It's not so straightforward to buy bitcoin in the Middle East. Yes, I have tried everything. If bitcoin was about the free world, why all the exchanges ask for very strict verification that even the stock exchanges don't ask for? I have never had to take a selfie with my passport in my entire 40 yrs of life until I came in to the bitcoin world, what the heck?!! All the exchanges take ages to verify and when they do, they discriminate those from the middle east. Most of them don't allow us to use fiat currency to buy bitcoin, so how the hell new comers will buy it? The barriers of entry to the bitcoin world are too many for people in middle east, am sick of it.
I find the conventional banks much easier to deal with than the bitcoin exchanges. Guess what? I was successfully registered in one after waiting for a month, only to be told I can't spend more than 300 Dollars a week in buying bitcoin, seriously??? I freaking have thousands of dollars to invest and they want me to spend 300 dollars a week for a coin worth $2500???
Now, the easy way is to buy from others, but I am gonna have to pay a premium of 10 to 20 pct above fair market value to buy and that's BS!
I am thinking to start my own ICO for an exchange that has commercial sense an open to the world. We need a revolution here.
Your major misunderstanding is that you're assuming bitcoin exchanges is bitcoin itnself.
Sure, it is a big part of bitcoin, but it is regulated by governments because it deals with fiat. The real problem here is fiat, not bitcoin. You'd have absolutely no issues once you buy your bitcoin, and want to cash it out, but you'll have lots of verification to go through because of AML and KYC laws in your country that dictates the bitcoin exchange industry.
A simpler way to understand it is that, bitcoin is fungible, fiat is not. Therefore, they have to check whether your fiat is trustworthy or not(risk reduction of it being stolen funds), whilst bitcoin is trustless.
And no, ICO for an exchange? That's a BAD idea. In fact, i'm pretty sure that some exchanges have done this before and failed miserably, both themselves and the investors.