... in 2008. I don’t think you really appreciate how fast things have been changing here.
Might as well talk about how things weren’t so great for women in the west a little over 100 years ago. Despite what you might read in the Daily Mail, these countries have been catching up at a very accelerated pace.
2008 was 13 years ago. The past 13 years in the UAE have been nothing like even the past 30 years in the west. The difference between now and 2008 is incomprehensible, it’s simply not the same country.
In the past week I’ve visited a gay bar in a big Dubai hotel, the local synagogue and ate with the local Rabbi at a kosher restaurant in one of the top Dubai hotels (There’s one in the Burj Khalifa(!) and another at the Zabeel Saray) . In 2008 these things could’ve been unimaginable, today it’s normal.
The rulers are well aware that they can’t survive unless they modernize and at the very least catch up with the west.
> Also I have no reason to believe those rape laws are not still enforced the same way.
They literally don’t exist anymore, and hadn’t been enforced for years before they were struck off anyway.
> It’s against the law to live together, or to share the same hotel room, with someone of the opposite sex to whom you aren’t married or closely related
> The burden of proof required for rape under the UAE’s interpretation of sharia law – a confession from the rapist or witness statements from four adult men – means that cases that reach court are heavily skewed in the defendant’s favour and are frequently dismissed or turned around to prosecute the alleged victim.
> Ms Stirling said the UAE has a long history of penalising rape victims. “We have been involved with several cases in the past where this has happened, and we work with the lawyers and families and have campaigned to change attitudes in the police and judiciary,” she added.
> “The horrible case at hand shows that it is still not safe for victims to report these crimes to the police without the risk of suffering a double punishment.”
Might as well talk about how things weren’t so great for women in the west a little over 100 years ago. Despite what you might read in the Daily Mail, these countries have been catching up at a very accelerated pace.