American woman has so far spent nearly 2 months in jail in the UAE for "insulting the state"
A woman has been in prison for two months in Abu Dhabi for allegedly insulting the government.
According to an article in The National, which is a government-owned English-language daily newspaper published in Abu Dhabi, an American woman has been in prison since February 23 for allegedly insulting the United Arab Emirates while waiting for a taxi.
The article reports that the 25-year-old U.S. citizen, who the article did not name, is being charged with “insulting the country and its leaders through verbal assault” when she was approached by two men while waiting for a taxi cab. The two men “did not like the way she spoke to them” according to The National, though the woman told the judge of the Federal Supreme Court that nothing happened and she didn’t understand why she was on trial.
“The men tried to help me. I had another flight to catch at 1:29am. I refused to engage with them and nothing happened,” she said.
The National says that the matter “is being treated as a misdemeanor so a lawyer was not required,” and that the woman has asked the judge if she could just pay a fine to get out of jail. A verdict is scheduled for May 2.
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Sharia law forms the basis of the UAE’s legal system, which the campaigning organization Human Rights Watch has found treats women in an unfair and discriminatory manner in that nation. Some crimes such as adultery and alcohol consumption can be punished by public flogging and even stoning. In May 2014, an Asian woman was sentenced to death by stoning in Abu Dhabi after having been found guilty of adultery.
http://www.inquisitr.com/2987300/american-woman-jailed-for-insulting-united-arab-emirates-in-abu-dhabi/
Let me just say that if you are going to travel over to the mid-east, especially if you are a woman, you better know and understand what you are getting into. A lot of laws in these countries are weird and usually unfair and enforced sometimes very selectively. Remember a few years ago, the UAE arrested a Norwegian woman when she reported that she was raped.
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