So what else has changed?

Submitted by James R (Canada), Oct 7, 2005 at 17:32

Dubai essentially functions as Las Vegas once did for America. Arab women go there to shop, (it's cheap by European standards but you can beat the prices and selection at any medium sized mall in America) and their husbands go there to have sex. When I was there ('98-2000) the hookers were primarily Ukrainian. A bell captain told me that it was normal to specify height and hair color.

There was also a steady traffic in Central Asian countries women, and a journalist told me he knew of an agency that arranged three month tours in Dubai for Khirghizi, Khazakhi and Tadjiki women. According to the journalist, the women came in as various tourist functions (guides, maids etc.) but all had a pretty good idea what they were getting in for. Few repeated the tour of duty. The idea was that they made enough money in one tour to go home and buy a house and a car.

I found out all of the above easily enough. The trade was way obvious, again rather like Vegas. It contrasted hugely from Oman, where as far as I could tell prostitution didn't exist.(It may have been if you were in search of it, but certainly to moderately aware observer like myself, who lived there for two years, it was invisible.)

And by the way there were articles in the Gulf English press about various Arabs bringing home pre-adolescent brides from Pakistan and India while I was there. 9 years old was the youngest I recall.

The oddest thing about living in the Gulf was what was taken for granted there, and completely denied in OECD countries.

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