DS has been offered jobs in Qatar and UAE

My Husband, sons and I lived and worked in the Middle East from 1979 to 2012. Qatar 1979 to 1983. Oman 3 years then Bahrain for 20 years and Qatar again 2004 to 2012. I held a senior postion as General Manager and 95% of my staff were male, Qataris,Bahrainis,Omanis, Indian,Pakistanis, Canadians,Americans,Phillipinos and Rumanians. I was always treated with utmost respect and always felt 100% safe. I genuinely can't think of any occasion when I felt disrespected or threatened. When attending a meeting with devout Muslim men who due to their religion couldn't shake my hand - their hand went to touch their heart. I feel sad at the misconceptions people who have never visited the ME hold. So please encourage your son to grab this opportunity and I assure you that you will love your visits out to see him. I should add I haven't worked in Dubai - first visited in 1979 when it was a fishing village - but have held many business meetings there and actually prefer Qatar. I should add I wore the same clothes that I would wear here in the UK - normal business and leisure wear.

Let your son go and live

If my son wanted to leave this place and had the option (when he grows) I’d be taking him to the airport myself. As it stands, I’ll be getting him out before he grows come hell or high water, I don’t want his future to be what I’ve just lived through (but worse)

There’s no future here.

None of my relatives in Dubai/Saudi or Qatar have to worry about their teenage child being stabbed to death on their way to school either.

Have you been to these countries? Spent any actual time in the Middle East (a vast place with different attitudes in each emirate or country.) The ignorance on here. As if the UK is so safe for women and girls. And I say this as a British woman brought up in Abu Dhabi and know many Arab women.

Kindly, I think you need to update your views about the places you mention. Middle Eastern countries are not all the same and Dubai is in no way similar to Saudi Arabia for example when it comes to women's rights. The UK itself has shocking rates of domestic violence against women (with very lenient sentencing for perpetrators) so your son could also factor that into his decision making, assuming he lives here.

My 27yr old son lives and works in Doha and has residency. He loves it - is not as restricted as someone who was born there so it is easy to socialise etc

It may not be done for that reason.Dossnt stop it being a good thing though

In wonder if the people in this country see the irony in calling UAE or Qatar unsafe and misogynistic.

Imagine an Emirati hearing this from someone in the UK where mass gang rape of girls is practically state sanctioned, with the authorities and politicians all sat there knowing it’s going on. Where children are mutilated by the state in the name of diversify and trans rights. And where men can pretend to be women, enter female wards in hospitals and prison and rape them.

Stop embarrassing yourselves.

Have you lived there?
Or just read about it ?

Britain is soon becoming a third world country.

I'm past it now, but if I was younger I would live in Dubai.

I think fact that a lot of the luxury in these countries is based on slavery is what would bother me most. Because while you can go there and not oppress women, you will be living a life of luxury on the back of the poor in a way that is not the case in the UK, and the fact is many are functionally slaves.

I would absolutely say this to any of my kids at any age, because I expect them to be morally serious people who aren't supportive of that, and more importantly, don't go out of their way to be directly involved in it when they can avoid it.

I genuinely don’t know how people can take this stance given the utterly shameful state of the UK with regards to mistreating women & girls eg The Rape Gangs, the high rates of child sexual abuse in general, the children who regularly die while supposedly under social work protection, the thousand & thousands of men who abandon their families, leaving the mother and/or State as sole provider with the social stigma attached to the mother rather than the abandoning father and the government doing very little to address it.

We don't need to support regimes that mistreat women and have crap human rights, though, do we? These are places where migrant workers have few employment and safety precautions, where rape victims can be arrested for adultery. All that is doubtless none of our business, but I would be wary of living there.

StepawayfromtheLindors · Today 07:20

Beg him not to go

Don’t be ridiculous. He’s an adult with his own mind.

I agree with OPs concerns and wouldn’t holiday in either place were it free.

30 years ago, however, if working there for a few years secured our family’s future, I think we would probably have gone.

Sons decision to make

If it was my child I would very strongly urge not to go, I would definitely say my opinion but of course say it was up to them

I would never go to those places

My mum took a job in Abu Dhabi in her late 50s. A very
noble cause, as it happens, and with a specific intent to reap the benefits of high income for a short period to boost her retirement finances. My dad’s visa only allowed him to stay for a month before having to return for a month and he had absolutely no concerns about mum being there on her own - it’s an incredibly safe country in so many ways. There was lots that annoyed him: wastefulness and lack of green energy generation, obviously human rights challenges with Indian migrant workers etc and the view that wealth allows some to mistreat others.

I’d have political concerns about my loved ones moving to Canada or Australia though (where women’s rights are being actively stolen by men) and most wouldn’t blink an eye at that.

I’ve not lived at home since I was 17 and wouldn’t be allowing my parents to think they could influence my decisions in my 20s about where to live. I had actually moved to London in my 20s and was there on 7/7 so you never know what can happen anywhere on the planet. Your son is an adult and you need to trust him to make his own decisions.

It's a great part of the world to live and work in for a few years. I spent a year in Qatar and loved it. As a woman living on my own ( in a senior role) I felt very safe. The streets were much safer at night than over here.

Is it with the Company he's already working with? An internal move?

Hmm, tough one

I'd encourage him to go for it... But I wouldn't go myself

It could really boost his career though

@Username056 is work being done with respect to education for men on not sexually harassing women, you should never just provide a safe space for women. Otherwise it is like telling women not to go out at night when there has been a recent attack in the area, it's making women change their behaviour and not men.

Even if in your eyes London offers them the same or more, they very likely just prefer being in the UAE.

It can be a fast track to career progression. I believe the average time to reach director level is quicker than it is in London and New York, by a few years.

Women only carriages are more about providing a safe space for women if they prefer it. It’s an option. It’s not compulsory for women to go in them. It’s just not allowed for men to. They are very nice safe spaces where you can get a seat and just be amongst other women. There are also “Gold” carriages where you can pay more and are more likely to get a seat. These are mixed though as is the rest of the train.

I don’t think you have ever been there or you would know much better. There is plenty to do to suit every sporting, artistic, cultural (in every definition) leisure interest you can possibly dream of.
I can’t believe the ignorance on here

LGB is very different from T (and in fact most people recognise that T is often driven by homophobia). The culture of having safe female spaces for women is being eroded here rather than it was never here, and those cultural practices have their roots in keeping women safe in both cultures.