the inappropriate couple behind the Emirati clique is so very clearly Leb

... and the inappropriate woman is so very clearly not built for that dress.

In Leb Slut land, no woman is inappropriately built for any dress....

Whenever I read the comments on secretdubai's blog it seems there's tremendous and pretty childish hostility between "expats" (presumed to be white, Western, from relatively modest backgrounds, trashily insensitive to local norms, living it up at the expense of the poor put-upon Emirati) and "locals" (presumed to be spoiled rich good-for-nothings who expect all the benefits of modernity without doing a day's honest work, reactionary social norms, etc). I've tended to assume this was just a reflection of the kind of whiny idiot who posts endless rants in blog comments/reflective of minority populations on two extremes of the Dubai spectrum. But if it's in any way representative of expat-local relations, things don't look very pleasant for Dubai's future...

To play devil's advocate for a moment: isn't the relatively more liberal atmosphere of Dubai one of the reasons why women from the region like to come there to work? It's easy to focus on "foreign" women and their clothing as a lightning-rod for larger social changes and anxieties (not to make excuses for the far end of stupid insensitive flesh-flashers, but still). You can't give visas to foreigners to make up over 80% of your population and not expect significant social change. And the pic above looks like it was taken in Medinat Jumeirah, which is a tourist-trap, isn't it? Seems a bit unfair to seduce tourists with images of the wild Vegas of the Middle East and then ask them to cover up.

If the expats want to have it both ways - go to a foreign country with better opportunities than they'd have back home, and still not have to adapt - then so do the locals, it seems.

The atmosphere in Dubai is liberal by all but the most debauched standards - operationally if not in theory.

A bit more restraint on the part of the Western Expats (and the foreign Arabs who seem to desire to dress like cheap pimps most of the time) would go a long way to helping maintain sustainability.

Seducing tourists - yes, but come now, one need not walk around Dubai looking like a cheap London street tart. One could go upscale.

My feelings exactly. It is fascinating how difficult it seems for expatriates to reach the delicate balance between integrating with the hosting society and keeping their cultural and/or religious identity - this goes both for Western expatriates in Muslim countries and Muslim expatriates in Western countries. Living in Morocco, I've heard many Western expatriates complain about the fact that some Moroccan they've bumped into in their daily chores didn't speak English/French/Spanish but amazingly enough wanted to speak Arabic, in Morocco of all places,, and quite a few have been heard complainig not about the slump in producitvity and working standards experienced during Ramdan, a fair enough comment to make in my view, but really about ramadan itself. Well, if ramadan bothers you, could I suggest moving to Auckland or Reykjavik? The same could be said about that Muslim girl in England insisting in teaching children in Anglican school while wearing a face-covering niqab - consider moving to Riyad or Kabul...

The shallowness of expatriates' views on the host society is often impressive: I remember having to convince an Italian colleague, politically on the extreme-left, that even though you could wear a mini-skirt or sip a beer in public didn't mean that Tunisia - Saudi Arabia's and Syria's fiercest competitor for the "most repressive Arab regime"-award - was the most liberal Arab country...

On the other hand, Dubaï had it coming to them: as SP says, you cannot present yourself as the Las Vegas of the Middle East and allow 80% of the population to consist of foreigners and expect things to stay as before.

As for the ramadan dresscode, it is interesting to note the differences between Dubaï and Morocco. In the more urbane parts of Rabat and Casablanca (admittedly not representative of the country as a whole), it is difficult to detect that ramadan has begun solely by studying women's clothing: those who wore mini-skirts and cleavage before ramadan continue to do so once it's begun, as well as those dressing modestly or wearing a headscarf. The only change I've detected would be a downturn in the use of make-up. I daren't even think of how little ramadan affects dresscodes in Beyrouth...

Ibn Kafka's remarks are timely and well taken.

I'd add that people who read French should check out his blog, Obiter Dicta

BTW please send myself and eerie a note at our aqoul addresses, I'd like to extend an invite.

Dear Ibn Kafka,

I've never noticed any change in dresscode during Ramadan in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine, or Egypt. I can't remember any women dressing "more modest" - those who dress modest/"islamic" continue & the others dress the way they do.

In Beirut, Ramadan only results in the Iftar lull in West and southern Beirut, but again, nobody dresses differently.

There is certainly a change in behavior - Muslims tend to live more "according to the book" during Ramadan, even those who do not fast are trying to live less, shall we say, sinful.

I would like to point out, though, that in the Levant the various social groups - let's dichotomize them by the labels of "hijab vs. miniskirt" - do not often meet, and thus during Ramadan there isn't exactly a "clash" in the sense that pious Muslims would be outraged by the display of miniskirts. No Egyptian woman would ever venture into a traditional neighborhood in a miniskirt anyway.

More interesting would be to look at how (Western) tourist organizations are sensitizing their clients to the fact that, during Ramadan, they should be extra-cautious about the kind of clothing they wear while visiting suqs and mosques.

--Matthias*

www.niqash.org

Lounsbury, I tried to e-mail you but it bounced back.

Matthias: yes, that's what's puzzling me - trying to live less sinful during that month while wearing a Rotana attire frowned upon by religious orthodoxy - it shows methinks the unstoppable trend towards islam à la carte - a good thing in my view btw.

Niqash, is that your site? Interesting. Are you based in Iraq?

Whenever I read the comments on secretdubai's blog

A huge thanks for differentiating between the comments and the actual blog (given how overshadowed it has been by all the comment hate and fighting in recent entries).

But yes, there is a hell of a lot of tension.

What I think locals/GCC nationals don't realise is how much MORE debauched most of us expats find Dubai compared to our (supposedly "corrupt" and "immoral") Western homelands. I'd barely seen a hooker before I came to Dubai, outside Pretty Woman or something. I'd certainly never been mistaken for a hooker (wearing trousers and a long-sleeved top) nor had the kind of approaches made to me that I have had here. And I've lived in "big cities" like London and Sydney, I haven't spent the whole of my life in St Mary Mead or something. The very blatancy of behaviour here is shocking.

There is a clear gulf of understanding with a certain, less exposed/less travelled element of the GCC: they think we are all whores, we think they are all perverts. Clearly this isn't the case on either side, but it's certainly the perception. They act like we expect perverts to act because they think we are whores and expect (welcome) that behaviour from them.