To refuse to go to Abu Dhabi for work / employer?

[fairyella]

My colleagues and I have to complete a short "mobilisation" survey once a year (basically, no one's forced to travel nationally or internationally, as there's usually enough flex, across people who can/want to travel vs. those who can't/won't, in terms of business need).

However, I'm due to submit mine again in a few months and I'm thinking of changing my usual "can travel worldwide with 1 week or more" comment, to something like that but with certain countries on an exclusion list.

My first would be to add UAE to the exclusions, not least because this sort of thing is very concerning, esp alongside some of the customs around females that already make me think twice about how I'd react if I were asked to go out there:
www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-31692914

^Mr Pate's dispute with his employer began in December last year when he sought to extend his holiday to see a doctor about a long-standing back injury. After being told he could not extend his leave, Mr Pate posted a rant about the Abu Dhabi-based firm on his Facebook page.
... He returned to Abu Dhabi in order to resign but soon after arriving he was called by police who told him to report to a nearby police station. On attending he was shown screenshots of the Facebook message and told his employer had filed charges accusing him of breaking wide-ranging Emirates laws that ban slander.^

Maybe making the above point is a bit moot (I'm pretty sure there's only a slim chance of me ever getting to travel to anywhere hot and if I did I'm sure I wouldn't stray into what I'd think would be seen as "slandering" anyone!) but AIBU to explicitly state there are certain countries like UAE where I wouldn't travel for work?

I suppose I'm worried about coming across as unprofessional, because it's essentially bringing in politics into the workplace (although with pragmatic concerns!).

I don't respect other cultures that are anti gay and anti women.

www.firstpost.com/world/years-of-living-dangerously-being-gay-indian-in-dubai-1378279.html

Basically gay men saying if you are gay, rich and live in Dubai, you can be okay. If you are gay and poor, life can be hell.

Caryam - how bloody dare you accuse me of using homophobic language. You have clearly made some assumptions purely for the sake of having something "Politically correct" to bitch at someone you hardly know about. Well done you, Saint Caryam, exaulted martyr for all of the persecuted minorities.

My friends do not hide their sexuality in Dubai - certain Emirati or Islamic people do not like it, but none of my friends have ever been called up on it or treated badly for it. This is because they also do not flaunt it with PDAs all over the place and constant banging on about their relationships. But neither do unmarried straight couples - in middle eastern culture, people would not want flaunting of either of these things - they are much more private than in the western world. The fact that neither sex outside of marriage or homosexuality is condoned by Islam is a contributing factor, but the UAE is more progressive and have moved on in the way that Christian countries have moved on to the ability to realise it's there and either accept or ignore it. You may think that that is restrictive etc, but it's a cultural choice led by religion that we have no right to judge.

And yes, I am making sweeping generalisations, but I have lived there and so I do actually have some experience of this.

Also, the UAE is a massive financial centre now. They need Western business and finance after the slump of 2010-2011 so there has been a massive conscious effort to westernise in recent years and part of that has been embracing western culture as far as their religion permits.

Caryam the bible is pretty anti gay and anti women, yet it is also the basic foundation of most pluralist democracies. Other anti-places are Russia, huge swathes of Africa, most of the Indian subcontinent, and less developed parts of China. Unfortunately if we don't do business with other nations, and learn to rub along with them, before long we will be unable to find the rather lavish welfare state that you are no doubt very proud of. Ultimately, the future lies in the East, as most of us have already worked out. We can either treat the forriners like medieval savages in need of civilising (as you seem to be doing) or try to influence things for the better.

I prefer the latter approach, and would never rule out any travel on the grounds of (largely inaccurate) prejudice about particular nations.

I wouldn't go to the UK for work because of anti semitism and hate preachers. People in glass houses.....

phew I was staring to worry. A thread about the Middle East without lots of ignorant crap posted by the Guardian reading worldly wise mums on a parenting site. I go offshore tonight. I am female and work in a small team of Arab men. Last time the helicopter pilot was female as well. And the medic. I must remember to tell my (female) boss when I get back that our company are doing it wrong. According to the wisdom of a parenting site of people I should be flogged and locked up rather than being the female breadwinner and middle manager training local men and women to do their jobs.

Nitpick from the US: George Bush didn't resign. An amendment to our Constitution limits presidents to two four-year terms. George W. Bush was President for two terms, and was ineligible for re-election after that. His father, George Bush or George H.W. Bush, ran for re-election after one term and was not re-elected (we elected Bill Clinton instead). We have had one President, Richard Nixon, resign from office- what happens when a President is not re-elected or is ineligible to run for re-election is something totally different.

I wouldn't want to go to Middle Eastern countries like UAE or Saudi Arabia, but I suspect they wouldn't want me either- I'm Jewish and have been to Israel.

geekymommy plenty of Jews here in the UAE, happily. Including my boss! There is so much misinformation out there.

(I found out this week that there is a massive Jewish community in Iran too - I must admit that really surprised me, I had no idea...)

Incodentally, did anyone see that female Lebanese presenter impressively berating a fundamentalist mullah for being a misogynistic prick? It was all over the news here yesterday. Guess which Middle East hellhole they dug up the misogynist mullah from?

drumroll

London!

Doesn't that make you proud to be British??

Plenty of North London Jews go to Dubai for their holidays. I hear them in the hairdressers talking about/getting ready fir their holidays all the time.

Alrayyan, I'm sure you can see the irony in generalising about 'Guardian-reading worldly wise mums' who may have the temerity to have an opinion on human rights in a notorious ME non-democracy, as someone who is yourself clearly heavily financially and professionally-involved in the ME.

Rather than giving yourself hard-hitting credentials for why your account of the UAE is more valid than anyone else's, you just make it plain how biased you are. Like, understandably, the majority of western expats based there, who have a vested interested in the head-down 'I'm all right, Jack' approach to the UAE.

Not ironic just funny that people think that reading the Guardian means they know about the world. Some of the stuff people write on here is pathetic. The ME is an easy target. If you really gave a shit about human rights and women there are plenty of other countries for you to "civilise". Unless you have actually travelled and worked abroad you can't really judge entire countries or regions. Invading Iraq hasn't worked out so well has it? I was there before and during the invasion and can assure you nothing was less civilised than the things I saw from the so called civilise nations.

and to add, this post was created as a theoretical question with no real basis designed to get a pat on the back for being so right on. I personally save my admiration for people who (rather than theorise on nonsense) actually do real things for better reasons than bleating on a parenting website.

What's Russia's problem with homosexuality? Can someone explain? It's been mentioned on here a few times.
Please don't tell me they have anti homosexual laws or something. It's on me and DH's list to visit.
OP, I would probably go if it was for a short period if time. I suppose relocating there for a fixed period is a different story altogether.

alrayyan I agree with much of what you've said. I think there's a lot if hypocrisy surrounding the UAE. Seems like an easy and rather lazy target.

It has never occurred to me to avoid Abu Dhabi and I would probably put a few other countries before Abu Dhabi.
Saudi Arabia to start with, then probably Iraq, North Korea, and so on, depending on the Home Office recommendations.

Celtic homophobia is very very common in Russia. Lots of people boycotted the sochi games in protest but others just went competed and made the games as gay as possible which I thought was a really funny clever idea ie
m.youtube.com/watch?v=-6RID82Ru-k

But one of my bf is Russian and we have a joint Russian friend who is gay and the homophobia bred into society there is astonishing. It's hard to describe actually.

Thanks for explaining Feck I love the YouTube clip. I reckon that song would be a great Eurovision entry for Russia.

Feckegg I read that as "Celtic homophobia" and was very confused as to how that would differ from (all too) common & garden homophobia and why the hell it would be particularly prevalent in Russia.

ha ha poor celtic