UAE | General
Ban on Arab dress at nightclubs 'creates divisions among people'
A law barring people wearing traditional Arab dress from nightclubs has been criticised by a UAE national, who said it is discriminatory and divisive.
- By Mona Ahmad, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 April 19, 2005
A law barring people wearing traditional Arab dress from nightclubs has been criticised by a UAE national, who said it is discriminatory and divisive.
 UAE national says he has never faced such discrimination in the West. |
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Mohammad Al Adhab, the UAE national, said it is an unfair ruling and creates barriers among nationalities. "Last week, I was with two men from France and the United States and we went to a club in Dubai. At the gate, the security guards told me people wearing Arab dress were not allowed inside.
"Needless to say, the French and American men were shocked. This is not a normal situation in a country called the United Arab Emirates when men wearing Arab dresses are not allowed to go in," he told Gulf News.
An Arab couple later came to the club, the man was in Western dress but the woman was in local UAE dress. "The doorman told them that women in Arab dress are not allowed in and she should have worn Western clothing if she had wanted to enter the club," Al Adhab said.
"Anytime you separate people because of race, ethnicity or dress, you are creating a big gap between them. And the results are very unfortunate," he said.
He had never faced such discrimination in either America or Europe. "I am the same person, whether in Arab or Western dress. My culture doesn't change with a change of dress."
A source from the Ministry of Information and Culture said people in Arab dress are not allowed to enter places where alcohol is served because they had been pictured behaving irresponsibly in the past.
"Foreigners took pictures of these men and women and then showed them on the internet. This was aimed at spoiling the country's reputation. Thus, any one wearing local Arab dress is banned from entering such places," the source said.
The Department of Economic Development conducts random inspections throughout the UAE to verify that the decision was being implemented, he said. The main reason for the rule was to keep in line with the country's culture, said a source from the department.
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