Women will encounter few problems travelling around the UAE by themselves. Harassment both vocal and physical is rare, though not nonexistent. It's safe to walk around late at night by yourself in most areas, take taxis and public transport and to stay in budget hotels as a solo woman.
You will often be asked about why you're travelling by yourself and where your family is. If you're single and childless and don't feel like fielding a barrage of questions about why this is, you can always make up an imaginary husband to satisfy the questioner. Many women imagine that travel to the Gulf cities and within the UAE is much more difficult than it is.
Some key facts:. Some of the biggest misunderstandings between Middle Easterners and people from other parts of the world occur over the issue of women. Half-truths and stereotypes exist on both sides: foreigners sometimes assume that all Middle Eastern women are veiled, repressed victims, while some locals see foreign women, particularly Western ones, as sex-obsessed and immoral. Traditionally the role of a woman in this region is to be a mother and matron of the household, while the man is the financial provider.
However, as with any society, the reality is far more nuanced. There are thousands of middle- and upper-middle-class professional women in the UAE, who, like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, juggle work and family responsibilities. The issue of sex is where the differences between cultures can be particularly apparent.
Premarital sex or indeed any sex outside marriage is taboo, although, as with anything forbidden, it still happens. The presence of foreign women provides, in the eyes of some Arab men, a chance to get around these norms with ease and without consequences β hence the occasional hassle foreign women experience. Despite the UAE's relative liberalism, you are in a country that holds its traditions dear and it's prudent not to parade a different set of values.
