When you are a guest in another country, you better learn and respect the local customs, and that includes guarding your tongue from vulgar words when in the United Arab Emirates. One cursing British tourist, who now finds himself in prison for three months in Dubai, found out the hard way.
British Tourist Faces Three Months in Dubai Prison For Cursing At Airport
A British tourist was connecting in Dubai International Airport (DXB) with his mother. He had to transfer between terminals and requested a wheelchair for his mother. Transfers between Terminal 2 and 3 are via bus only. He was informed a wheelchair would be brought when the bus arrived.
But when he noticed another passenger already had a wheelchair, he became irate and demanded one, raising his voice and cursing out a female airport attendant over the matter. She called the airport police, the man was arrested, and eventually fined 10,000 Dirham (roughly 2,700 USD).
Angry over the fine, the tourist appealed. But the Dubai Court Of Appeal decided his initial fine was too lenient and handed down a three-month prison sentence on November 6, 2023.
He should have listened to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office:
Swearing and making rude gestures (including online) are considered obscene acts and offenders can be jailed or deported. Take particular care when dealing with the police and other officials.
We can learn a lot about culture from movies even before stepping foot in a nation. Do you remember the 2007 movie called The Kingdom starring Jamie Foxx and Jennifer Garner? It tracked a joint US-Saudi operation to eradicate terrorism inside Saudi Arabia. While the final moments of the film are arguably the most chilling, one part that really struck out to me all the way back in 2007 (when I had not yet been to a single country in the Middle East) was a recurring shtick in which Foxx’s character would curse and his Saudi counterpart would scold him for cursing.
Cursing doesn’t fly in that region of the world, at least publicly. Whether you learn that in Hollywood films or travel guidebooks or government websites, better there than in jail…
CONCLUSION
When you’re in Dubai or any Gulf state, you don’t want to curse…that’s the bottom line. One British man cursed a whole lot when he felt his mother was not getting the wheelchair she was entitled to and wound up being thrown in jail for it…for three months. That’s not worth failing to hold your tongue!
(H/T: PYOK)
I hated Dubai. Just a bunch of fat, lazy “citizens” with their ridiculous white onesies doing their government-provided do-nothing jobs while the foreigners do all the real work. An entire city built for social media with towering skyscrapers, shopping malls and lacking any culture or history. I spent three says there, that was enough.
It’s not just cursing. You can be arrested in the UAE for insulting, slandering or defaming someone, even if you don’t use abusive language. Truth is not a defense against slander either – if you say something that is true but is deemed to be “insulting” you can still be charged. This could include writing a perfectly polite complaint against an employee to their employer for perceived bad service.
here’s an idea. act like a civilized human being, not just when you travel, but in your everyday life. There is no reason to cuss out an airport attendant.
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes.
+1
Yeah let’s just arrest people who use bad words, asshole.
It’s not about just arrested people for using bad language. It’s about people respecting the customs of the country they are visiting. You go to another country and act like an asshole and not obey the customs/rules of the country you visit, you deserve whatever punishment they give you. You have the choice to visit any country in the world, it’s on you to know beforehand and honor their customs.
“ Angry over the fine, the tourist appealed. But the Dubai Court Of Appeal decided his initial fine was too lenient and handed down a three-month prison sentence on November 6, 2023”
Lmao. Definitely FAFO’d.
As I tell my travel partners, don’t be the Ugly American….let someone else have that privilege…and consequences!!
Ugly American? The title started with the word “British”. That summarized the entire story for me so no need to read until the end.
But for you, ok to be the ugly Brit? maybe the ugly Chinese group tour?
Not OK to the Ugly nothing. But in my experience working 4 years in the UK, nobody beats the Brits in terms of bad behavior when traveling abroad. They feel entitled to do whatever they want and you can see many examples on news about flights and other things. Alcohol is usually what drives their behavior. Now, many Americans have bad behavior because of ignorance. Many Americans lack knowledge of history and how other cultures work and that is what causes them to be “Ugly Americans”.
If we had actual effective governments in the West who worked for us instead of for illegals, looters, and the Israel lobby, they would sanction the UAE, send in special forces to rescue citizens, or do reciprocal things until the UAE stopped targeting Westerners. Of course we don’t have governments who work for us.
Govts in the West also are a police state like the UAE where people are arrested for speech or “offending” others so they don’t feel the need to stop the practice in the UAE.
There’s more to this. Regardless of what the letter of the law may say, a connecting passenger who happened to use profanity in defense of his wheelchair-bound mother isn’t getting jailed on those grounds alone. Definitely not a passenger that has the ability to call the British Embassy. The Dubai police definitely don’t care if you’re mean to the guest worker who handles wheelchairs. I’m curious what really happened.
He wasn’t just “mean to the guest worker”. He abused the Police Officer who was called to the scene and tried to calm him down. That’s what got him arrested.
There’s the “more to it.” That makes a bit more sense.
Indeed, that puts more nuance on the issue.
This is not the first time I’ve read this story. Ultimately, the guy was a jerk but the court making his penalty worse simply reinforces the double standard of laws being enforced against everyone except citizens. Throwing people in prison for appealing a fine is just terrible optics for a place that says they want lots of visitors.
When a foreigner loses against the government or a citizen of the country, the country has a bad history of piling onto the punishment of such foreigners for criticizing the actions of the government and/or its citizens. What the powerful in the country are attempting to do is to extort people to remain silent in the manner preferred by those in power.
I’m pretty sure most of the 14 mil that visited Dubai annually would have no problems not being a jackass, nor would Dubai’s tourism be hurt because of this particular jackass.
“When you are a guest in another country, you better learn and respect the local customs,” – exactly! My favorite is American missionaries when they try their anti-LGBT schtick in Taiwan and they end up getting fined or deported.
You can’t get fined for expressing your opinion in Taiwan – it’s not China.