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.
I find it illogical to blame all this on bitcoin.
Bitcoin is for everyone. You can generate new bitcoin addresses and send and receive from them in your country or am i mistaken here? The real issue here is that your country's restriction on bitcoin exchanges are too strict, and that is something that unfortunately only law makers in your country can change. The bitcoin community can do nothing to help, really.
I would definitely start try to establish local some contacts in bitcoin, if i were you, so that you are able to easily get bitcoins and sell them whenever you have the need to without having to go through an exchange. I find that p2p trading is much easier to execute, more convenient, and sometimes if you add up all the fees you pay on exchanges it actually ends up being cheaper.
Takeaway lesson: bitcoin is decentralized and can't be regulated, exchanges are centralized and can be regulated.