of such poor quality bypass of most take less time with a bent paper clip rake in a novices hand then a semi skilled would take with a decent master lock. The funny thing is culturally a lock is something personal. Say you have a apartment, or house. You rent it out in the middle east, the new resident will quickly replace every lock in the house, and sometimes even take the lock itself with them to the next house. If you don't do this you are considered a idiot, and if you get robbed the previous key holders wont be blamed outright normally. (This might be Kuwaiti specific and needs more research). Regardless of why shopping areas who have hardware areas tend to have literally 3-5 stores dedicated to locks, and keys. They sell locks from pre-1800 design to some semingly exotic looking locks (more on that later). I was shocked at seeing there version of a dimple style lock, and locks there are cheap, being 3-5 US (1KD) for a lock and keys. Even getting a new handle for the door is cheap. This is good because most locks are made out near copper quality brass if you are lucky. Basically your door locks come in 3 forms. A old style skeleton style door lock setup, which you will see in the low rent area, and this is rare although still found. The standard knock off European style lock that generally is of poor quality, and around some banks a dimple style lock.
http://i.imgur.com/yu9tu.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/jlQ07.jpg
Padlocks
These come in far more various forms, but tend to follow the same poor quality as door locks, but in various unique designs. Again we see the skeleton style padlocks based of the 1800s with shackles and locks sometimes the size of a full adult hand. Again this is more rare then the normal, but you will find them here and there locking gates to old abandoned buildings, to rear gates of houses etc. I suspect this to be pretty common in Afghanistan where you see these sold at the bazaar all the time as "antiques" but they look like decorative Chinese replicas to me. Next you get these odd ball knock off padlocks that resemble masterlock from FFF, and tend to be the same animal as a masterlock with less quality. If you walk around enough you will find some Masterlocks and even once in a while a few american military locks of various designs from key to code entry, and also some standard crap dial locks(forgot name of masters old locker faithfuls). What is intriguing though is the locks that just aren't normal. Crucifix style key entry locks, which at first glance would be a pain to open, but then you find out its a normal pin tumbler with one set of pins (not 3 or 4). These are more expensive and if you ask for a padlock they try to sell these as unpickable, and the finest lock in the area. I really want to giggle like a school girl at some of these fools, but I hate to admit this propaganda works very well. You will also find a few Tubular locks as well, as a far more common dimple style lock, although this last category of "odd" locks are probably only 2-3% of what I saw, and notably about as common as your old skeleton key/warded locks.
http://i.imgur.com/CFHza.jpg
Common info
Many times I have come on locks that were wafer locks, and this crossed over everything from doors, padlocks, to small counter locks which is more normal. I even saw them in the financial district a ton, where millions sat behind safes most people who have read anything about locks could go right through. I think regardless of the pin tumbler locks these are so heavily found as to be nearly a category of there own in the mid east. Many locks inside of buildings tended to be nothing but these wafer style locks.
Recommendations
I wrote this more for the ITS/mil/contractor away from home guys. Much of this will be no duh kinda stuff, but frankly put between Ollams book, Matt feeding me info and this site, little knowledge on locks is more easily found then here, so I want to pass it on as best I can. Serepick and the Bogota line will pick nearly all of the locks in the middle east faster then a sledgehammer, but I also recommend a good helping of warded lock keys, and small try out keys for everything that doesn't have pins. In reality any normal set of picks would do, but I think raking here is fastest due to the lack of security pins in just about everything. I would even go far as saying tension bars and rakes would pass you though all the majority of locks by a novice who has only picked a few locks in the states, they tended to be that easy. Even my heavy handed poor knowledge passed me threw just about every door lock on Fawlika island before I decided it was time to actually get some skills beyond raking.
If I were to setup a set for the middle east.
Several flat tension bars of various sizes, a few standard bars.
Bogota rake
gonzo pick
Shallow hook pick
Half Diamond (if you don't want dimple picks)
Dimple rake
Dimple pick (unless you are happy with the Half Diamond)
Small sized try Out keys
Travelers hook
Ultra decoder
Optional
Standard Try Out Keys (more mandatory for escape and evaders as most cars can be driven off with these)
Various bypass tools(not sure how these work on warded locks I might change this)
Standard Try Out Keys
Tubular pick (just in case)
Now this recommendation comes at a cost. In the US this stuff will get you jail time, but some of these countries you will loose your hands just having the
