Meow

ABU DHABI // A woman whose husband got her drunk and took pictures of her having sex with another woman has been cleared on appeal of lesbianism and encouraging indecency

http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-n...-sex-encounter


We really are in the dark ages sometimes.

Kix

What do you mean "Sometimes"?

Norm_uk

One day they will have to be brought kicking and screaming into the 21st century or face isolation and extreme poverty...oil is a finite resource paid for by us infidels

N.

Bahtatboy

C'mon, Dark Ages is a bit strong. Lady Chatterley's Lover only became legal about half a decade ago in UK.

1st court found her guilty: suspended sentence and nominal fine--so basically the court saying that she'd broken the law but the court views the law as nonsense.

Appeal court agreed.

Supreme court / review court basically threw the case out.

Personal Affairs Court still granted the woman custody of the children, despite her conviction.

I'd call that pretty enlightened: we still have laws in England that are complete nonsense, and it does take time to flush them out of the system. That's what the courts in this case seem to be doing.

UKCityGent

Who is "we" ?

And which part of the article led you to believe that the dark ages are upon us ?

Meow

Anti-Lesbian laws? I rather assumed the UAE had Queen Victoria's view on that.

What goes on in a bedroom, between consenting adults, is no one else's business. Fortunately much of the world now realises this. This particular case appears full of holes. If she was coerced then the husband is in the wrong. He sounds very unpleasant and she sounds rather daft.

Bahtatboy

Agreed, but this has got to be viewed in context.

Post-dark ages in England, buggery was punishable by death (from 1533 to 1861). Any sexual acts between two men were illegal in England until 1967, Scotland until 1980, NI 1982, Guernsey 1982, Jersey 1990, IOM 1992 (and only if no-one else present). Just look at those dates again. They're not Victorian.

And we now have a UK-wide age of consent of 16. And one of the world's highest teen pregnancy rates.

Progress v Freedom v Responsibility v A Stable Society. Difficult equation.

mentalist

I blame the internet...

Norm_uk

I wouldn't call it enlightened, just judicially correct.

Enlightened would be a complete separation of religion and state, no favourable system in criminal law for locals over expats and complete equality of women before the law.

N.

Meow

And the UK was wrong in having punishments for those 'offences'.

Society is certainly over-sexualised but it's the straights that seem to cause the problems, not those who are gay. Seriously though, you may have seen many of my comments on here about the shallowness and sexualisation of life in the West, in the press and aimed at young people. At the risk of sounding like Mary Whitehouse, I am appalled at the prevailing attitude. I see music videos which are barely a step away from pornography, magazines for young teenagers which give advice on sex and a press that is obsessed by it.

I'm all for openness, but we should be encouraging young people to develop their brains and personalities and to realise that there is more to life than having sex.

I may be getting old and have lived here to long, but I find it all quite depressing.

Meow

And here's another utterly ridiculous case.

http://www.7daysindubai.com/Emirates...ail/story.html

Two unmarried people have consensual sex and get three months in prison and deportation. I know it's against the law in the UAE, but surely there are far more important offences for the police and courts to be spending time and money on?


I actually started the day in a good mood, but all this just annoys me.

Norm_uk

I would say the legal system here is actually closer to the 17th and 18th Centuries. Although I wasn't actually born at that time so I am not able to actually understand anything from then of course

N.

Kix

I saw that, it was the fact the jobsworth security guards reported them? WTF is wrong with these people?

Meow

Jealousy?

Such behaviour is so mean-spirited.

Norm_uk

Usually this only happens when someone complains. Even the police are really not interested in what people do in private as long as it's quiet and bothers no one.

But they are forced to act on complaints because it's the law. And when it's nationalities on the bottom end of the ladder in this society you can be sure it will end in deportation.

It's a ridiculous law really but I can't see it changing until they separate religion from state...or rather, if they separate them.

N.