Dubai gets tough on beach behaviour

Authorities in the Persian Gulf tourist haven of Dubai are cracking down on topless sunbathing, nudity and other forms of indecent behaviour on beaches and have detained 79 people in recent days.

Along with beach patrols by undercover and uniformed police, the Dubai municipality has embarked on a public awareness campaign to remind Western tourists and foreign residents that this Arab city-state with a Western outlook is a Muslim country in the traditionally conservative Gulf.

Police have detained 79 people over two weeks for "disturbing families enjoying the beach" with their behaviour, Zuhair Haroun, a spokesman for Dubai’s Criminal Investigation Department, said today.

Haroun did not elaborate on the nature of the acts in question, but the crackdown started days after police detained two British nationals — a man and a woman — allegedly discovered having sex on the beach.

Thousands of European and Asian expatriates live and work in Dubai, one of seven semi-independent states that form the United Arab Emirates, a conservative Muslim country. Foreigners vastly outnumber native Arab citizens in Dubai, the region’s business hub and an increasingly popular destination for Western tourists.

The police campaign will also target those bothering sunbathers and other beachgoers with acts "deemed offensive, immoral or disrespectful," said Dubai’s acting police chief, Major General Khamis Mattar al-Mazeina. That includes loitering and voyeurism, he said.

Public beaches will soon have signs warning tourists in Arabic, English and several other languages against topless sunbathing, as well as changing clothes and other indecent behaviour, an official with the Dubai Municipality said today.

Authorities are "taking action in response to numerous complaints" filed by people who visit the city’s beaches, said Abdullah Mohammed Rafia, the assistant director-general for the environment and public health at the municipality.

Rafia said complaints ranged from families "offended by displays of nudity" to women made uncomfortable sunbathing by groups of men starring at them.

Dubai’s sprawling shores, which attract millions of Western tourists every year, will be lit at night to spot inappropriate behaviour under the cover of darkness. Police have also installed watch towers and dispatched uniformed and undercover officers to patrol public beaches to enforce the rules. First-time offenders may get off with a warning, police said.

Unlike anywhere else in the conservative Gulf, tourists in Dubai wear bikinis on the emirate’s beaches and walk its streets in shorts. Alcohol is freely available in bars and restaurants.

Many Emiratis and local residents from other Arab countries increasingly feel Dubai’s ambition to become a cosmopolitan metropolis has blinded the authorities into letting permissive ways slip beyond what is culturally acceptable.