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

[Bouncealot]

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?

@Jasminexx

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

This is what stops me. The criminal working conditions. I can’t stomach this.

Yes I'm sure all the people who say that these workers are happy are perfectly right. Just like they are in communist countries. Everyone is HAPPY, NOTHING TO SEE.

Men approaching me, people staring at me, god it was just awful.

I strongly suspect that the type of people who enjoy a Dubai holiday don't ponder the ramifications of human rights very often and wouldn't know what ramification meant, anyway

@peaceanddove

I strongly suspect that the type of people who enjoy a Dubai holiday don't ponder the ramifications of human rights very often and wouldn't know what ramification meant, anyway

I strongly suspect that you're correct here. Some of us, actually have a life!!

@Bouncealot

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?

Completely agree with you, human rights abuses towards women here are absolutely horrific. Women arrested for protesting against not being able to drive, women arrested because they report a rape- but their at fault because they weren't married, women arrested for kissing in public. Slave labour. It's so dangerous for women- I will never ever go there and never spend a penny in their economy until their human rights record radically changes.

Littlepaws18

I take it that you check the label/packaging of any clothes/items you buy before you purchase them, then!!

An uncle of mine, not the brightest candle on the cake, holidayed there. His partner fell off a quad bike and was very badly injured. She had to stay in hospital for ages and when they came back- her with life changing mobility injuries- all he did was moan about how she was treated like a second class citizen in terms of her care etc, how dismissive male doctors were of her pain etc. I was like, “er yeah, dya THINK?!”

And does those who holiday in India, Sri Lanka, Egypt or Cambodia ponder on the atrocities that are happening or the pitiful wages that were paid to those that built the nice hotel they stayed or the abuse of women and children in the very lucrative so called sex industry, the women who were forced as children to suffer FGM

Or do we only have to be socially conscious when visiting Dubai ?

Honestly, I think that to some extent, we all distance ourselves from the reality of our choices. We just don't have the mental energy or space to act 100% ethically in everything we do. I can list a whole load of things many people do that may not be completely ethical.

1. Visit repressive countries such as UAE
2. Buy food products that involve some level of animal cruelty or unethical practices (e.g. I read that avocados support the drugs trade - the Duchess of Sussex was attacked for it)
3. Buy clothes that rely on child labour
4. Work with companies in repressive regimes
5. Go on a plane trip that causes environmental damage.

Of course we do McEwan but let’s be honest being critical of Dubai allows class and Arab/Muslim bashing

Quite a favourite on MN

I’m not sure how men square up their holidays with the terrible condition of male foreign workers, either...

We lived in the UAE for two years and it would have been longer if it wasn’t for the issues OP mentions. It’s a great country on the surface, but the surface doesn’t need much scratching before you get to the grime. Something seems to happen to expats when they come there though, it’s as though because the locals are racist and misogynistic it’s ok for them to be that way too. It only took one coffee morning with women who seemed lovely (and were lovely to me) but would treat servers like they were dirt, for me to realize that this was not the place for us, sadly that was two weeks in to a 2 year contract.
That being said, it’s a beautiful country and I met some wonderful people there, and when I have my rose tinted glasses on I really want to go back

@Circumlocutious

I’m not sure how men square up their holidays with the terrible condition of male foreign workers, either...

Erm...my husband and I visit Dubai regularly for vacation. I'm pretty sure that my DH doesn't ponder the terrible conditions of male foreign workers there. This may surprise you, but the travel agent we use has never brought this issue to our attention. As I have said, nothing but attention-seeking, virtue signaling nonsense.

@Baluchistan95

Whatever makes you feel better about yourself.

@Baluchistan95

You’ve never used the underground?

I used to live in Thailand and pre pandemic would visit every couple of years on my way to see my parents (retired in SE Asia)

Every flight to Thailand I've ever been on has very identifiable sex tourists on board - single men, very obviously not there to tour temples! Was once sat next to a man who told me his Xmas gift to himself every year was three weeks in Thailand, in Pattaya, which at the time was know for little apart from sex tourism.

Frankly I judge those men a lot more than people who go to Dubai to be flashy.

I've been to Dubai once - accompanying my husband on a work trip - but wasn't there long enough to see beneath the surface and had a nice enough break. Not desperately keen to go again though.

Not interested in visiting any Muslim country whatsoever.

@grassisjeweled

Not interested in visiting any Muslim country whatsoever.

Oh dear, you might want to adjust your coat your xenophobia is showing

Oh dear, you might want to adjust your coat your xenophobia is showing

Exactly. Shocking isn't it?

[quote Circumlocutious]@Baluchistan95

You’ve never used the underground?[/quote]
Sorry, you really have lost me on that one.

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I get what you mean OP. I personally don’t have any appetite for visiting Dubai. At the same time, I’m not going to get on my high horse and say any tourist who visits these countries with a history of human rights abuses are despicable. What about the US, China, Russia, India, etc? Would you criticise tourists visiting there too?

This book is well worth anybody reading, it's Saudi Arabia not Dubai but it's incredible and important

https://smile.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07F1LVQMR/ref=ppxyoodtbbsearchasinn_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1