Single People ‘Living Together’ and Being Together in the UAE

The much-publicised legal case of Brisbane woman, Alicia Gali, is raising important questions about whose responsibility it is to inform tourists and those coming to work in the Emirates.

Alicia Gali is suing the Australian Government and her former employer, Fujairah resort, Le Méridien, for failing to adequately inform her about the very different laws in the UAE that led to her twelve month imprisonment in 2008-2009.

These legal processes will probably take months to arrive at a verdict but Gali’s case and others like it are stimulating articles in UAE newspapers about the distinctive features of the UAE Penal Code.

The Gulf News has a helpful article in today’s edition (9 June 2011) about some of these laws in the UAE which relate to issues like these:

• Living together as an unmarried couple
• Sharing a house with an unrelated person of the opposite sex
• Mixed flatting
• The application of Sharia Law to those who aren’t Muslims
• Consensual sex between unmarried people
• Being in a car with an unrelated person of the opposite sex

Link

Living Together in the UAE? Think Twice, Gulf News, 9 June 2011.

Related

Alicia Gali Rape Case Puts Fujairah Back in the Australian News, FIF, 7 June 2011.

Geoff Pound

This article is also posted on the Fujairah in Focus—Facebook Page.

Image: Courtesy of Gulf News.