Adultery and the western media's attitude towards Dubai

Here we go again... another British woman charged with adultery in Dubai and the whole of the British and UAE press jump all over it as if its the scoop of the season. I wonder what readers think and in particular British readers? Do they feel ashamed that a compatriot is behind bars because she could not control her animal urges? Well they should be, because this is far from a crime she committed against her husband, with whom she exchanged marital vows, it is a crime against the laws of the UAE. It shows a total lack of regard and respect for the traditions of this conservative Muslim country and it is a slap in the face of every Emirati.

Why does the press seem compelled to give such people extensive coverage? One hopes to enlighten the British public as to the pitfalls of sleeping around and its legal repercussions, but in truth its all about money, headlines and a public hungry to devour such shameful scandal. The press are complicit with the mob in elevating such individuals, who in colonial America would have been publicly shamed, to the status of celebrity, insuring they get a hefty payout in the event they sell their stories or get a book or film deal.

I have seen and continue to see people brought before the judiciary in the UAE that have fallen afoul of the law, miscalculated in their business dealings, landed behind bars after a momentary loss of control, assaulting or even killing someone. I can understand their stories, I can even empathise in some cases. But, for people who live the "good life" under the sun, away from their rainy, sun-starved isle, to so wantonly disregard the laws of this land and disrespect their hosts in such a way, that I do not understand.

There are people still around who remember kinder, gentler days, before the "Ibiza set" discovered Dubai. Days when families thought of this land as a nice quiet place to raise their kids, before the number of misdemeanour courts had to be increased to deal with drunken Europeans and adulterous wives. Days when Friday afternoons were for family picnics not champagne brunches and debaucheries.

I say bring back flogging and public shaming punishments, the stocks and pillory even, tar and feather them if you have to! Why must the western press cry "human rights" every time a criminal's head is chopped off in Saudi Arabia, after all English Kings racked up quiet a tally of heads in bygone days. Maybe sending someone to prison is not a sufficient deterrent.

I doubt the courts in the UAE are happy to deal with the mob of foreign correspondents that descend on them like a flock of vultures, trampling all in their path. At the end of the day, an adulterous wife if convicted will loose custody of her children. The law is the law, and she becomes in the eyes of the law unfit as a mother, and that is the final say. Maybe if more people knew that they would think twice before they start an affair.

When compared to other conservative Muslim countries, the UAE is very tolerant, and yet this tolerance seems to signal to some people that its OK to drink in public or drink and drive, that its OK to sleep around, that its OK to dress immodestly. Well, it isn't.

To the western media I say focus your attentions on crimes committed by Israel against the children of Palestine, focus on the discrimination Arab, Asian and African immigrants face in your own countries. Focus on your governments' lies and tricks which convinced you that terrorism is an Arab/Muslim export. You want to know what terror is, walk in the shoes of a Palestinian child for a day, a child beaten, terrorized and imprisoned by Israeli soldiers. In short, live up to your mission as the Press.

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