The letter below, supposedly written by an Emirati national, has been published in the '7 Days' newspaper in Dubai this morning. In a breathtaking leap of logic the letter's author opines that kisses between consenting adults lead inevitably to legalised pedophilia. He also states that 'the woman deserves all she got' while making no mention of the man kissee 'deserving' jail and deportation.
Whether the letter is genuine or a 'beat-up', it highlights a growing "them -v- us" mentality in Dubai.
Postings on the numerous expat forums indicate that a growing number of Dubai expats are concerned as, judging by the couple of recent Court cases, an expat will be jailed then deported following any uncorroborated, unsubstantiated complaint made against him or her. In the current cause celebre, The Kissing Case, the alleged incident took place in Dubai in an archetypal Western style restaurant, 'Bob's American Diner', at 2am. The complainant is a 2 year old child. The child's mother, who made the complaint on her daughter's behalf, has changed her story several times as to whether she, herself, saw The Kiss or not. No witnesses appeared for the complainant, the defendants were not permitted to call their own witnesses and, as a result, the decision to jail and deport was based wholely on the statement of the two year old.
(The publicity that's been generated by this incident may also present some difficulties for the nascent honeymoon tourism sector in the UAE. )
The letter follows:
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"The West have a lot of good values that we need to embrace but also a lot of bad “values” that we do not want like sexual promiscuity, that starts with “innocent” kisses and end up with calls to legalise sex with children like we have seen recently.
This woman in the news deserves what she got (and in my opinion even more that that).
We are really getting fed up with your attitude, and arrogance and the disrespect you show.
If you want to live in this country then you need to respect the laws of the land, and while I used to get annoyed but turn a blind eye to some of your misbehaviour, I will now make sure I take action, so beware all you indecent people out there, I will be watching and calling the police for any such behaviour, and if you do not like our values you can always pack up and go to some sexually-free country."
Muhammad Rashed
Dubai
What an unbelievable letter, and even mmore incredulous that someone can be gaoled for a month on the say so of a 2 year old!!
ReplyDeleteC xxx
I always take the letters to 7Days with a huge pinch of salt because of the number of fake letters sent in to simply stir up controversy - or worse. This could well be another of them.
ReplyDeleteThe really disturbing part of these cases to me is not the law itself but the way the system can find someone guilty on nothing more than the say-so of another person. No evidence, no witnesses, the accuser doesn't even appear in court.
It opens up the can of worms of anyone with a grudge, in a bad mood, wanting to harm a rival, or simply someone with a malicious nature being able to have another person arrested, jailed, deported. They simply have to write a complaint.
I'm sure that we'll be seeing more and more copycat cases in the future too. Have a look at
this Expat Woman forum thread: http://www.expatwoman.com/forum/messages.aspx?TopicID=102357&Page=1
Foreigners cannot get citizenship here. Folks outside the UAE have been surprised to learn that even if the jailed couple had been born here, lived their entire lives here, had jobs, owned property, had kids in school, they would still be deported. Where to? The country of their passport?
ReplyDeleteThe point is that this (presumably emirati woman) person seems to like to selectively select the laws that apply in Dubai. It's ok to drive 180 and kill people, it's ok to enslave your indian maids and drivers, it's ok to ignore the financial laws of the country if you are emarti; it's not ok if you are an expat. And it's ok if you do this as an emarti when you visit overseas countries thus ignoring their laws and customs but it's not ok in dubai- typical arab double standard which makes absolutely no logical sense but then that's arabs eh?
ReplyDelete