To think that no-one should go to Dubai

[Sallyingforth]

while they treat women like this...

Jailed for being raped.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-23381448

[LastTangoInDevonshire]

Channel 4 Racing is sponsored by Dubai. I shudder each time I see that advert. The worst place in the world (supposedly civilised) for women.

[loveinthemist]

YANBU - I wouldn't set foot there either. It's strange how many 'Westerners' are happy to move out there to earn a quick buck. It seems that they are prepared to turn a blind eye to the appalling way certain sectors of society are treated. Very odd behaviour but I guess money/greed/entitlement is all some people care about.

[japonicabumsplatt]

Hurrah for all the Dubai supporters. Just wonder how you would feel at the thoughts of having to try and live there in the conditions that are commonl knowledge as being shit for women.
Ah, the bazzar at sunset....so.fucking.what. Picture postcard. Very nice, aren't you the great adventurers. The reality is appalling, but if you want to think the shop front is the whole story..feel free

[dolcelatte]

It's incredible the way it's moved from sand to cement and from poverty to wealth in such a short time scale, but the city inevitably lacks much in the way of history or culture. The spice market has a certain charm and yes, the gold souk has some amazing prices,although the styles are mostly rather ornate for Western taste.

We went there after Oman and the contrast was startling. Oman is stunningly beautiful and natural. Dubai is unashamedly capitalist and flaunts its wealth and appears as ugly and 'vulgar' in comparison.

But that's a different issue from the one raised by the OP. The reported case is shocking. However, the fact that Dubai is now so dependent on tourism - it only has a fraction of the oil of Abu Dhabi - means that it can't afford to upset its customers, so hopefully this case will have a positive outcome on appeal.

[Parker231]

We went from the creek (did have a conversation with DH regarding health and safety when I saw how many people got on each boat and how low they lie in the water - he laughed at me and questioned how many years people had been travelling that way !) and went to watch the fountain show - the kids certainly got an education in seeing one extreme to another !

[japonicabumsplatt]

Sorry if that was a narky comment. DH has been offered work there but I have said no for the reasons everyone above has mentioned. A friends wife was amazed that we didn't leap at it. What with the servants and all...
Got a chest infection, feeling narky. sorry

[MrsKeithRichards]

Japon has got a nark on.

[japonicabumsplatt]

She has indeed got quite the nark on MrsR, forgive the testy note in my comment.

[MrsKeithRichards]

I do get what you're saying, I wouldn't choose to live there, or many other countries. I've been an expat briefly, not in Dubai but in Malaysia, and hard it. Amazing, beautiful, fascinating country but the expat mentality is not nice. The live in help, almost believing your own hype really because a lot of little native to these countries believe westerners are fantastic, aspirational, and they literally bite to you at times. Some people seem to start to think they are worthy of the adulations.

[MrsKeithRichards]

People, not little

BOW not bite lol

[NadiaWadia]

Vile place. Hope the Norwegian government can get that poor girl out of there.

Doesn't Lisa Scott-Lee (ex-Steps) live there?

[scottishmummy]

Awful story,prior to going to Dubai be clear it's different to uk and hierarchical
a lot of Folks go for the money,ESP in recession.
Whilst the Norwegian woman treatment is awful I'm not surprised

[nooka]

I really dislike the way the BBC is reporting this case with raped in inverted commas, so it's not an alleged rape but 'rape'.

[japonicabumsplatt]

Yet, it still makes me wonder why the hell anyone would want to even visit the place. I get that there is a layer of something that is original to the place, though it cannot compete with all the razzmatazz going on around it?
Scottish, young couple next door to us are off to Saudi to work in September, they have 3 kids and are going for the money as you say. In my heart of hearts, i think they are going to struggle with the differences but will have to simply forge on because there will be no way out of it without a lot of hassle from employers and so on. Have to admit I am a bit worried for them

[springperennial]

Dubai is full of surveyors who all think they're Donald Fucking Trump because they have a plunge pool in their yard and employ some poor sod from Asia on slave wages to bow and scrape before them. And yes I've bloody been there and shudder at the thought of ever returning.

That is a heartbreaking article and here's another one.

www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/johann-hari/the-dark-side-of-dubai-1664368.html

[scottishmummy]

Full of surveyors,hell indeed

[Sallyingforth]

OP back again.
Many thanks for all the comments. I've seen other reports before about women being disgracefully treated there, but this one really made me angry. Glad to hear I'm not the only one.

[themaltesefalcon]

Dubai doesn't appeal to me at all, anymore than living in, say, Surrey and having an au pair would. All exploiters of cheap foreign labour bring out the rage in me. Yes, my oh so right-on Guardian-reading middle-class "leftie" colleague who pays her Filipina cleaner a whopping 100 roubles for a whole morning's work, I'm looking at you.

[themaltesefalcon]

Er, scottishmummy, I agree with you, but Johann Hari "journalism" is not exactly good supporting evidence. :)

[Badvoc]

I would never visit most of the Middle East for reasons like this.
Their treatment of women and children is medieval.
Their treatment of migrant workers is awful (although some European countries dint do too well either).
It seems a soulless money driven desert of a place to me.

[BlingBang]

"Arab countries have among the lowest rates of reported rape in the world. Once you start jailing women who report it, you dramatically improve your statistics."

Read this comment and thought it an interesting way to not have to deal with the issue and make sure your women toe the line.

[Thisisaeuphemism]

As soon as anyone says they love holidaying in Dubai (and they say it a lot here in Essex) I think, nah, we're not going to get on.

[scottishmummy]

I agree

[Lifeisforlivingkatie]

Go to Mauritius or somewhere in Europe skip Dubai

[ThingsThatMakeYouGoHmmmmmmmmm]

Dunno about Dubai - never been there.

Will never be going there either, purely based upon hearing the victim interviewed on Radio Four this evening.