Oh Boyah

Thanks very much to my chum at 7Days newspaper for helping clarify what the crackdown on "boyat" will mean in Dubai.  You can read the paper's informative article here

Bad PR move, authority chaps. One of the ways Dubai attracts incomers from all over the world is by painting itself as a tolerant society compared with others in the region.  It can't really call itself that if women who like to dress a bit blokily risk being taken off by the cops for a good telling off and then being jailed if they fail to reform.

Mind you, it seems that this is largely aimed at young women, ie students, and young, Emirati women at that.  As I've said before, if you're a reasonably affluent ex-pat, you can do what you like within reason as long as you do it within the privacy of your own home or don't annoy a local person or someone in authority by doing it. There's also a perception that locals that get in trouble with the law are likely to face a less harsh punishment than ex-pats and poor migrant workers, but I suspect that may not be the case in these circumstances.  

The police officer quoted in 7Days implies that boyat are sexually attracted to other girls.  Obviously in a more tolerant society, he would know that girls who dress a bit blokily, don't always necessarily like other girls, some just like to dress blokily.  Being gay is illegal in Dubai, though, so, it would appear that this is a crude attempt to stamp out lesbian tendancies among the Emirati youth which makes it rather more than a bad PR move.

Mad about the boyat

The more time you spend in a place, the more you start to peel away the layers to find out about the usual and the unusual things that make somewhere both unique and simultaneously akin to countries all over the world.

Proof that there is nothing new under the fierce sun danced in front of my eyes this morning when I saw this article on cross dressers in Dubai.

Cross dressing women targeted in Dubai campaign

Well gosh oh crikes a blimey.  That is really not something I expected when I came here. 

What I didn't expect was this counterculture-style movement of "boyat" - women who dress like tomboys and have short hair under their abayas and head coverings. It's reassuring that even in a restrictive society, not everyone conforms, they find ways to step outside the perceived norm.

I don't know why I didn't expect it.  It's human nature that if rules are enforced, some will rebel against them, no matter what the consequences might be.
The boyah quoted in the National's article said something in her childhood home life led her to become one. I can only speculate on what they might be but I can see the attraction of saying "no" to femininity.  I think it's fair to say that the teenaged me would have spied the beautifully but heavily made up ladies in six-inch heels prowling the malls and wanted to rebel and do something totally different rather than resign myself to four hours doing my hair and makeup before leaving the house. 

I am not sure exactly what the authorities mean by "targeting" them.  It sounds rather sinister to say the least. According to a three-year-old article I found from the Economist, boyat is a phenomenon that spread throughout the Gulf region.  I don't know if it's an example of women in a patriarchal society leaning towards the masculine as an attempt to assert power.  Maybe it's a rebellion against the expectation that they will marry and start breeding new Gulf residents when they are barely out of their teens.

I wonder if the authorities will now lean towards "treatment" of a so-called gender identity disorder, consider banning boyat or continue a previous attempt to educate these young women about the virtues of femininity.

School's out for summer

School children in Sharjah are subject to shorter school days to account for the summer heat.  It's another example of that topsy turviness of life here.  It reminds me of when we used to get time off school during very heavy snow when various creaking central heating systems gave up the ghost.

There seems to be a row between the education authority and the Federal Government about whether or not this should go ahead.  The FG is quoted in today's National saying that any decision about shorter days at government schools has to be agreed at Federal level.  The education authority has probably quite correctly decided that term will be over before the FG gets round to making a decision, so the shorter days will start today with two fingers up to the FG.

Teachers have cited poor concentration and heat-related sickness among children as reasons why they want to activate the shorter day policy.

The ever reliable BBC weather website tells me that it's going to be 39 today in Sharjah before rising to a toasty 46degrees tomorrow. 

There's received knowledge here that 50degrees is the threshold at which work shuts down, ie, builders have to stop along with any other outdoor labour.  There are mutterings among ex-pats that the equivalent of the Met Office just tells everyone it's 49degrees even if it goes over 50, so they have to keep working.  So, the Federal Government would have an interest in keeping the kids doing their full day. If they admit it's too much for the kids to concentrate, it's probably too much for the workers to carry on in the heat and that will have an impact on the economy. 

There have also been rumblings in the papers that the summer working rules should be brought in.  The heat, when it's really hot, is so unbearable that they have to bring in conditions that manual labourers, particularly those that work outside, should only work 20 minutes out of one hour and enforce a one hour break for lunch as opposed to the usual half hour.  I wonder what lengths the authorities will go to in order to avoid that.

Eye of the Cheetah

There's a story doing the rounds at the moment that there's a blimmin' cheetah been rounded up after it was seen wandering around Abu Dhabi. The city's name means father of the gazelle in Arabic so maybe the big cat was on the prowl for some tasty deer treats before being sadly disabused of the notion that there are any still hanging around. 

The authorities helpfully pointed out that there are no longer any wild cheetahs in the area so it stands to reason that it was someone's pet that got away.  The fact that it had a broken leash around its neck and a broken paw, presumably from jumping down from a wall, probably gave it away as well. 

Happy as a sand witch

This photo probably tells you all you need to know about what a fun day I've had today:

That's right. I am, in fact, feeding a carrot to a camel.  "Awesome" doesn't even begin to cover my trip to Camelicious camel farm today.  More will doubtless follow later but, in the mean time, here is a cute picture of some baby camels.

I'm not quite sure where this camel obsession will end.  I am at the moment deciding whether it is sustainable to keep one on the terrace.  I think if we gave it plenty of Alfalfa it would be fine.  What do you reckon?

The pumps run dry

There's one thing that you would think it would be difficult for us to run out of in this country, and that's petrol, thanks to our proximity to oil supplies.

However, that does rather seem to be the case in the neighbouring, and admittedly rather peculiar, emirate of Sharjah.

http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle09.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2011/May/theuae_May788.xml&section=theuae

What the freak is going on?

There's no clue as to the cause in the glorious PR speak quoted in the above article.  Two pronged approach indeed.  It's comforting to know that PRs spout just as much flannel in the UAE as they do in the UK. I can surmise from the story that they're experiencing high demand at a time when they're trying to upgrade their petrol stations but there's no answer as to why they're experiencing high demand.

My speculation is that petrol, along with everything else, is probably cheaper in Sharjah than it is in Dubai and there's therefore a possibility that everyone is going there to fill up since the oil prices started rising significantly thanks to the Arab Spring.

As a Brit, it still seems unbelievably cheap in Dubai because it costs us the equivalent of between £12 and £14 to fill the tank of our dad-style Toyota Corolla which is nothing compared to the £38 it used to cost us to fill up Bob the titchy Nissan Micra in the UK. Therefore, saving money on petrol is not enough of a reason to negotiate the Sharjah roads which are narrower and haven't been developed to account for the weight of traffic as they have in Dubai.  Possibly it seems worth it if you have an enormous four-wheel-drive tank to fill.
 

Sisters risk a whipping if they do it for themselves

Facebook is a wonderful thing. You can probably tell from my regular presence on there that I'm quite fond of it, particularly since I came to Dubai as it helps me carry on nosing into all your lives now that I'm thousands of miles away.  And, if it weren't for Facebook, bunches of horrible sexist men in Saudi Arabia wouldn't be able to threaten to whip women and men who took part in or supported the pro-women driving day planned for June 17th in Saudi Arabia. Thank goodness for Mark Zuckerberg.

http://www.emirates247.com/news/region/you-drive-i-whip-saudi-men-warn-women-2011-05-23-1.396159

Don't these men understand?  If they let the women drive, they may well be moving towards being a Westernised society, but they can join the great Western pastime of slagging off women drivers.  Every cloud has a silver lining.

There's no restriction on women driving in Dubai, although I sometimes get the impression that there are plenty of male drivers who would rather I wasn't on the road.  At least, I assume that's the case as they regularly try to kill me by pulling their enormous four-wheel-drives out in front of me without a hint of a glance in my direction and try to change lanes on top of my car without using those tedious indicators so I have to move over to avoid being crushed.

Driving is pretty scary here as I have already explained at length. But I'm way too bloody minded not to do it and let the Sand Warlock be master of the automobile.  I think if I did that, I may as well turn into a ex-pat zombie and walk around with my housewife visa stapled to my forehead.