Marcus, from Tottenham, North London, had been enjoying a holiday with his parents when he met a fellow Brit at the same hotel. A holiday fling sparked and the pair spent time together until the girl, also from London, flew back to Britain.
In Dubai, if an adult has a sexual relationship with a person under 18, they can be prosecuted for having a sexual relationship with a minor. The relationship would be legal in the UK.
Marcus and his parents were set to fly back shortly after - but their plans were thrown into chaos when police knocked on their hotel room door. The “terrified” teenager was then reportedly hauled in for questioning without any explanation and held at the Al Barsha Police Station, DID said. He spent three days there, during which time he was not allowed to make a phone call or speak with his parents, it is claimed.
Probably saw them socializing and then followed him on security cameras. Possibly seeing him go in her hotel room or vice versa. Then they haul him in and he admits what went on
But why were they watching in the first place? How did they know their ages?
Authoritarian countries like Dubai watch visitors.
It would be pretty easy (with big error bars but since when did authoritarians give a shit about that?) to set up some alerts based on facial recognition when someone under 18 (they have their passport information) is hanging out with someone over 18 who did not arrive in the same party.
I think everyone here thinks that Dubai is like Saudi Arabia. It’s not. Nobody at all cares who is having sex or not in Dubai, there’s a thriving sex work industry there. The police aren’t monitoring for couples or care. This only got escalated because a mother complained and the daughter was underaged.
If you have money.
Otherwise, the authorization laws are there, ready to be applied when convenient
https://freedomhouse.org/country/united-arab-emirates/freedom-world/2020
Please note freedom house can certainly be considered biased in their rankings, but their descriptions of conditions or situations is relevant
It’s not a free country, but that’s not relevant to the point I was making above. They’re still not sex policing like Afghanistan or Iran. On that topic they’re closer to Las Vegas.
And yes, the authorization laws are everywhere, I know an American who got charged with adultery in the US because he had an unfriendly prosecutor. I think you’re missing my point.
You can have concerns with the bias of the source but it’s relevant for discussion. It’s not like you say, you walk a razor of financially guarded privledge there, and many folks do not live as you describe.
You’re describing the advertised, candy coated version.
Late edit: to compare the authoritarian concerns in UAE / Dubai to the US is disrespectful to folks who live there.
Even later edit, I bet you didn’t see this cause you downvoted me the moment i posted lol,
It’s not a requirement to be Afghanistan-bad to be still a very problematic place, and comparing the private liberties of either to America is a miss.
No. While there is a ton of inequality, there, it still does not change the fact that UAE is not Iran or Afghanistan, it doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, the police will still not arrest you for holding hands in public, police will not stop to ask you if you’re married to the girl you’re with, and if you’re having sex outside of marriage literally nobody will care. UAE does not have morality police like Saudi did. You failing to make this distinction undermines the rest of your argument. As to this story, the police in any country would take notice if a woman called and said her daughter is underage and with a man in a foreign country, so it’s not surprising he got detained and the story progressed from there.
Out of respect, I had late edits focused on the relativism between countries.
Uae / Dubai is a authoritarian surveillance state far beyond the US or any western country. They have the money to be “pro” about it and don’t need roving squads of cops making street arrests. That doesnt mean the civil liberties of many aren’t adjacent to the likes of other worse authoritarian theocracies.
Regarding the later point, I agree, if given a reputable concern from the family, I don’t fault Dubai for making legitimate inquiries, based on evidence.
Aside from those specifics, There is no reason to defend these countries, they won’t reward you.
Yes, UAE is an authoritarian dictatorship surveillance state that not accountable to its people and meddles in multiple foreign wars and runs its own mini Guantanamo. All of this is true. BUT the above comments that they’re tracking people to see if they’re having sex and arresting them for it is simply false. Not every dictatorship has morality police, and UAE certainly doesn’t. The police are well aware of the drugs and prostitution in Dubai and let it happen. Can we all agree on this? Because I don’t want to defend this dictatorship, but this conversation always circles back to generic racism against Arabs (as if they’re all like Saudi or Taliban) and Islamophobia (since people assume the religion is at fault despite UAE being a secular dictatorship) and I’m trying to make that distinction here.
I can agree with money and proper handling you can do most anything there.
I can also acknowledge the state sponsored shadow class of people who have zero autonomy (like ability travel or marry at will) and the razor thin line of favor that can yeet you from the candy coated liberal fun ride into full on authoritarian handling, for almost zero reason but political displeasure. I will also acknowledge that that isn’t exactly what happened here, but my (not sure if in this chain) comment that they surveil and interview for infractions is unchanged.
In closing I’ll clarify I have no ill will towards those of Arab decent but all religion can fuck right off, it’s a vehicle for oppression and nothing more. I’m not islamiphobic , I’m just aware of what the presence of religion always means. I agree that they are officially secular, but it bears discussion that they are heavily influenced by Islamic motivated norms (for example Muslim women there cannot marry a non Muslim, but Muslim men can marry out), which is literally always distasteful. Same as in America with evangelicals.