You'll have read by now about the classy British female tourist who stripped off down to her bikini and paraded around Dubai Mall.
It was in response to being told she was originally dressed too revealingly, breaking the mall rules.
The woman's clothes "were so short and revealing, close to a bikini. Such outfits are not permitted in shopping malls or family-oriented public areas," said Colonel Al Razouqi (Dubai CID)
"She was wearing very revealing clothes as it is, and decided to dress down further after she was approached" said a Dubai Mall official.
As usual there are different versions of events.
According to the UK Daily Mail which broke the story:
"Briton held for wearing a bikini in Dubai shopping mall after fight with Arabic woman.
...she was accosted by an Arabic woman...
The mall's security team then intervened and called the police, who arrested the British holidaymaker."
According to a mall spokesman and Dubai Police, reported in Gulf News:
"A group of Gulf national women recently tried to enforce a dress code morally acceptable to them by distributing leaflets to women they found to be dressed inappropriately, a Dubai Mall official said.
Colonel Dr Mohammad Nasser Al Razouqi, Deputy Director of the Criminal Investigations Department for Police Station Affairs, told Gulf News the incident was a "minor" argument in Dubai Mall.
"We called in both women to the police station to resolve the matter amicably. We didn't charge the Briton or open a case against her," he said."
So there we have it. A fight/accosted or a minor argument. Arrested or no charge/no case opened.
As always I love the revealing reader comments section of the Daily Mail story. You might well roll around with laughter at many of them, as I did. Like these:
"They can wear what they like in our country - why shouldn't the same courtesy be extended to us in their country?"
"Good for that British woman for making a stand."
"if we cant wear bikinis in their country why can they wear burkas in ours?"
She was, you'll remember, strutting around a city centre mall in a bikini.
I'll refrain (for once) from offering my opinion on the comments because I think I might devote a new post to the subject in the next day or two.
But I will say I have to agree with George, who said that on his trips to Dubai he'd noticed it had become Chav City.
Here's the version of events from the Daily Mail.
And here's the version from Gulf News.
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10 comments:
If you believe The Sun then there was no stipping at all.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3084106/Brit-mum-Tessa-Meager-arrested-in-Dubai-strip-row.html
A tale of two very stupid women. Pretty funny though!
Anon@7.56, that's now the third version of events...
eehh.. what are chavs?
for those non-Anglophiles amongst us...
Anon@3:03, the all-knowing google will tell you.
Some of those comments on the Daily Mail website are just ridiculous!
I'd have to agree with George on the "Chav City" comment. It seems to me that the expat community has changed a heck of a lot since the 80s-90s when I first came to the Emirates.
There was a community feel for newly arrived expats, where you had "old hands" giving you a heads-up on culture, taboos and so forth.
These days... there's a Darwin Award nominee born every 5minutes...
hopshackles I couldn't agree more. It's not just the tourists (we didn't have any way back when, did we) but expats, or more particularly the 'European' expats, who've changed. Maybe it's just a reflection of how the world's changed though...
British press like nothing more than bad press, cos it sells. AND most things that come out of Dubai, (since the investors left and Dubai's debts were announced) unfortunately - is bad press. On the other hand, Dubai is known to only report what it wants to. So - who do you believe...Dubai probably.
I hold a new zealand passport, im 22 and female, I was arrested at aswaq umm sequim for being in my gym clothes, shorts and nike tshirt after a local women complained to police that were there by chance ... i was so shocked because i go there everyday almost dressed the same. I was after all in gym clothes...quite clear. SO i was then told i woul dbe given a warnign and relesed if i just went ot the police with them.. i was so so shocked i went not wanting to cause problem, I the was left with LOCAL WOMEN police officers who took me down to the "custody room" where they refused to let me call anyone, I was denied bathroom,water everything, they took my passport from me and then went thru my phone looking at msgs ect, they looked thru my bag and in arabi called me "gharba" meaning bitch...I speak alot of arabic they didnt realise and could understnd what they were saying, Basically that hey were scaring me, teaching me a lesson for looking like a whore in public. Knowing it would make it worse by saying anything,I sat and said nothing. It was 10pm byt this stage and I had been arrested at 530pm...I was getting annoyed and asked when I was being eleased, thye responed by opening a door which i hadnt noticed and told me to go in, I walked in to see a room full of women, maybe 60 women in a room ment for 20, I swear the smell was terrible, it was so bad, and no windows and one bathroom, i was told to shutup and sit down, there was 3 girls to a bed mostly indian, filipino but some european and i was now scared. lucklily before they took my phone i had msged one friend of mine local very high up in Abu dhabi, and when he couldnt reach me on the phone he came to find out what had happend. I was released finally at 6am, and the the 3 women who used me as entertainment i turned to them as I walked out with my friend who I knew had the power to reslut in them losing their jobs for thi i said to them, you think the way i was dressed is "haram" what you did to me and the girls in their is haram and may god help you" this easily was the worst experience in my life, and to have no rights in there was terrible, there was girls in there that had been in there fo r3 months...
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