Dubai: Not many people would give a second glance to a white Westerner with a Black or Asian woman, walking hand-in-hand on the street today.

The UAE, with its fair mix of expatriates from various ethnic groups, is home to many couples who have married outside their culture and religion.

"People are more tolerant today," says Schmidt, a German expatriate living in Abu Dhabi.

He was brought up in a small, quiet town in Germany where he never saw any foreigners.

It was only 20 years ago that Turkish migrants started entering Germany for jobs, he says.

Schmidt took a big step leaving home to work in England when he was 18 years old. The second big step in his life was wooing an English girl when neither spoke each other's language.

Still, he feels that it was not much of a compromise, as both of them come from Christian backgrounds and the food is fairly similar. "There is quite a big difference if you marry an Asian," he said. "If you are from different religions, there are even bigger problems," he said.

But he still feels that Westerners marrying Thais, for instance, is more acceptable today.

Paul, a Frenchman married to an Indian, says that sometimes people even from the same culture have different points of view. "Marriage is give and take," he says and feels that mixed marriages help create better understanding between people.

The Indo-French couple met at an Arabic language class in Dubai.

"We fell in love but we discussed our marriage very clinically," says Shobna.

Paul has had to compromise hugely as Shobna and her parents are strict vegetarians.

"Where I come from every food is meat-based," he said.

"Life is funny at times," he says, adding that he does not eat meat at home, out of respect for his wife's and his in-laws' beliefs.

Resistance

"Paul's parents are not religious and mine follow the Hindu way of life," says Shobna. Obviously, there was initially massive resistance from her parents.

She does not agree with the critics of mixed marriages who say that the genes could become 'diluted' and that over the years everybody will look more or less the same if people continue to marry out of their culture.

"Most of the people in my community tend to marry within the community, so there must be some sort of in-breeding going on over the years," she says. "Aren't hybrids smarter?"

"Personally, I feel that children of mixed marriages look nice," says Schmidt.

Paul feels that not many communities today have pure genes.

"There are only a very few like the Parsis [in India]," he said.

But mixed genes, he feels will help bring down the differences among people today. He adds that in certain Arab countries, couples who inter-marry have children with genetic diseases.

Even when there are no cultural issues in some mixed marriages, politics highlight the man-made differences. Sharyar met his future wife, a distant relative, in Dubai. He is a Pakistani and she, an Indian. The wedding was held in India, and the reception in Pakistan, he said. But that was in 1995.

"It wasn't a problem visiting each other's countries," said the former journalist who earlier had contacts in the Indian embassy and getting a visa was not a problem.

Distrust

But since then entry rules for foreigners, specially Pakistanis, has been tightened.

"It does not matter how many bus services they run, things will never change," he says, about the distrust between the two nations.

The couple have become Australian citizens and now wondering how to get to each other's countries for the holidays, is no longer a problem.

Sharyar says they have had no adjustments to make as they share a common language, common friends and the same culture.

The Pakistani expat feels that a Western-Asian marriage will have to make a lot of adjustments.

"Asians are more family-oriented," he says, though agreeing that more and more Indians and Pakistanis today are moving away from extended families to nuclear family units, with just the husband and wife.

Schmidt says some Thai girls find the difference in cultures much later.

"They find their husbands are at the pubs after work and they are sitting at home night after night."

People are more tolerant today. There is quite a big difference if you marry an Asian. If you are from different religions, there are even bigger problems."