About Hope Expertise I`m nineteen years old and I`m an expert in the United Arab Emirates culture. I`m one of country`s locals so I`m able to answer any question about the culture of United Arab Emirates, and the culture of the Arabian Gulf countries in general. You can ask me anything about the culture or the traditions of the United Arab Emirates. I don`t have enough information about the history of the traditions or the name of the tools that were used in the past. I`m also able to answer your questions about the United Arab Emirates youth and what they are interested in nowadays. I won`t be a much of a help in the matters of business. I can only help you with the culture & the people of UAE.
Experience I'm living my life according to the cultural and the traditions of the UAE so it will not be that hard on me to answer your questions.
Expert: Hope Date: 3/9/2004 Subject: Travel and Laws
Question Hope,
I am interested in finding out unfamiliar laws that a traveler from the United States might encounter in U.A.E. In other words, are there restrictions - cultural and legal - that a U.S. traveler might not expect while traveling in U.A.E.? I assume that country has certain laws that differ from ours. Can you e-mail me a description of these restrictions? For example, what are the laws regarding sex outside of marriage, sex and age, alcohol, historical and cultural artifacts, illegal drugs, religion and converting others to a different religion, adoption of children, marriage by an American to a native, negative comments about the government, government officials, historic figures, Mohammed, etc.? I'm interested in any laws or customs that an American would be surprised to encounter when traveling in U.A.E. Thank you very much.
Answer Hello Win ,
Thanks for the interesting question, I will try to give you an outline of the laws in UAE , but unfortunately I'm not a lawyer so I wouldn't know much about the actual laws that differ from urs in US .
What I can tell you though is that illegal sex, drugs , alcohol ( if consumed publicly ) is a big issue in UAE. You have to read about the culture here so that you will have a clear idea about this country. Most of not all of our laws come from our religion Islam, other religions are respected in UAE, but you cannot ask a local or any other Muslim to change to your religion because I guess there is a law about that. We expect others to respect our faith as we respect theirs.
what else you asked about! yeah marriage by American to native women is ok ( not common though :) ) but depends on the religion of the American , see Muslim women cannot marry but Muslim regardless the nationality , so you have to convert to Islam if you are not one to marry a Muslim women ( generally speaking ). You cannot talk about Israel in a way that may provoke anger here in UAE and Middle East; also I would advice you not to speak about Iraq :). People here are friendly so nothing to worry about unless you break one of the rules, you can speak about religion, politics ...etc but you have to do that with respect. People here don't hate Americans, but do have a strong feeling about the government of US.
"I'm interested in any laws or customs that an American would be surprised to encounter "again you have to do some preparation because this culture is totally different from yours , you can ask other American who have been to UAE , get a book ..etc its always better to have an idea before traveling to another country. It would be a lot easier for me if you give me an area to tell you about, instead of talking generally :).
