Posted by
InchDeep on Saturday, July 19, 2008 12:42:36 AM
-
Ian Black, Middle East editor
-
The Guardian,
- Friday July 18, 2008
- Article history
Foreigners visiting the Gulf
tourist hub of Dubai have discovered the limits of tolerance after
cross-dressing in the city's shopping malls and other public places.
On
Wednesday police detained 40 "cross-dressing tourists", the Gulf News
reported, quoting the local police chief as complaining that
transvestites were frequently being spotted.
"This is against
the UAE's traditions and social values," said General Dhahi Khalfan
Tamim. Any man or woman who behaved like the opposite gender in public
would be questioned and action would be taken, he added.
Dubai, a
city state that is part of the United Arab Emirates, is a magnet for
foreign tourists as well as investors and is known for a liberal
lifestyle fuelled by a booming property sector. More than half the
population are expatriates, with thousands sporting bikinis on public
beaches, wearing shorts and drinking alcohol that is freely available
in bars and restaurants. In 2006 more than a million British visitors
travelled to the UAE and 100,000 British nationals live there.
Openly
gay behaviour is banned. Despite its western and cosmopolitan outlook,
Dubai is a conservative Muslim society and - like much of the Arab
world - is largely hostile to homosexuality.
This month a British
couple were arrested for allegedly having sex on a public beach -
generating tabloid headlines in Britain. Since then undercover police
have been patrolling beaches to crack down on nudity and other forms of
indecent behaviour. Nearly 80 people have been detained in recent days.
There
is mounting sensitivity to public displays of what is seen as
indecency. Dr Rima Sabban, a sociologist, said Emiratis were becoming
frustrated with violations of local sensitivities. "With the inflow of
so many people, things are getting out of hand," she told Gulf News.
The
paper advised readers that cross-dressing would be punished by law. But
it added, under a picture of two men in kilts and one in a white
dishdasha, that national dress was fine.