Don't get raped in Dubai

[The Infidel]

A Norwegian woman got raped in Dubai. When she reported the incident to the police, she got sentenced to jail for sex outside of marriage. I don't want to understand the mindset that makes laws like this.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- A Norwegian woman sentenced to 16 months in jail in Dubai for having sex outside marriage after she reported an alleged rape said Friday she decided to speak out in hopes of drawing attention to the risks of outsiders misunderstanding the Islamic-influenced legal codes in this cosmopolitan city.

The case has drawn outrage from rights groups and others in the West since the 24-year-old interior designer was sentenced Wednesday. It also highlights the increasingly frequent tensions between the United Arab Emirates' international atmosphere and its legal system, which is strongly influenced by Islamic traditions in a nation where foreign workers and visitors greatly outnumber locals.

"I have to spread the word. ... After my sentence we thought, `How can it get worse?'" Marte Deborah Dalelv told The Associated Press in an interview at a Norwegian aid compound in Dubai where she is preparing her appeal scheduled for early September.

Dalelv, who worked for an interior design firm in Qatar since 2011, claims she was sexually assaulted by a co-worker in March while she was attending a business meeting in Dubai.

She said she fled to the hotel lobby and asked for the police to be called. The hotel staff asked if she was sure she wanted to involve the police, Dalelv said.

"Of course I want to call the police," she said. "That is the natural reaction where I am from."

Dalelv said she was given a medical examination seeking evidence of the alleged rape and underwent a blood test for alcohol. Such tests are commonly given in the UAE for alleged assaults and in other cases. Alcohol is sold widely across Dubai, but public intoxication can bring charges.

The AP does not identity the names of alleged sexual assault victims, but Dalelv went public voluntarily to talk to media.

Dalelv was detained for four days after being accused of having sex outside marriage, which is outlawed in the UAE although the law is not actively enforced for tourists as well as hundreds of thousands of Westerners and others on resident visas.

She managed to reach her stepfather in Norway after being loaned a phone card by another woman in custody.

"My stepdad, he answered the phone, so I said, that I had been raped, I am in prison ... please call the embassy," she recounted.

"And then I went back and I ... just had a breakdown," she continued. "It was very emotional, to call my dad and tell him what happened."

Norwegian diplomats later secured her release and she has been allowed to remain at the Norwegian Seamen's Center in central Dubai. She said her alleged attacker received a 13-month sentence for out-of-wedlock sex and alcohol consumption.

Dubai authorities did not respond to calls for comment, but the case has brought strong criticism from Norwegian officials and activists.

"This verdict flies in the face of our notion of justice," Norway's foreign minister, Espen Barth Eide, told the NTB news agency, calling it "highly problematic from a human rights perspective."

Previous cases in the UAE have raised similar questions, with alleged sexual assault victims facing charges for sex-related offenses. Other legal codes also have been criticized for being at odds with the Western-style openness promoted by Dubai.

On Thursday, Dubai police said they arrested a man who posted an Internet video of an Emirati beating a South Asian van driver after an apparent traffic altercation. Police said they took the action because images of a potential crime were "shared."

In London, a spokesman for the Emirates Center for Human Rights, a group monitoring UAE affairs, said the Dalelv case points out the need for the UAE to expand its legal protections for alleged rape victims.

"We urge authorities to reform the laws governing incidents of rape in the country," said Rori Donaghy, "to ensure women are protected against sexual violence and do not become the targets of prosecution when reporting crimes."

[Thanas]

Our favorite friends and partners, people.

[Guardsman Bass]

Norway will probably be able to get her released back there without her actually spending time in a Dubai prison, but it's still pretty fucked up. Dubai even has the whole "need a confession or four related male witnesses to prove a rape" requirement.

I'm surprised it's not more of an issue, considering that Dubai draws tons of foreign tourists.

[FTeik]

Wrong thread-title. It should read:

"Don't go to the police, when raped in Dubai.

Well, at least that should remind us, with what kind of people we're doing business here, when we get exited about skyscrapers put into the dessert, heaped up artificial islands and lots of tanks being sold.

[Flagg]

There are times, rarer as I get older, but times when I think we invaded the wrong ME countries. But then reason takes over and I realize the best way to deal with them is to not deal with them at all.

[Thanas]

What's so hilariously tragic about the whole thing is that Saddam's Iraq was actually the most progressive arab country when it came to women's rights (excluding Israel and maybe Jordan).

[Crown]

I'm gonna put my bigot hat on; this is one of the many reasons why I can't believe the World Cup is heading to Qatar. Hot Brazilian female fans in their two piece may as well stay home.

[Alyrium Denryle]

strongly influenced by Islamic traditions in a nation where foreign workers and visitors greatly outnumber locals.

Foreign Workers. Otherwise known as Slave Labor, because that is what most of them are.

Just thought I would point that out, lest we forget.

[Flagg]

strongly influenced by Islamic traditions in a nation where foreign workers and visitors greatly outnumber locals.

Foreign Workers. Otherwise known as Slave Labor, because that is what most of them are.

Just thought I would point that out, lest we forget.

No shit. They pull that shit in the states, too. About every five to ten years some Saudi princess is accused of holding slaves in their US homes. But don't get all high and mighty, the "guest worker" bullshit some of the immigration proponents are pushing for is terrifyingly similar.

[Grumman]

There are times, rarer as I get older, but times when I think we invaded the wrong ME countries. But then reason takes over and I realize the best way to deal with them is to not deal with them at all.

Unfortunately, the US military is known to do the same bullshit. Somehow I doubt the assholes who threaten to court-martial rape victims for having sex would do much to improve the country that charges rape victims for having sex.

[The Kernel]

strongly influenced by Islamic traditions in a nation where foreign workers and visitors greatly outnumber locals.

Foreign Workers. Otherwise known as Slave Labor, because that is what most of them are.

Just thought I would point that out, lest we forget.

It's a little more complicated than that. There are multiple social levels in the UAE related to foreign workers as they need to import the vast majority of both their skilled and unskilled labor. The "natives" are almost entirely a leisure class at this point so it isn't unusual at all to see expats from European countries as the UAE pays very well and aggressively recruits all over the western world. That's probably why they are going to allow this woman to head back to Norway eventually--they needed to convict her to keep the locals happy but they also need to balance their image and the ability to attract professionals from around the world to run their economy.

With regards to the unskilled laborer class consisting of people from India, Pakistan, Egypt, Bangladesh, etc though? Slave labor is a pretty good characterization.

[Broomstick]

Anyone else notice that the rape victim received a 16 month sentence while her attacker received only 13 months?

Yet another reason I have zero desire to visit the Middle East.

[energiewende]

There are times, rarer as I get older, but times when I think we invaded the wrong ME countries. But then reason takes over and I realize the best way to deal with them is to not deal with them at all.

It's not like it makes any difference. The West doesn't impose its values in places it invades anymore, and these laws enjoy widespread public support. Democratic, Western-occupied Afghanistan has exactly the same laws for instance. It also has the death penalty for apostasy from Islam.

[Dr. Trainwreck]

Our daily dose of disgust from the medieval dudes with modern technology.

[The Infidel]

Anyone else notice that the rape victim received a 16 month sentence while her attacker received only 13 months?

Yet another reason I have zero desire to visit the Middle East.

Yeah, welcome to the country where women are cattle.

I knew there was something familiar with it. It happened to an Australian woman a little while ago, too.

An Australian woman who spent eight months in prison in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on charges of having sex outside of marriage after she was gang-raped told her harrowing story to Yahoo 7 News.

Alicia Gali told reporter Ross Coulthart she was working for an American hospitality company, Starwood Hotels, at the Meridien Al Aqah beach resort in the UAE when her room was flooded due to a backed-up drain. Gali was living at the hotel where she worked.

Gali told Yahoo 7 News she went to the hotel bar to use her laptop and have a drink since there was nowhere else to go. She said a fellow employee at the hotel refilled her glass with ice from an ice bucket, using a pair of tongs, but the next thing she remembers is waking up at 4:30 p.m. the next day, with four broken ribs and bruises all over her body.

Watch the full Yahoo 7 News report here.

Maintenance employees later found a man's shirt and a plastic bag had been used to stop the drain, perhaps in a ploy to force Gali to the hotel bar, Yahoo 7 News reports.

After reporting the rape to police, Gali was told to sign a statement in Arabic, which she later learned was a confession that she had drank alcohol and had sex outside marriage, she told Yahoo 7 News. Gali was sentenced to a year in prison, but was pardoned in 2009 after serving eight months, The Australian reported.

Years later, Gali's 2008 rape continues to affect her life. Last year, the Courier Mail reported that she was "diagnosed with severe post traumatic stress disorder, is unable to work and has had to borrow money from friends and family to pay hospital and counseling."

Gali's case is not the first of a woman being charged with crimes after reporting rape to UAE authorities. The country has notoriously harsh laws that allow for prison sentences for crimes including drinking alcohol and gay sex in addition to having sex outside marriage.

A statement given by Starwood Hotels to Yahoo 7 News said the hotel "worked diligently on Ms. Gali's behalf" and that the men involved in the crime were prosecuted and served prison terms.

I couldn't watch the video, as I'm not in the right geographical zone.

[Highlord Laan]

They're little more than desert barbarians that struck pay dirt and started aping their betters to peddle their wares. You expected otherwise?

[salm]

She´s been pardoned.

[The Kernel]

Not surprising in the slightest. Dubai has an image to maintain and once this story hit the mainstream press it was pretty clear what the sheikh was going to do--he has seen the UAE spend billions upon billions of dollars to build up an image as the modernized future of the middle east and this little event has the potential to set them back a decade or more.

The damage is already done however and it might be a while before we know the true extent of it.

[The Infidel]

She´s been pardoned.

She is back in Norway now and thanks the minister of forreign affairs. The rapist was also pardoned and is out of prison as well as it has all been deemed a non-case in Dubai.

[Thanas]

It is a very sad joke, that's what it is.

My resolve not to buy anything manufactured in the middle east is only strengthened.

[Purple]

It is a very sad joke, that's what it is.

My resolve not to buy anything manufactured in the middle east is only strengthened.

They manufacture stuff there?

[fgalkin]

It is a very sad joke, that's what it is.

My resolve not to buy anything manufactured in the middle east is only strengthened.

They manufacture stuff there?

Israel, mostly. Not sure if that falls under Thanas' boycott.

Have a very nice day.
-fgalkin