No, I'm not talking about the television show.
Just in the past week, I've read four separate articles about people going to jail over some sort of sex-related activity -- from texting, to kissing, to homosexual activity, to sex in a car:
From Gulf News, 12 March 2010:
From The National, 17 March 2010:
From Gulf News, 18 March 2010:
From Gulf News, 20 March 2010:
All of the offenders in these cases are facing varying amounts of jail time followed by deportation. Some of them were also fined for consuming alcohol (this one really gets my knickers in a twist -- anyone wanna guess how many bars there are in Dubai? Perhaps the idea is that it's ok for the bars to be there as long as no one actually drinks the product for sale). Some were married, some were not, some were married to other people.
Go ahead, say what you want about the immorality of extra-marital relations, homosexual activity, or public displays of affection. I'll listen patiently, but the fact is I don't really care. I don't find much offensive in this world (except maybe for Barack Obama and any sort of mashed legume dish). But of course people here have a different offense-threshold.
And the state sanctions this.
I mean, come ON folks -- does a couple of expats really deserve a month or two in jail because someone witnessed them kissing in a bar at zero dark-thirty? Are people able to sleep better now that they know the Emirates Airlines employees who (maybe) sent each other sexy text messages are going to rot in the slammer for a while?
Surely there must be more important things to worry about.
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