British woman arrested in Dubai after reporting rape

I think you nailed it. Thanks Varex. Great work on the elements you are true artist and activist.

Although making the building look like screw might have drove the point home even more LOL

I didn't do anything to the photo. Apparently there are buildings that are designed like that in Dubai, probably helps attract tourists to have strange buildings. I just used the photo to make a de motivational poster. The photo was something I swiped from google when I did a search for "Dubai pictures".

Whoa Jubal,

I'm trying to be as respectful as possible. If I came across as rude, my apologies.

But moving on, if you look in my earlier posts on this story I made it clear that I am not referring to the rape, but sex before marriage. I also said in my original post that perhaps officials could have looked the other way in this instance seeing that she was raped.

I am not being contrarian for its own sake.

In the meantime, you need to cool it with the personal attacks.

I apologize for saying that you were being intentionally oppositional.

No worries. Much respect, brother.

...........or even humanized.

So we were wrong to take the actions we took regarding South Africa?

White South Africans were outnumbered by 20 to one. The collapse of the government and apartheid was inevitable. The comparison is apples and oranges. In addition the United States was late to the party to support the abolition of apartheid.

So since rape victims don't outnumber the general populace 20 to 1, it would be wrong of us to fight for their cause.

Makes perfect sense.

You certainly have the God given right to tilt at windmills. Was the guilty party convicted under Sharia Law? No one was even charged with rape. No one has been convicted only arrested and the charge is illegal sex. Last I heard 4 male witnesses were required to convict a male of rape under their system of justice."He said she said" is a situation that occurs under our legal system on a daily basis.

You should always fight for what you think is right. Sometimes it is futile though. Good luck!

wow admirable. i'll be sure to pencil in a good rape when i visit Muslim nations too. cause you know, otherwise that's just 'ignorant' of me.

Travel in the middle east at your own peril. Learn to respect their laws and customs! Rape is a terrible and criminal act when perpetrated upon either gender. I don't condone the illegal act under discussion. With 3 million men and women in prison in the United States rape probably occurs a couple of thousand times a day in the prison system. I don't hear much outcry about that. If you are looking to improve or change something there is plenty to do in your own country. It may be safer in Dubai than in many Cities in the United States. They don't have any gang problem...

There are some wonderful people in the middle east. Their laws and beliefs are different. A person should learn some of the laws customs and possibly the language if he or she intends to travel safely. The sharia law that is in effect in some middle eastern countries is much older than the laws of the United States or Britain. I doubt they will be changed significantly in the near future.

I sure as hell don't want them "loving" me!

Are you kidding they never want to be Westernized, they hate everything about the WEST? That is for sure, they despise everything about the USA. That's why they have these LAW's to keep their belove Islamic faith alive forever, that's the whole Game okay!

i dont think it affects their society in anyway if 2 unmarried non-nationals have sex in a private place. i agree that you cant impose your ways of life on other people, but i think there should be a global standard to things like this.

also i find it criminally inhumane to jail someone for any amount of time for committing such a "crime".

@goodname, @sex outside of marriage

So basically the argument you're making is, "we view sex this way and poor backwards archaic UAE needs to adopt our values." Does this not sound a bit ethnocentric to you?

What you're saying about "bringing them into the modern age" and "I think there should be a global standard to things like this" sounds nothing short of cultural imperialism.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you up until a point, but, if human rights atrocities aren't being committed I think there are other battles we could be fighting regarding the 'westernization' of the world's morals.

bishop: This has nothing to do with westernization.The UAE is one of the only countries in the world, arab/muslim world included, that imposes laws like these. A law like this IS backwards and archaic, and it is being enforced in a country trying to be anything but.

my argument is very simple; these people had sex in a private place, they should not go to jail for 6 years. the law that says that they could go to jail for 6 years for having sex in private is bullshit and should be removed.

as you can see my beef, here is not the UAE's conservatism, if they want to jail someone for kissing in public, holding hands, or streaking, i could understand that. i wouldnt like it but i would be able to put myself in your position and say. well thats the way they do things and its their country and all that. however, this was done in private, and did not affect anybody but the couple.

i am a tolerant person with an open mind, but a law like this which is so void of sense and reason, i cant respect.

Goodname,

Your stance on the issue is understandable, yet, an 'in retrospect' defense on behalf of the couple probably isn't going to fly in a Dubai court.

If I didn't like this particular law, why would I travel there to begin with? Not only that, why would I break this law and then gripe about how it was injust to begin with?

So I guess my response is as simplistic as your argument:

1) If you don't like a law such as this, don't go there.
2) If you decide to go anyway, abide by this law.

Is it too hard to keep it in your pants for THREE days?

Very confusing statement Debrinconcita. Didn't you read that her rape isn't recognized under Sharia law because 4 men had to witness it?

Also who is "they" that you speak of that already "know full well what the laws are"?

Debrinconcita, I think you miss the point, she was raped and when she reported that the police charged her. Seems like pretty selective prosecution, with the motive of intimidating a rape victim. I think tourists should refrain from visiting places like Dubai.

While I absolutely see your point, bishop, I DO think that Dubai is more than a little complicit here. They market themselves quite heavily in Western countries as a romantic getaway...it is a little hard to believe that they would not fully expect that the Western couples who show up...particularly if they are engaged but even if they are not...to sleep with each other. Unless this is their particularly weird version of don't ask, don't tell (or an even weirder version of the western concept of a "speed trap")...

LOL at the "speed trap" theory. I quite love it! :) Well done.

bishop, that is precisely the point, they are not a tourist friendly destination and I strongly recommend people boycott Dubai. Everybody that I talk to about vacation destinations, I tell them to avoid Dubai like the plague.

@cztheday,

Las Vegas takes pride in the fact that it is America's Sin City, but, this doesn't mean locals or tourists can go on 48 hour coke-consuming prostitute-killing binges without being prosecuted by authorities...

Drugs and murder may be an unfair comparison, but nonetheless, the consequences of sex outside of marriage seem to be clearly outlined with UAE law. A speed trap? Sure. But, we can't complain when we get pulled over after going 15 above.

As you find it difficult to believe westerners complying with Dubai's moral standards, I find it odd that foreigners wouldn't brush themselves up on national law before arriving in the country. Individual responsibility/self-control anyone?

Although I've never visited the Middle East, I'm completely aware that the region's attitude towards sex, drugs, and gender roles tends to be far more hard-line than it is in Europe or N. America. I'd do all that I could to make sure I wasn't in violation of their code of conduct.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not pardoning rape. What happened to her was horrible.

Nonetheless, she violated Dubai law. And, if the rape didn't occur (or perhaps, even though it did), would it be wrong for officials to prosecute her for breaking their rules beforehand?

@jubai,

There's no way I'll live life without visiting the city at least once. Skiing in the desert? Yes, please.

bishop, I think you may be taking my comments beyond their scope. I did not say that this lady should not have been aware of the law or that she should escape prosecution. Sadly, it appears that she may have violated their local laws (though I do not believe that has been finally determined yet, so we may hope that she may find a defense of some kind that would absolve her, for example). The question, to me, is not whether this individual case should be handled differently at this point, but whether Dubai should have taken steps to anticipate such activity and whether failing to do so will now further harm its interests.

My point is that those who developed the Dubai resorts and then marketed them as a romantic getaway to their propective Western guests would surely have known Western customs well enough to know that romance to Westerners most certainly includes extramarital sexual relations. I can't even quite process your reference to "self-control." Though married for nearly 20 years now, I cannot even IMAGINE taking a woman in whom I had a romantic interest all the way to a Dubai resort for a romantic getaway without at least the HOPE of making love to her (that would be up to her of course...I would not have the EXPECTATION of such a lovely result...merely the HOPE of such...).

The Dubai resorts are, of course, in a global competition for tourist business with resorts all over the world of the Club Med/carribbean/Monte Carlo/Rio/Vegas, etc, variety. This restriction exists in none of the others. Dubai could quite easily have passed an ordinance granting an exception to this rule within the confines of the resorts. Other countries have done similar things to lure Westerners with regard, for example, to the consumption of alcoholic beverages, which, as I understand, is forbidden to Muslims. This incident reveals more cracks in the Dubai tourism venture...poor planning...misleading marketing...and disastrous public relations skills.

Yeah really Bishop, you are going way over the top here and your analogies are not in line with what this story is about. Coke binging and killing prostitutes is a far cry from prosecuting newly engaged couples for premarital sex.

@Cztheday

Whether or not Dubai should have made exemptions for tourists is a wholly different matter than the one I am discussing. Perhaps this is why we keep talking in circles.

What Dubai's marketing plan should have been (of which you dedicated the latter two paragraphs of your response to), I have no idea. But the fact remains, the rules were in place before the couple decided to travel to the country. They had the opportunity to travel to a different resort in a different country- one which would be a bit more accommodating to their desires. But no, they chose one in a land which prohibited pre-marital sex.

Is it foolish of Dubai to have adopted such a stance on tourists? In my opinion, maybe it is. But again, it is what they have chosen for themselves and for others who visit their country. If I didn't like it. I wouldn't go.

@Jubal,

I announced the unfairness of the analogy in the same post in which it was mentioned.

Um, she was fucking raped, I'm pretty sure she didn't anticipate that before she went.

are you fucking serious? Dubai builds island resorts, ridiculously tall buildings, markets itself for tourism, and then expects people to not have sex in the privacy of their own expensive hotel rooms?

In most cases I would agree, you are in another country, you should follow their laws, but did you miss the BIG POINT of this story? SHE WAS RAPED, and treated like shit for it. They do have a law there against rape, but obviously they just didn't feel like taking it seriously. Then they arrested her for HAVING A FIANCE, they didn't "catch" them having sex. They have no evidence unless they admitted to it. And even if the couple did admit to it, the police SHOULDN'T have been asking her about her private life anyways, only things pertaining to the rape.

Sorry, like I said, I agree, it's ridiculous.
But regardless if she anticipated it or not, this is how they would approach such a situation, tourist or not. A risk you run visiting this country, is it not?

Here is the problem with people saying "Stay away" or "Learn the laws of the land"...The acusation of illegal sex with her fiance has nothing to do with the accusation of rape. The Dubai police are using this as a reason to not take her claim seriously; it is another form of systematic injustice based on gender and predisposed notions of westerners. Women everywhere need to see this for what it is and stand up against it and other injustices like this.

I would say "don't visit" is a REALLY,...REALLY good idea.

um no emperorijustskimanddontread. the morning after pill is something that in most countries is given to women who are raped in order to help them through the ordeal without becoming pregnant. this was given upon the intervention of the british embasy. the officials in Dubai apparently were under the impression she deserved what she got.

Yep Emperor, that is true, she probably demanded it, and it took the British embassy to ensure she got it.

Unfortunately she was denied her additional request for a baseball bat and the address of her attacker...damned diplomats...

Oh lovely, a rape isn't a rape unless its a gang rape.

So, a crime investigation unit could collect all of the factual evidence that they want, but unless four men who witnessed the rape come forward and act as witnesses, the victim gets hosed? I have to ask, is this actually a culture were rapists going the deed out in public where there are witnesses, or are these people so bass ackwards that they think this is a fair and just method of serving justice for the victim?

what a vulgar dumb comment! How inteligent can you get?

Thank you for those facts, it's important to read this stuff and have these numbers in your head so we never forget the degradation women go through all over the world (especially in islamic and asian countries)

This has nothing to do with being racist against Islam. It is anger directed at stupidity and violations of human rights to privacy. What the couple did or didn't do is mere speculation on the part of Dubai authorities. And if they want the world to come and spend their money there, they are going to have to give up their ridiculously strict public decency laws.

Racism is discrimination or hatred based on race. So it would be pretty hard to be racist against muslims, considering that it is a religion not a race. Think about the word "racist" before you throw it around.

Also, are people not allowed to make comments about the state sponsored religion of a country that charges rape victims with crimes? Especially when that country bases those charges on that religion. Seems like fair game to me.

@calm_incense: "Y'all are racists" really? "Y'all" as in "you all"? Wow! that's a pretty sweeping statement. The only people that I ever hear making that big of generalization are the racists.

I think Calm is being sarcastic...

Thanks for that glorious insight into the mind of a typical douchebag atheist. It never ceases to amaze me how frequently you people tie religion into all problems everywhere in the world. Do something about it or shut the fuck up. You don't see any Methodists arresting people for premarital sex.

its not that religion sucks, its the fact that religion rules the government of a place. Especially when a lot of the people of that area are not that religion.

Religion is any belief, or set of beliefs, that shape your life. If you don't have any beliefs that shape your life, than you're an Atheist. Correct me if I'm wrong.

your wrong :) examine the word "Atheist".. "A" not and Theist for "believing in god(s)" the word has nothing to do with not believing in ANYTHING, it simply means that "god" in your view is merely a word equal to any other word.

Unimatrix Religions do suck, having something to believe in i.e. spirituality is something totally different, religion causes war and hate and murder.... spirituality gives you deep inner strength and the ability to believe in yourself not some pie in the sky being that most likely does not exist... religion has everything to do with this, their religion is part of why sex before marriage ( a religious act) is illegal, ... either way I am never going there!!

Um..... Ares- I think calling atheists "typical douchebags" is sort of sinking to the level of that which you are reprimanding. Religion can be good . But after reviewing history, I'm pretty sure religion is often more negative on a larger scale than positive. If you have a positive personal experience with religion, then that is great for YOU.

With Elisa on this. You COULD be this pinhead anti-humanist without religion,....but it helps.

Im assuming you mean "Illegal sex sounds totalitarian and fascist"

which is the opposite of communism

the words communism and socialism are thrown around most by those who least understand the terms. please read and then return to the discussion.