Would you go to Dubai?

[Londonscummymummy]

Would you go to Dubai?

My husband is interested in going and thanks it is unreasonable that I've always said I wouldn't go there. He thinks I should compromise since he would like to go.

The reason I don't want to go is mainly because of the treatment of women and gay people. (I'm also not fussed about the "shopping and money" type culture that a holiday there would be about). He says Dubai isn't going to care about my personal protest but I say I'm not "protesting" - I just wouldn't feel right or comfortable morally.

He argues there are plenty of countries in the world with attitudes / laws we don't agree with but we don't boycott them all. His example is gun ownership in the US. I argue that I may disagree with certain laws in some countries (ie death penalty, gun ownership), but that not many countries have such levels of state oppression enshrined in law, and none I would travel to.

I don't feel my position is that unusual but he thinks it is very unusual and inflexible. He knows a lot of friends / colleagues of his who've been.

Zero appeal to me

I have been and loved it,felt so safe.I would go again,but I wouldn’t go to the USA.

I love Dubai. I've been 4 times all before I had kids.

Can't wait to take them when they're a little older.

@Witsendwilly I've been to Sri Lanka. Women aren't made to be chaperoned by a male and they have equal rights, albeit in a patriarchal society. Not a reasonable comparison.

Nope. Not the kind of place I would want to visit.

I’m lucky enough to have travelled extensively, but I have never been to the UAE, except for a couple of brief airport stopovers at DXB.
From everything I have heard & read, Dubai really doesn’t sound like my sort of place at all, and the type of people who go there really are not my tribe, so it isn’t on my list of places I would like to visit, and I have no plans to do so, but ‘never say never’.

Yes. I went last year and I'm going again this year. A lot of countries have far more oppressive laws than the UK, but the UAE is always the one that is constantly mentioned on MN. There's a thread about it pretty much every day.

Er - going somewhere your DH wants to go, and you definitely don’t, is not a compromise

No, for all the reasons already stated on here and simply because it wouldn't interest me.

The place is just too artificial. I would far rather go to a Greek island, talk to the locals, sightsee local sights, immerse myself in the local culture, eat and drink local food and basically support the local economy rather than line the pockets of some rich billionnaire or tour operator.

Maldives? Japan?

Both below UAE in the Global Gender Gap report 2020, yet hardly ever mentioned

I cannot see the upside of Dubai. Most places hold some appeal or at least interest but Dubai looks awful. I'd far rather stay at home.

No, I wouldn’t.

Newnamenewme23 · Today 16:43
Where are other holiday destinations that are worse for human rights?

Here is part of a long description of human rights abuses in Cuba. Not sure if they’re ‘worse’ than Dubai but it doesn’t sound great. Nonetheless people seem to go there without any qualms.

Significant human rights issues included credible reports of: unlawful or arbitrary killings, including extrajudicial killings, by the government; forced disappearance by the government; torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of political dissidents, detainees, and prisoners by security forces; harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrary arrests and detentions; political prisoners; serious problems with the independence of the judiciary; arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy; reprisals against family members for offenses allegedly committed by an individual; serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media including violence or threats of violence against journalists, censorship, and criminal libel laws used against persons who criticized government leadership; serious restrictions on internet freedom; severe restrictions on the right of peaceful assembly and denial of freedom of association, including refusal to recognize independent associations; severe restrictions on religious freedom; restrictions on internal and external freedom of movement; inability of citizens to change their government peacefully through free and fair elections, including serious and unreasonable restrictions on political participation; serious government corruption; a lack of investigation of and accountability for gender-based violence; trafficking in persons, including forced labor; and outlawing of independent trade unions.

I’m with you, I won’t go to certain countries for the same reason. There are many cities & countries I’d love to visit but won’t due to the treatment of women and it’s own citizens.

I could never afford a holiday in Dubai so it's easy for me to say I'd never go. But I don't think I would. That said, if I suddenly came into money and could afford a luxury holiday I don't know where I would go!

I wasn't aware that women had to be chaperoned by a male in Dubai.

I saw lots of women on their own or in groups when I was there.

They don’t. It’s a common misconception fuels by Chinese whispers where one person tells someone a woman in Dubai needs permission from her male guardian to do something, and then by the time it’s been passed on five or six times the nonsense story has become something else entirely.

As others have said, there are several UK holiday hotspots that people flock to without a second though that have worse human rights, or women’s rights records than Dubai.

I've had a couple of 2 day stopovers there, I definitely wouldn't book an actual holiday there.
Apart from the old parts, it's absolutely soulless.
I've never felt unsafe on holiday, but to be honest, the moment my boyfriend at the time left my sight, I felt vulnerable. I had 3 different men try and sit with me, (until I told them my "husband" was only going to be a minute) and we got ripped off by a taxi driver, who knew we wouldn't complain because we were unmarried.
It's interesting to go there, but it's really not my cup of tea and I'm very unlikely to return.

I'm a sucker for tacky glitz and shopping, but no I don't think I could bring myself to go. How about Vegas instead? yea I’ve heard they’ve fixed all these issues With illegal prostitution and child prostitution , and Hispanics are no longer paid below the minimum wage.

No. Don't want to prop up or contribute to a place with such a poor human rights record. Why do people not know these things? It's beyond shocking...... Now Qatar being pushed as Dubai#2

Being gay can result in death.

Many stateless people barred from medical treatment.

Slave economy where Indian, Asian employees live in appalling conditions and with passports confiscated.

Women are viewed as objects.

They don't have to be chaperoned in Dubai, either.

You seem to have confused it with Saudi Arabia. And even there the chaperoning is going.

Defending Dubai’s human rights record because other places don’t have spotless records either doesn’t justify a holiday.

i wouldn’t go to many of the counties on the list posted earlier.

what bother me about Dubai is the different rules for different parts of society. Yet if you infringe as pp who nearly ended up in prison for reporting a theft because she’d drunk alcohol, even though the bar she was in was licensed.

It's not a defence. I'm no apologist for the place. I've never been (other than to the airport) so have no particular soon on this game.

I'm simply pointing out people's hypocrisy and/or ignorance.
Personally I don't want OP to throw away a really good work oopportunit, based on a lot of ill thought out and very opinionated posts painting Dubai as the worst country in the world for this stuff.

soon on this game.

Ugh. Skin in this game

No and also when there is a whole big world to go to, why would you choose to go there?