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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

How do women square holidaying in Dubai with the lived reality of UAE women?

592 replies

Bouncealot · 17/02/2021 10:56

Never understood a friend raving about the luxury, lack of crime, cleanliness, attentiveness of hotel and retail staff, when I had watched documentaries on slave labour, especially Philippine and Pakistani people denied passports, sleeping on kitchen floors and UAEs refusal to give stats on FGM to WHO. Just listened to Woman’s Hour discussion on the Princess Latifa case. It seems not a subject for discussion when people are planning ‘sunshine breaks’.
IABU judge other women’s holiday choices and experiences?

OP posts:
MagicSummer · 17/02/2021 14:29

Because it's a great place to take a holiday. Has everything you might want.

merrymouse · 17/02/2021 14:30

One common theme I've noticed amongst people I know who holiday in these locations, in particular the sunny ones are comments about how big everything is, how luxurious it is, how glamorous it is (not so much about the natural beauty, incredible history).

Yes - if you look at holiday guides to Dubai it is very much about the big hotels and the shopping malls.

If it has an equivalent to the Great Wall of China, or Aztec ruins, the Dubai tourism board isn't interested in selling it.

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with shopping malls and big hotels, but I'm not surprised that people who go on a holiday to visit shopping malls and big hotels are primarily interested in... shopping malls and big hotels.

tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz · 17/02/2021 14:30

@MagicSummer

Because it's a great place to take a holiday. Has everything you might want.
Unless you're gay or a lesbian Confused
user1654236589623652 · 17/02/2021 14:32

@SharonasCorona

My very existence is illegal in Pakistan, my existence could even lead to ten years in prison and a fine or life in prison.

I don't dispute it's illegal, but prosecutions against gay people are rare. Pakistan does have gay and transexual communities.

I wouldn't boycott a whole country over it, just support those fighting for gay rights.

Are you gay? It sounds not from your reference to "supporting" as opposed to being the person who would potentially be imprisoned simply for who you are.

It's very easy to make statements like that when it's not you who's at risk or affected.

Jasminexx · 17/02/2021 14:34

I lived in dubai due to my old job and the crime rate is very low and I felt more safe walking around of an evening in dubai then I would do walking around a city in the dark here. Expats go to work and earn and get to live a very luxury lifestyle, everything is man made and very luxurious. The thing is tourists and most expats are oblivious to the slave labour and mistreatment of the workers In dubai. They bring a lot of Pakistani men over with the promise a bright future and all this money then once they come over they have their passport taken off them and are put into appalling accommodation with about 5 other workers. You will see workers out in all kinds of heat working 12/16 hour days for terrible pay. The security guards in the apartment block I lived in worked 7 days a week 12 hour shifts, one of then has not seen his daughter for 4 years as can't get his passport back. On another occasion I was in the lift and a cleaner who was Pakistani went to walk in the lift then when he noticed me apologised and stepped back out, I told him to come in, it's fine to which he said thank you because am a cleaner most people wouldn't like me in the same lift.
Dubai is built on modern day slavery, the Philippine nannies and Pakistani workers are treated disgracefully. The whole place may be luxurious but its man made, the is no smell of fresh grass, you don't hear birds, there's barely any rain and a very fake County. I can see why people like it as a holiday but honestly I didn't like living there at all

MagicSummer · 17/02/2021 14:34

Unless you're gay or a lesbian

I'm not!

Ifailed · 17/02/2021 14:34

Because it's a great place to take a holiday. Has everything you might want.
Equality?

LexMitior · 17/02/2021 14:36

Dubai is cheap isn't it. Most people can afford to pretend they are in some luxurious class which simply isn't true of their normal lives in the UK. I don't think they are fussed on human rights but at least you don't have to pretend that they are simply money and self focussed.

MagicSummer · 17/02/2021 14:38

@Ifailed

Because it's a great place to take a holiday. Has everything you might want. Equality?
Look, when I go on holiday, I want to go somewhere warm, with excellent luxury hotels, restaurants which have food I enjoy, things to see and do, some shopping and to feel safe. Their domestic matters are up to them. When in Rome, etc.
lioncitygirl · 17/02/2021 14:38

People live there for tax reasons and money, I’ve been a few times - stopovers to my eventual destinations. Could I live there? Nah - it’s not for me. Stop rover for a day? I could - but nah oh to say hello to friends. My best friend lives there - she seems to like it, and gets paid an extraordinary amount of money. She won’t ever move back. She’s Filipino. To those saying the domestic workers there get treated like shit - I’ve met ones in Kensington that are treated FAR worse. So no - it’s not just a Dubai thin g (for that)

tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz · 17/02/2021 14:38

You can't be serious?

SimonJT · 17/02/2021 14:39

Look, when I go on holiday, I want to go somewhere warm, with excellent luxury hotels, restaurants which have food I enjoy, things to see and do, some shopping where white straight people feel safe. Their domestic matters are up to them. When in Rome, etc.

Fixed it for you.

tellmewhentheLangshiplandscoz · 17/02/2021 14:40

Oh and that expression means "... do as the Romans do."

Not to just turn a beautifully suntanned blind eye.

Jasminexx · 17/02/2021 14:43

@lioncitygirl your right mistreatment can happen anywhere however I live Dubai and there's no hiding the fact that aot of workers a generally mistreated I'd say more so the Pakistani and Indian men who are brought over to work.

merrymouse · 17/02/2021 14:44

I’ve met ones in Kensington that are treated FAR worse.

Which is against the law, not an intrinsic part of the way of life.

poppyzbrite4 · 17/02/2021 14:44

But you could make the same argument about the US. Look at how black people and other ethnic minorities are treated. A woman was in bed in her own home and was shot by the police. Her only crime seems to have been black. The greatest trick the US ever pulled was convincing the world it's on the side of human rights. Their human rights abused in their own country is appalling, never mind those carried out against others. It's perfectly legal to marry kids there ffs.

unmarkedbythat · 17/02/2021 14:47

@MagicSummer

Unless you're gay or a lesbian

I'm not!

That's what it all comes down to isn't it? I'm not. I'm not affected, I'm not abused, I'm not bothered that others are.
CayrolBaaaskin · 17/02/2021 14:47

It is the case though that many countries around the world have human rights issues. All of them really. Some more than others but would you boycott China? Or Australia (horrible treatment of asylum seekers). Or USA (racist police violence and death penalty).

LexMitior · 17/02/2021 14:48

It would not be the same argument - there would be many different arguments wouldn't there, to the degree that the state has failed to protect its citizens, and the degree to which systemic racism has done that. The United States has problems - but they seem to discuss and address them like many democracies do.

Dubai isn't like that.

merrymouse · 17/02/2021 14:49

Look at how black people and other ethnic minorities are treated.

But they can vote.

Completely and absolutely agree that Human Rights in the US are Hmm, but it's not comparable to what happens in Dubai.

Lweji · 17/02/2021 14:53

One good reason not to go to Dubai, or similar countries.

www.bbc.com/news/uk-38013351

poppyzbrite4 · 17/02/2021 14:53

@merrymouse

Look at how black people and other ethnic minorities are treated.

But they can vote.

Completely and absolutely agree that Human Rights in the US are Hmm, but it's not comparable to what happens in Dubai.

Indian women can vote. Yet women are sexually assaulted on an horrific scale. I'm not sure how being able to vote, makes up for the fact that the police have carte blanche to wipe our your race with no repercussions. Indigenous Canadians have the vote. Doesn't stop the abuse they suffer within a so called democracy. Having a vote isn't a magic shield.
SharonasCorona · 17/02/2021 14:53

@ClaudiaWankleman

I wouldn't boycott a whole country over it

Is there anything you think is worth boycotting a country for @SharonasCorona ?

Not goady, it's just that if you are always able to divorce the government and legal system from the visiting experience then you'll probably never feel a country is worth boycotting, whereas people who view it as all wrapped up together will probably see boycotting as quite normal.

In reality of course it is much, much more complicated!

No, I love travelling and probably would go anywhere that was reasonably safe to travel to. I've been to the US and China and other countries with terrible records and don't regret it. As you say, I tend to divorce the government and legal system from the visiting experience.

I have been to Dubai but it's not for me, I prefer the less beaten path.

Carycy · 17/02/2021 14:53

Because 80% of the year this country is cold an miserable. And Dubai is an easy place to go in the winter for a break and for sunshine.
As someone who lives in the drizzly north west I can totally understand that.
I don’t agree with the politics of a lot of countries but nothing going there to get involved in their politics. Going because of the geography.

whataboutbob · 17/02/2021 14:55

I agree. It seems Dubai is catnip to many though. I know I’m being controversial and will get taken down, but its popularity with British Muslims puzzles me, as many of the exploited construction workers are co religionists from Bangladesh etc. But maybe they figure they would be exploited in Bangladesh/ Pakistan/ India too, and at least they’re owning money in Dubai.