DH thinks we're going to get arrested in Dubai

[willyougobacktobed]

Going to Dubai next week for Easter on a mini break with DH. As a tactile couple who enjoys a couple of drinks with dinner he's getting really anxious that we're going to get arrested if we a) unthinkingly give each other a peck on the cheek or b) share a bottle of wine and have a giggle.

He has googled their strict laws and legal systems LOTS.

I think he's BU, his worries and mithering are making me not look as forward to a holiday I've saved hard for as much as I otherwise would.

Are we going to get arrested?!

You don't get arrested for being tipsy. That's just bollocks. Especially not in a licensed hotel.

You get arrested (occasionally) for being absolutely shit faced and causing a public embarrassment/nuisance/breach of the peace.

But equally as often you get away with it. Just depends who sees you and chooses to take offence on any given day.

So really those who think that it isn't safe to have a drink, give a kiss to your husband/wife and can't walk showing a shoulder are those who have never been there and rely on what they read on the media.

Those who say it is safe and nothing like what it is stereotyped for are those who've lived there for years...

I wonder which sources is more reliable. My experience has certainly that as described by local residents. I actually never felt so comfortable looking at male strangers in the eye with a smile that was always reciprocated. I found people so much more friendly than in the UK.

For those who are concerned about not being able to buy alcohol - I take a couple of bottles of wine in my case to drink in the hotel room. You are allowed to take duty free from the UK and there is also a HUGE duty free area in arrivals at Dubai Airport. There are bars, hotels, restaurants which serve it too. OK, some do not, but does it really matter?

It's a fab place - GO!!

'Those who say it is safe and nothing like what it is stereotyped for are those who've lived there for years... I wonder which sources is more reliable'

Well, not the deluded expats who love the shopping and the sun that's for sure.

I really don't understand why people on MN get so fucking agitated over Dubai, queuing up to jump on the thread and vent their spleen about somewhere they've never been, when they don't do the same on threads about other places that are no better in many respects.

This is a thread about Dubai....?

This is a thread about Dubai....?

Exactly

I haven't seen any threads about other places where the rights of women are awful but hey not to matter they have shiny things in shops and it's nice and hot.
I'd say the same about those places if I did!

There are bars, hotels, restaurants which serve it too. OK, some do not, but does it really matter?

Depends really? If you like a couple of glasses of wine on holiday. Important to some, not important to others.

cabcab - yes if it's important you choose a place which does serve it!

I think if you're off on holiday to a country and you're scared of being arrested for doing something, it's probably best not to do whatever you think you're going to be arrested for. (Whether it's a hyperbolic interpretation of the law or an actual one.)

But I have to say for the crime of giggling or a peck on the cheek I think the sentence in Dubai is quite low. You'll be out in a few months. Six max.

I have never read the Daily Mail. I have read about many human rights abuses there. There are lots and lots of countries who have far far better human rights records. This source can tell you about human rights abuses in UAE
www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/united-arab-emirates

Nobody is denying that you can drink alcohol in hotels and some restaurants. And that in Dubai tourists can wear bikinis on beaches, etc.
But if you get raped or sexually assaulted do not report it. Women can be and are arrested in these circumstances. And most tourists who are charged with drinking alcohol have come to the attention of the police for another sometimes quite minor reason. That includes being a victim of a crime or causing a public disorder. So be aware.

Also read the official government advice.
www.gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/united-arab-emirates/local-laws-and-customs

The same as they never batted an eyelid when I was strolling around malls and going to restaurants with my knees and shoulders on show

If there's signs up in malls as stated asking people to cover up/dress modestly, why would you do that?
I'm guessing you were lucky and it'd have taken one person to take offence for you to get a different reaction....

Some further reading for the UAE apologists:

www.hrw.org/world-report/2018/country-chapters/united-arab-emirates

www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/01/raises-concern-human-rights-uae-180110045834391.html

www.amnesty.org/en/countries/middle-east-and-north-africa/united-arab-emirates/report-united-arab-emirates/

But clearly, some people don't give a shit as long as it doesn't affect them.

They probably would have enjoyed staying in apartheid-era SA, as well.

Yes I am convinced if MN had existed under apartheid, we would have had threads saying how lovely it was in South Africa and how all the black people they had met were really happy.

This is why I don’t understand why anyone would want to go on a romantic break to Dubai. Or maybe that is the point. The risk and the thrill. Or maybe being confined to your hotel room.

Personally, I'd find the appalling treatment of women and the abuse of migrant workers, who are often trafficked, a bit of a passion killer, tbh.

And lets face it. It is basically a place of skyscrapers, shopping malls, and beaches.

'They probably would have enjoyed staying in apartheid-era SA, as well.'

As long as they could get a suntan and go shopping, probably. It would just be everyone else making a big deal out of nothing, they'd never have had witnessed anything disturbing at all

When I lived in Dubai, the people who would talk most eloquently about how fabulous it was were openly-racist older white South Africans, who waxed eloquent on how safe it was — of course it was safe, because the economically deprived underclass who might turn to property crimes in another country in Dubai are largely confined to labour camps in the desert and ferried into the city in buses for their day’s work and then back out again at night. And had no pesky citizenship rights, political power, or freedom of movement like post-apartheid black South Africans.

The single greatest weapon the UAE government — though that term dignifies what is essentially a cluster of interrelated top families, who pass on the top positions to favoured children, plus a largely powerless advisory assembly for whom only small numbers of citizens are eligible to vote — wields is its control of residency and citizenship.

In fact, that’s one thing that’s worse now than when I lived in Dubai — for those on work residency permits, whether white collar European expat or housemaid, your employer was always supposed to keep your passport, and you could be deported at little or no notice, or had weeks to leave if your job ended — only something like 15% of those living in the UAE are citizens and have citizens’ rights.

But now the UAE government has started revoking the citizenship of and forcibly exiling Emiratis who are in any way critical of the rulers, or peacefully agitate for democracy, or against the Saudi-led war in Yemen, in which the UAE is a key player. And google ‘Bidoon’ if you want another depressing insight into the way the UAE works.

Jeez
You're a judgmental nasty lot, aren't you.
Deep as puddles.
Seriously, you believe all expats just shop and sunbathe?
I'd rather live in Dubai, or anywhere, than near the nasty shallow judgmental 'women' on this thread.

Nigella Sure set up a strawman proposition that no one has ever said. I assume people who actually live there work and look after their kids like anywhere else in the world.

As long as they could get a suntan and go shopping, probably.

Said by @GucciDay

Nigellas, I’ve seen no evidence on this thread of expat attitudes other than a blinkered ‘I’m all right, Jack’ determination not to engage with the UAE as a repressive political regime.

I’m sure that’s not true of all — and on some other Dubai threads there have been interesting contributions from residents who were involved in the construction industry and suggested conditions for workers were improving — but on this thread those who live in Dubai or elsewhere in the UAE appear to suggest little more knowledge than people who spent a week on a sun lounger on the Palm.

I don't think everyone just sunbathes and shops, I said it seems that is what lures people in. Doesn't matter that women seem to be treated as 2nd class citizens, as long as there's shopping and beaches.
I'm still wondering how women are treated better there than in the UK as nobody seems to have answered that one.

Nigella That is talking about tourists. And yes I have talked to many people at work who went to Dubai on holiday, and that is what they have all done. Plus visited the fountains.
Yes I know you can go to the desert, aquarium, go to a waterpark and visit a mosque.
But for most people the attraction of Dubai as tourists does seem to be sunbathing and shopping.

LimeKiwi I suspect the statement about women being treated better just relates to the low crime rate. Which exists because most people are treated like slaves and do not have freedom of movement, and most crimes are not reported by the press anyway. So we have no idea for example of the real rate of domestic violence or rape in Dubai.

@Nigellasdouble what do you mean by 'women' why put it in quotations? 🙄