"Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

What a total load of bollocks from the Sydney Morning Herald, and Radha Sterling (who I know personally).

Seriously,

"Harassing women with a prolonged stare".

How funny!

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

loads of South Asian labourers do it (seemed odd at first)

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

Exactly.

More scaremongering from a naive press.

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

Perhaps, but the point is that if a local GCC resident takes offence then he/she has the power to make life difficult. There are plenty of very naive Brits who travel and do not understand that outside of Europe/West their "human rights" are zilch.

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

I still recall walking along the public beach in Jumeirah in 2001 with my then wife and being told by a police officer in a off road car to stop or he'll arrest us. He wasn't interested when I said she was my wife.

The fact is any local, police or otherwise can make life difficult for any foreigner here at any time so it's best to err on the side of caution.

Holding your wife's hand won't hold up in court I'm sure but what's to stop them trumping up charges of kissing or fondling? At the very least you'll see the inside of a police station and possibly a court - it's still very much guilty until proven innocent.

N.

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

I think it's worth pointing out that not all GCC nationals have quite the wasta that they claim, but they do want everyone else to think they can do what they like, despite that not being the case for so many.

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

Based on the sort of stare, guess the nationality. Quite a fun game really.

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

And finally we agree :thumbsup:

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

It's also worth noting that the vast majority of the police are not nationals or gcc nationals but Yemeni, Sudanese, Somalian and Ethiopian. Hence the utter disrescept shown by nationals to all but police officers (who tend to be nationals) and the huge chip on the shoulders of some rank and file policemen

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

Is that really still the case? I know the military used to be like that, but they got rid of most of the non-nationals a few years back, especially anyone from any country undergoing any form of turmoil. I thought that the police were nowadays mostly nationals?

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

my understanding is the military is mostly nationals. a huge number travel from the nothern emirates to Abu Dhabi everyday. There are non nationals still and the not so secret, secret non muslim force based in abu dhabi.

but the rank and file police are still largely non national

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

Most of the rank and file police are Yemeni.

The Emiratis get the officer (ie sand coloured uniform) on joining.

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

Who are the secret non-Muslim force based in Abu Dhabi ? Let me guess ! The Boys Brigade ?

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

No-one knows. They're secret....:rofl:

Re: "Holding hands is a criminal offence in UAE"
 

not quite

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/15/wo...anted=all&_r=0