WestMeetsEast

I had an ‘Egypt moment’ this past weekend.

I thought the days of being harassed for being a Western (and therefore slutty) woman were gone. The neighborhood where I live in Dubai is notorious for prostitutes. Prostitution in a Muslim country you ask? It is actually a thriving industry here. Dubai is constantly being compared to Las Vegas, and in the case of ‘ladies of the night’ it is quite an apropos comparison. Arabs from around the region flock to Dubai to take advantage of the lax implementation of the laws against prostitution. One Emirati friend of mine says it’s because the Dubai police have much more important things to worry about – like keeping terrorists at bay (fair enough!).

None of this really has had much of an effect on me, but more often than not when I walk from my flat to the store, some three blocks away, it is assumed that I am a whore, much like the rest of the whores who do actually live in my building. Up until this weekend this hasn’t bothered me too much. Egypt inured me of such things, and frankly, as long as no one was physically touching me as they do in Cairo, who cares? I politely tell them ‘No, actually I am not a hooker, but there are plenty on the next block.’

But for some reason (tired, bad mood) Thursday night as I ran into my local grocery store to use the ATM, it took me by surprise. Some guy propositioned me and it happened so fast that I thought he was asking for directions. When I stopped and said ‘pardon?’ and he motioned for me to get into his car, I lost it. I screamed very loudly, ‘why the f*ck do you think I am a whore just because I live here! What the hell is wrong with you?’ etc. The perp, or wannabe John, ran to his car like a scared kitten. About 10 minutes later, I laughed about it.

But sexual frustration/aggression is a real problem in Dubai where you have a number of colliding situations. First, a Muslim population where the two sexes are not supposed to mix, etc. Second, a large impoverished male population living as builders away from their wives/girlfriends. Third, impoverished SE Asian women geographically close by.

A Newsweek reporter was recently in town looking into the topic of human slavery. At first I really thought it would be a stretch to find anything like that in Dubai. But upon further research, we discovered some forms of ‘slavery lite.’ Just like the situations the construction workers find themselves in – that is getting paid to build Dubai’s towers but owing a great deal of that money to their employers to cover the fees that brought them here – many of Dubai’s prostitutes are in the same boat. Some of them are even victims of scams. Back in the Ukraine or China or the Philipines they are approached by ‘agents’ who tell them they can make gobs of money being maids in Dubai. The agent’s fee is (relatively) enormous and they hand over their passports to these agents who then keep those passports until that money is paid back.

And of course, once they arrive in Dubai, somehow ‘maid’ work becomes ‘whore’ work. Then after they earn their freedom, which can take up to a year, many of them typically keep their new lifestyle, having become addicted to the high incomes. The ones we interviewed said they were supporting the children they left behind. Some of them hit the jackpot and marry Western expats – typically old Brits who are just lonely or appreciate the passivity and ‘devotion’ of an Asian ex-hooker.

I don’t think the situation will change much as Dubai continues its rapid ‘ascent’ into unadulterated capitalistic paradise. But it will be interesting to see who else takes notes and decides to teach the country a lesson, a la Al Qaeda style.