50 patients (aged 18-65 yrs) in an Islamic culture (Bahrain) with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) were studied from a phenomenological point of view in order to delineate the various forms and contents of obsessions and compulsions. An attempt was made to highlight the frequency with which the different forms and contents occur. Ss were interviewed using the Arabic version of the Preset State Examination, and screened by the Arabic version of the Maudsley Obsessive-Compulsive Inventory and the Global Obsessive-Compulsive Scale. Six types of obsessions were identified: doubts, thoughts, fear, images, impulses and miscellaneous. Compulsive acts were classified into 2 types: yielding and controlling. The contents of obsessions could be classified into 8 broad categories as relating to: dirt and contamination, germs, aggression, sex, religion, blasphemy, illness and indecisiveness. 38% of the patients displayed obsessional thoughts related to dirt and contamination, while 40% showed religious and blasphemous obsessional thoughts and doubts. 56% of the patients had compulsions of which 36% were multiple while 20% displayed only a single compulsion. The role played by sociocultural and religious factors in shaping the character of an obsessional thought content is emphasized.