Would you go to the UAE?

[Sleepdeprivedbadger23]

I’ve always had zero interest in a holiday in Dubai because it’s not my scene - I am more a European villa or active holiday person and not into designer gear so politely nod along if friends tell me about their Dubai holidays.

I also know the human and women’s rights etc are generally very poor. I’ve heard from relatives who have lived there for periods and they also found migrant workers in the hotels they were working in were treated really badly.

My in laws have now moved there. I’m not keen on visiting, but obviously DP wants to see his family.

Would you go for a visit to family? There’s lots of places I would rather not spend loads of time in (the US at the moment to be honest!) but if someone bought me a trip to NYC I would probably go…!

I don’t think it’s beneath me. I just don’t think it’s for me either. I wouldn’t live here either given the choice.

I wouldn’t go. Human rights violations, treatment of women, trashy people who go
there.

Genuine question. How would anyone know that your child was LGBT? Unless they were kissing a same-sex partner. Which, yes, would be frowned upon because all PDA's are frowned on, irrespective of combination or participants. For what it's worth, my sister's child, who is a transman (and is clearly such), literally just transitted through Dubai last week without any issues whatsover.

Because my kids themselves know that they are LGBT and even setting foot in the country, even for a 3 hour flight change would make them feel really uncomfortable. It’s not really worth making my kids feel that way for a holiday, especially when other airlines are available

I'm not even a little bit ashamed to know that a culture built on modern-day slavery is beneath me.

Being gay I have an issue with the fact that it’s illegal to be gay in Dubai, punishable with imprisonment. But hey, if you got to swim in the Arabian gulf, that’s all okay then.

@adlitem your point is a good one as to how far my principles go (on everything more broadly!).

@jeaux90 wow, can I ask why? Interesting to hear such a strong stance from someone who lived there.

It’s not built on slavery. They wouldn’t come if the job wasn’t better than they could get at home. Goes for all those British engineers living and working there too ….

This is shockingly naive. You clearly don’t know a thing about it!

They get entrapped, lied to and in debt to their bosses who keep their passports and say they can’t leave unless they work off their exorbitant travel and living costs.
they are expected to work in heat, and for long hours they live in poor conditions and have to pay for the privilege

Fuck me 🤦🏼‍♀️ Are you for real?

This is called confirmation bias and explains why you are expounding the Dubai love so freely

I visited because I have family there. It's corrupt, sexist and rasist and there's a clear hierarchy of power, but if you are well behaved and white you will feel safe and can have a pleasant stay if you don't look too hard at what's beneath the surface.

It is illegal to keep employee passports. If you know of a violation, then report it.

What you should keep in mind is that most workers in the Gulf come voluntarily because the pay is much better than they could expect back home.

You may not like that, but it’s not as if you are directly employing these people, are you? They build Dubai and in turn have savings to take back to their poverty-stricken country. Tbh it works better for them than any sort of Western charity.

I actually fucking hate Dubai, but I also hate lazy stereotypes with zero nuance either.

I’d go visit family. And stop off somewhere on the way I’m more interested in….

You might find that many openly gay people DO avoid visiting countries where homosexuality is illegal.

I would be uncomfortable taking my family to a country where sex outside of marriage is illegal or was recently illegal because I am not married and have kids. It’s not the least bit surprising to me that a family with two gay fathers and adopted kids would avoid visiting too.

I find the idea that gay people just grit their teeth and get on with visiting countries where they can be imprisoned or even killed is quite astonishing.

I'm not gay and I don't go to those countries!

No.

I know they come voluntarily, because they are sold a false promise. They are charged a fee and travel, that they will struggle to work off. It’s an almost inescapable existence.

it’s not your usual migration for work to send money home.

the U.K. has its own issues with this sort of work on the black market and the police and services do their best to close it down. at least here it’s on the black market.

I struggle with the hypocrisy.
You can buy pork if you go behind the naughty curtain.
You can drink if you are in a hotel.
You can have unmarried sex if your in a hotel (although I know this has now changed)

it’s all ok if you have money.

I wouldn't go out of my way to go on holiday there. But I would visit friends and family. And if I got a free trip. My ethics go out the door if it is free 😃

Probably bc of the really good school options, high salaries and no taxes? I'm not a fan of the middle east, I've lived in a few countries including UAE and while I would never move back, I can see the appeal, esp for families.

If you do go, be prepared for it to be very expensive. We went for a holiday recently, just to visit friends etc as we used to live there, and to go skydiving, and it was way more expensive than I remember. Like £100 for breakfast, £700 easy for a boozy dinner for 3, £25 for a decent cocktail, etc etc. We took 4k to spend for a week thinking it would easily be enough and it wasn't. Of course it depends on where you go, but unless you want to go for fast food every day, there really isn't such a thing as low end.

Massive hypocrisy... a friend moved there with her husband, he works for a multinational engineering firm. He's been invited to private 'parties' hosted by influential UAE nationals, there is alcohol, and there are often women (never local or western women) brought to these events... but that isn't seen as immoral because in the eyes of the system, those women don't even count.

My friend makes a point of saying how safe she feels there as a woman... but that's because she's white and married (and her husband treats her well). Even she admits that if he hit her or assaulted her she couldn't go to the police there, she knows they wouldn't take notice of someone trying to complain up the hierarchy and making allegations against him would leave her incredibly vulnerable.

Yes it’s amazing how many people on this thread seem to have been able to overcome their firmly held principles to “visit family”.