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Being out and about during Ramadan, I'm quite appalled at what I see some people wearing, or not as the case maybe.

http://gulfnews.com/life-style/culture/ ... -1.1056959

Last time I was in Dubai, which was about 2 weeks ago, I was surprised by people's clothing. I'm not sure if they were tourists or residents but in malls I saw girls wearing top and shorts almost like a bikini. In the same time you could see the signs of conservative clothing all over the mall.

I hope people realize that they should respect cultural norms sooner, so there wont be anything forced from authorities to control what they wear.

I seriously doubt the authorities would ever implement a law regarding it, but still, people really should learn a bit about where they are visiting and be a bit more respectful.

yea well to be honest I don't know about the authorities there so much. But I think bikinis in malls will be too much for UAE.

melika969 , totally agree. A group of locals now go and speak to people directly and hand out leaflets. Interestingly, Abu Dhabi has produced information which is given out at the airport, but Dubai has yet to implement anything.

I think that being clear about an acceptable dress code makes complete sense. The signs in malls etc are a good thing, IMO.

However, as an aside, I really can't believe that any visitor to Dubai or the UAE is unaware of the fact they are visiting an Arab country which may have different dress codes. I mean, can anyone really plead ignorance on this point?

Cheers,

Shafique

shafique , Oh you'd be surprised. What airlines coming into the country should have is an awareness video that they show as part of that little advert for the UAE. They miss out big time on doing that.

Yea signs in the malls and the leaflets are good idea. Personally I prefer to be in line with the cultural norm and not to be approached by others.

Also, to be fair, I'd say that the vast majority of tourists and expats are sensible and culturally aware. Many in my experience are actually over-cautious.

But hey, you do have to cater for the minority and remove the 'I didn't know' excuse.

Cheers,
Shafique

I dressed quite conservativley for my first year in Dubai, wearing long sleeves and long pants in public most of the time. After I was still leered at and treated like meat by some men, I got more lax about what I wore, though nothing remotely in the region of a bikini in the mall! My thinking was that I dressed with respect and wasn't treated with respect (by some men), so I might as well wear what I like and throw a pashmina on top. No one else seemed offended by my clothing choices and it didn't increase the number of leering men.

shafique ,

yea from my experience even visitors in Iran are the same. We have many visitors in our company and sometimes they ask too many questions about how they should wear or behave. Once a lady coming to Iran emailed me and asked is it ok if I make eye contacts with men?!!

Well some people are just too dumb@ss in my opinion, if not during the whole year atleast during ramadan have some courtesy. Not a day goes by here I have not seen women in short shorts, bare midriffed and tight tanktops jogging along in daylight hours even in front of mosques even during prayer times.

All the signs in malls, articles in the press etc etc seems to fall on deaf ears and now with a big debate going on circles higher up wouldn't be surprised if forced implementaion comes into being and then they will have on one else to blame but themselves and makes things more difficult for regular folk.

And if anything does happen you can bet your horses the "media" will be all over the story as to how evil Islam is and opresses women etc etc.

Although I do think a stern warning to a few violators from the authorities will send a strong message to such dumb @sses and they will fall in line.

Well I guess time will tell really over this one. Certainly there are many locals who disagree with a dresscode, and others who have a totally radical stance, so there needs to be a happy medium somewhere. But for most it should just be common sense. Making a few examples of people, or kicking them out of malls etc would soon get the message across.