Meant to be moving to Dubai in 4 weeks

[Medesres]

We've been planning a move to Dubai for a while now. Dh's work has an office out there and it seemed like great opportunity to live abroad and experience sth different. I've got a couple of friends out there already too who love the lifestyle.

Watching the news for the past 24 hours and I'm really starting to question things. I had no idea how close to Iran it was and who knows what might happen next. Part of me is hoping it will all be resolved soon but hard to believe.

My friend who already lives there has spent the night sleeping in one room with her dh and kids scared of all the missile noises.

Well, I used to work for an NHS medical consultant who was offered a ridiculous amount of money to move to UAE and work in a state-of-the-art hospital, his wife (also a consultant) was offered a similar post and salary. Perks included a huge house with staff, private education for the children, company cars, yaddah yaddah......

He wouldn't consider it for a moment. He is an Arab, raised in the Middle East. He said it was far too dangerous and volatile a place to bring up a family.

Quite.
I can’t understand these threads where people bend over backwards to comment how they won’t go somewhere.
Some sort of virtue signalling.

I knew it was in middle east Gulf and obviously Iran is in that area too but I hadn't studied the map in great detail until today.
The problem is Dubai and parts of the middle east have been really glamorised now so everyone wants to move there. Then something like this happens and you get a reality check
Dh going to speak to his work tomorrow. I'm sure they wouldn't send him if it escalates

You are going to move there and are so ignorant even of its location?? This situation has been brewing for ages.

It’s greed. Their middle management job will afford them a house with a pool, and a maid to do all the shit work, cooking and looking after their children, whilst paid a pittance. Status symbols they couldn’t hope to achieve in the UK on equivalent salaries and low levels of talent. Throw in a bit of racism, since the shit is happening to people from the developing world who don’t matter to them, and they can claim it’s nothing to do with them, it’s just the (Arab) regime. As others have pointed out, as soon as they get into trouble, they are screaming for dull, rainy, too expensive Britain to sort it out for them.

I would stay put where you are safe. Assess the situation . monitor the news. Your life is more important than this . No flights as I type but keep in regular touch with your husband who should be able to give you realistic updates.

Good grief. The whole Brits in Dubai culture is ridiculous. Imagine moving somewhere that you knew nothing about, not even where it is! It's not all influencers and shopping.
It's shamefully embarrassing.

OP, the FCO website is probably your best source of information. (That's the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, as I imagine that someone who doesn't know where Dubai is may not have a great basic knowledge of our own systems of government).

Are you actually serious? You think not being progressive is acceptable?

Do you have children? How would you feel if they were gay? Disown them would you?

It’s safer than the west? Rubbish!

Its morally bankrupt as well!

Do you not like living In a civilised countries the UK, if you think it’s ok to be so morally bankrupt, I hope you live in Dubai, you’re not the sort of person suited to a civilised country.

Yup. When I visit a Muslim country I respect their laws and their traditions and don't force upon western values towards them. If you don't like it, you don't have to go.

This is the type of people I assume travel to Dubai..I wouldn't go if you paid me (unlike these ladies ) 🤣

No tax - which they crow about as they leave. Then expecting the UK taxpayer to get them out of trouble.

You genuinely didn’t know how close it was to Iran and yet you were ready to move your whole life there - based off what some mates say?!

Exactly! Thank god!

Im not sure OP is suited to going, she doesn’t even bloody know where it is!

You know where it is, but agree with their standards…. Awful!

and instagram!!

I rather like Dubai. I've been going there every few years for almost 30 years. My sister and BIL lived there for a decade and many friends and family have also spent extended periods there and in neighbouring countries. Unless you want to be a political activist, it's very unlikely that you would upset the local authorities. They do have some daft laws tbf. But it is close to Iran and so this war flare is very frightening. Friends have moved from their high rise apartments to low rise hotels. I wouldn't be moving there with small children right now, but fairly optimistic that it will have settled down again in six weeks.

Can you explain further? I'm not sure I understand - thanks

Exactly this but posters write how they wouldn’t go to this area for all the tea in China every bloody time a post like this comes up.

Have you visited before? I enjoy heat, good restaurants and cleanliness but having been twice for work. It isn’t somewhere I would think of going back to.

The decision will be taken out of your hands for now. I doubt you will be moving there anytime soon. Perhaps take this time to learn about what a dreadful place it can be for some people and whether you want to be part of that.

and don’t confuse ‘glamour’ with tacky and blingy.

I did just post that I like Dubai, although I didn't say I want to live there. However, it was a really great place for my sister to work and earn, less good for DBIL.

Good point...I am appalling at spelling but make much more effort at work! In fact am mortified about the spelling of desert there because that is one of the ones I always notice. Must make more effort to proof read my posts.

Do you have close friends or family living in Dubai? Your defence of this immoral nation is quite telling.

@IsEveryUserNameBloodyTaken but there are so many posts on MN and other social media sites about Dubai where people do question the culture, human rights etc I am amazed the OP would have missed them when researching moving there

Maybe you should have looked at a map at least before agreeing to move if you didn't even know how close it was to Iran. Have you even actually been to Dubai - because it's a fucking awful place.

The thing is the OP is exactly the kind of person Dubai is marketing itself to.

Not interested or bright enough to care about politics, slavery and other human rights abuses but plenty keen for a luxury lifestyle without questioning how it’s so easy to obtain. More interested in shops and how big her apartment will be than any of that.

Someone who saw it on social media all shiney and new without any niggly little questions about how they managed it.

It's academic now. Few will go and more will want to return.

I don't visit Muslim countries as a woman. That would include Turkey (supposedly secularised), Morocco, Tunisia, ME states, parts of Indonesia and so on. Just because I don't want to identify with their attitude to women. Whether that's an overreaction or not on my part doesn't matter, it's the way I feel about it.

Anyway, I was pondering where the next major airline hub will be if places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi are no longer viable due to unrest or destruction of infrastructure. Some airlines might go bankrupt now if they can't get slots elsewhere for onward travel to an from a ME hub.

Just musing.