Poor Marcus, now starting the new year in prison after handing himself in to the Dubai authorities, suffered awful consequences for what’s perfectly legal at home in the UK, having been put through a legal process he must barely have understood.
I know how that feels. In 2007, I was living in Dubai and working on a magazine for English-speaking residents and visitors. It was a pampered existence. I was better paid than I ever had been, my job got me into plenty of good parties, and I drove a huge SUV that I couldn’t have afforded to run back home.
And then I met Stuart Meyer at a bar after work. He was a Yorkshireman from Wetherby – tall, kind, funny, who did not tolerate fools or bullies. We hit it off at once.
However, our budding romance was hampered by a problem. Premarital sex was effectively decriminalised in Dubai in 2020 (except for under-18s like Marcus Fakana’s holiday girlfriend), but when Stuart and I were dating, it was illegal.
Lesson two, should you ignore lesson one, is to abide by the local laws and customs. I have no sympathy for people who go to this Islamic shithole and get into trouble because they didn’t follow the laws in place. One thing I will say, though, is this: we could do worse than follow the UAE’s example when it comes to rigorously enforcing our laws on foreigners who think they don’t apply.
Your last sentence. Times one hundred.
Amen!
My best friend was back from Dubai for the winter. He’s not got the sharpest of minds but he and his wife and kids love it there and they learnt the rules on Day 1 and stuck to them rigidly…loads of money and very happy and no problems with the state. Easy if you try
This girlfriend was Indian (with a British passport) and her mother clearly did not feel any particular solidarity with her fellow “global southerner”, snitching to the Dubai authorities when she was back in the UK. Charming!
Otherwise, nobody would have known and the circumstances were such that the Dubai cops could not ignore it even if they had wanted to.
I doubt if much more will be heard from this as there is nobody white to blame.
But fear not david amin – who is black in case you hadn’t noticed – is on the case.
But it is an islamic shitehole where he went voluntarily so that in itself would limit my sympathy!
Visited Dubai, on a four day stopover en route to Singapore. Thought it was a soulless shithole, though with air conditioning and flush toilets. Was told that all the hotels and houses had septic tanks, rather than mains sewage, which were emptied each night, with convoys of lorries taking the contents into the desert to be disposed of. Possibly starting a new Islamic paradise.