the law…be careful

There have been a couple of stories in the papers over the past few weeks about a proposed new smoking ban to be implemented here in the UAE. Today’s article in the 7days newspaper had some very good news in it. Ok well I think it’s great news.

Smoking has been banned in restaurants and indoor bars in the UAE, an official from the health ministry confirmed to 7DAYS yesterday.

Dr Wedad Al Maidoor, who heads the National Tobacco Control Committee, said the new tobacco laws announced last week mean that enclosed public spaces such as restaurants and bars will need to apply to have a separate area where people can smoke.

[Smoking is barred] story from the 7days

It went on to say that “the new law will only be enforced in the establishments once these details have been released”.



Hopefully these clarifications won’t take too long in this particular case. I am looking forward to the day when smoking is banned in all public places, especially bars and restaurants. I hate getting home from a night out smelling like an ashtray, or worse, trying to eat my dinner near a smoking diner at another table. When I visited Dublin a few years ago I really noticed the lack of cigarette smoke everywhere I went, and despite the normal mutterings that business is affected by these bans that really did not seem to be the case when I was there. Most of the pubs I went to were packed to the gills, probably with non-smokers who were finally able to enjoy a smoke-free night out.

Two other stories caught my eye today. The first was about a British Muslim couple who will have to get married if they want to avoid jail time, after they were charged with premarital sex AND drinking alcohol. They were arrested by the police after she reported being raped by a waiter who followed her into the bathroom at The Address hotel in the Marina. It seems the couple were sharing a room at the hotel, which is against the law of the UAE as they are unmarried. The second story deals with this issue, and more specifically, that this law is not widely enforced by reservation departments in various hotels. Of those called by the paper for the story it seems all, bar one (the Radisson in Sharjah), are happy to allow unmarried couples to share a room.

The view seems to be that as long as you stay out of trouble then your breaking this law would stay under the radar and not be an issue. So what to do when something untoward, like a rape, happens? I am not sure how you reconcile the two, but in my opinion, dare I say it, the rape has to be the greater of the two evils and this should be dealt with properly, as a deterrent. Certainly none of this is good news for Dubai, or the UAE, as it’s not likely to encourage unmarried couples to visit. I am not sure how many people would pay for two hotel rooms for their holiday.

Incidentally the waiter has also been arrested for illegal sex despite the fact that he maintains it was consensual. Not really the point in my view but there you go, that’s the law.

You have been warned.

image source: healthcare.zdnet.com