Home

Life

Segregation

Female Body

Marriage

The Veil

Work

Discrimination

Distinguished Women

Foreign Women

Progress

About and Resources


 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Most U.A.E. women have housekeepers from Indonesia, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India or the Philipines. These women work from early morning till midnight and are paid small monthly salaries. They are treated as slaves and are often verbally and physically abused by the women, and sometimes men, they work for. The offices that bring them to the country are often not on their sides and they are not allowed to go to their countries' embassies, if they exist (Gulf News, Abused housemaid attempts suicide).

However, the foreign women who are in the United Arab Emirates as doctors, engineers, professors...etc. are not restricted by the government to any code of conduct. They are free to live as they please, work, drive their cars and interact with men. The only restriction placed by the government forbids unmarried couples from living together and those who do are flogged and deported. Premarital sex is also punishable by law (Gulf News, Adulterers face death by stoning).

Tourists are often seen walking around in shorts and tank tops, and sometimes in bikinis. U.A.E. women are not pleased with this and often complain about the fact that their husbands and brothers are chasing the foreign women and ogling them. There have been recent laws that deal with this, such as barring any women under 40 from entering the country without the company of a male relative.