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.

Jesus! I just googled this. What a cesspit Dubai is 🤢🤡

No one knows really they could stop bombing each other tomorrow or it could drag on for weeks or more. It doesn't look like Iran is going to roll over and I can't see Trump backing down, have to see if common sense prevails. And then there will be a huge mess to clear up.

Op I wouldn’t even visit there. The rules, lifestyle, paying household staff a pittance, women’s rights way behind men’s. Each to your own. A lot of people want to leave the uk but the grass isn’t always greener is it. Safety would be my priority right now.

I’ve only read the first page of this thread and I’m getting irritated by everyone scolding you. I know plenty of people uninterested in knowing where they are when they go on holiday, never mind pointing to Iran on a map.

You’re not unreasonable to be worried. No one knows what is going to happen. If escalations happen it’s not like we are sat pretty here in the UK after all the military planes arriving here this past week from the US.

Follow the guidance set out by the government and do what you feel comfortable with.

That not everyone wants to live there. Have you forgotten your first post to me.

My friend who is there there and can't leave

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-12246979

You only care now you’ve realised your life could be slightly less than wonderful. The reality of how Dubai’s luxury was built and is maintained by other people’s suffering doesn’t matter.

I am genuinely disgusted with the idea of someone emigrating without any homework. I don’t go on a two week holiday without knowing where a place is.

And yet people moan that immigrants to the UK don’t integrate and learn.

How is that ‘information’?

Tempted to Google but sounds like it's best not.

How is it not?

She’s not going on holiday. She’s planning to live there.

And people should do homework. Even for holidays. There’s a reason the English are seen as ignorant.

Hold the press! Theign doesn’t want to go to Dubai!

Yes, that is some first class information!

A reli of mine had a biggish job out there (multinational company). They suddenly closed it down and pulled out quite a few years ago now. I think something happening has been expected for some time now.

Of course YANBU!
I doubt you will be able to get there anyway at the moment and I really struggle to believe you didn't realise where a country you are intending to move to is located. I would not want to live in or even visit Dubai but if you are drawn to that lifestyle you must calculate the risk for yourself.

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

Wow. I don't know anyone who wants to move there, or even visit. There is nothing glamorous about a regime that has an appalling record of women's and human rights. It's a bit like those people in the 1930s who were admirers of Hitler and the Nazis.

Most people do not want to move to the middle East. Most of us do not think it is glamorous.

We as a family are seriously contemplating at move to somewhere in the GCC. 0% income tax, no crime whatsoever. We've been to Bahrain, Qatar, the UAE and DH has been to Saudi. As a family we've only been in their winter where the weather is comfortable. An August is probably way too hot to enjoy.

I think back in 2025 the stuff ended relatively soon and the airspace opened up after the strikes ended.

I did. I wish I hadn't looked. 😱

Were you the poster a fair few posts back castigating someone for derailing the thread?

Because if you are, listen to yourself?

If I was moving there yes I’d look at the map and see where it was, neighbouring countries etc it shares a maritime border with Iran, and land borders with Saudi and Oman.

it really isn’t the sort of place you’d only look at where the supermarkets were and the neighbour hoods if moving there.

all in I’ve spent over a month there, on two visits, always in lovely hotels, seeing the glamour, but you are fully aware of the culture, at all times, be it in a hotel, the airport, or a mall. There is no mistaking it, from how women are viewed, what’s permitted, even how you dress.

it’s not the glamourous wealthy westernised place its made out to be, there is a much much bigger umbrella of culture that dominates and it is inescapable.

as much as I enjoyed my trips, I would not live there.

I blame the pistachios.

Right? It's very basic. To move somewhere and not even look on a map where it is is bizarre. Same with holidays.

It's just content for them.

How could you be planning a move to a country without actually knowing where it is going by your first post? Seriously? If i was rude id say, grow up....

I doubt you’d be able to travel anyway. Foreign Office is advising against travel and I doubt your employer’s insurance would cover them to send staff there at such a time.

This.

The only reason life there is significantly better for those with money is because it's significantly worse for those without.

International businesses will be pulling out in droves - in fact a number already have since Trump made the whole Middle East more volatile so I'm surprised your DH's firm were still sending people there. They definitely won't be able to force him to keep to his plans.