No I'm not a prostitute! (Part 2)
The negative side of being a woman in Dubai; you cannot go anywhere without having guys stare at you, its as though they have never seen a woman before! They are not at all subtle either, they just blantaly stare and do not bat an eyelid when you catch them. I'm goin to buy an abaya (black ninja outfits the local ladies wear) and see how differently I am treated.
The number of times I've had guys following me whilst driving...advice - do not make eye contact with them (locals are the guilty party here)! On quite a few occasions I have had to pull over and take their number just so they don’t follow me home as its quite a difficult task trying to loose them and its scarey the lenghts they will go through to track you down! Their idea of "the chase" is quite primitive and quite literally a car chase!
Once I was in a car with 2 girlfriends on our way back from a concert. Traffic getting out was mayhem, however some local guys let us cut in front of them - ahhh how nice of them I hear you say...no, they started pulling up next to us asking for our number. They were pretty damn persistant so I eventually gave them a number from my phone book of someone I dislike. They were quite clever for locals - he immediately called the number, so I sat there with phone in hand pretending to answer it and converse with him;
"Hi, nice meeting you - what you can’t hear me, your phone broken"..he wasn’t having any of it, these guys were damn clever and must have passed their GCSE's! Plan b... Girl #2 rolls down window and shouts "we are going to meet our husbands now" still no joy...plan c...fast getaway!
Good driver gal managed to negotiate her way out of traffic, whilst locals were stuck behind in their huge landrover! Now bearing in mind, the concert venue was the absolute other end of town - a good half hour drive to our next destination..the guys managed to catch up with us on the motorway. I suggested good driver to indicate and pretend we are exiting motorway and at last minute swerve back onto highway...well they drove right upto bumper so this trick did not work (it has in the past, I reckon these locals are so clever, they might even have jobs).
Good driver girl eventually exited highway and drove down dimly lit side roads with headlights off. We parked and all ducked out of site, but their flashing headlights suggested they had seen us. Anyway, 10 minutes later, we reached our next destination (hotel where we were attending a club - the husbands of the 2 girls were waiting there!) and they had followed us all the way. We managed to find parking immediately, jumped out and legged it to the club!They dumped their car in the middle of nowhere and started running after us.
We had to navigate our way through this stupid shopping arcade - now remember my previous rant about signage?..well, at one point, the 3 of us were running towards a t-junction in a single file. Good driver girl went left, girl #2 went right and I stood there looking in both directions deciding who to follow. I looked behind me and clever locals were hot on our heels, so I called for girl #2 and suggested we follow good driver girl. Finally managed to find the club, joined the husbands in the queue - this didn’t stop the oh so clever locals! They joined the queue, so the 2 girls put their arms around their respective husbands and I asked a friend if he would mind if I did the same - being the good muslim girl that I am, I’d never resort to such lurid behavior (in public anyway), but given that the locals resembled the cast of star wars I couldn’t help myself! ....the clever locals left with tails between their legs!
On a final note, guys do not have to endure the humiliation of being mistaken for a prostitute. My previous company's office was located in a redish light district, the number of times I was propositioned at 8.30am on my way from the car to the office..some of my responses to their question "how much?" were as follow;
Its 8.30 in the morning, God gave u 2 hands!
I work the late shift
1 million dhs (said in austin powers bad guy voice with hand gesture to go with it)
Go and ask your mother that question!
i'm not a prostitute !!
I need to take a shower now!
The number of times I've had guys following me whilst driving...advice - do not make eye contact with them (locals are the guilty party here)! On quite a few occasions I have had to pull over and take their number just so they don’t follow me home as its quite a difficult task trying to loose them and its scarey the lenghts they will go through to track you down! Their idea of "the chase" is quite primitive and quite literally a car chase!
Once I was in a car with 2 girlfriends on our way back from a concert. Traffic getting out was mayhem, however some local guys let us cut in front of them - ahhh how nice of them I hear you say...no, they started pulling up next to us asking for our number. They were pretty damn persistant so I eventually gave them a number from my phone book of someone I dislike. They were quite clever for locals - he immediately called the number, so I sat there with phone in hand pretending to answer it and converse with him;
"Hi, nice meeting you - what you can’t hear me, your phone broken"..he wasn’t having any of it, these guys were damn clever and must have passed their GCSE's! Plan b... Girl #2 rolls down window and shouts "we are going to meet our husbands now" still no joy...plan c...fast getaway!
Good driver gal managed to negotiate her way out of traffic, whilst locals were stuck behind in their huge landrover! Now bearing in mind, the concert venue was the absolute other end of town - a good half hour drive to our next destination..the guys managed to catch up with us on the motorway. I suggested good driver to indicate and pretend we are exiting motorway and at last minute swerve back onto highway...well they drove right upto bumper so this trick did not work (it has in the past, I reckon these locals are so clever, they might even have jobs).
Good driver girl eventually exited highway and drove down dimly lit side roads with headlights off. We parked and all ducked out of site, but their flashing headlights suggested they had seen us. Anyway, 10 minutes later, we reached our next destination (hotel where we were attending a club - the husbands of the 2 girls were waiting there!) and they had followed us all the way. We managed to find parking immediately, jumped out and legged it to the club!They dumped their car in the middle of nowhere and started running after us.
We had to navigate our way through this stupid shopping arcade - now remember my previous rant about signage?..well, at one point, the 3 of us were running towards a t-junction in a single file. Good driver girl went left, girl #2 went right and I stood there looking in both directions deciding who to follow. I looked behind me and clever locals were hot on our heels, so I called for girl #2 and suggested we follow good driver girl. Finally managed to find the club, joined the husbands in the queue - this didn’t stop the oh so clever locals! They joined the queue, so the 2 girls put their arms around their respective husbands and I asked a friend if he would mind if I did the same - being the good muslim girl that I am, I’d never resort to such lurid behavior (in public anyway), but given that the locals resembled the cast of star wars I couldn’t help myself! ....the clever locals left with tails between their legs!
On a final note, guys do not have to endure the humiliation of being mistaken for a prostitute. My previous company's office was located in a redish light district, the number of times I was propositioned at 8.30am on my way from the car to the office..some of my responses to their question "how much?" were as follow;
Its 8.30 in the morning, God gave u 2 hands!
I work the late shift
1 million dhs (said in austin powers bad guy voice with hand gesture to go with it)
Go and ask your mother that question!
i'm not a prostitute !!
I need to take a shower now!
posted by ReginaFilangee at 1:25 AM
4 Comments:
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I am sorry to hear about your experience in Dubai. With your insightfulness, you can surely see beyond the unfortunate examples. Everyone is trying hard to build this place and transform it from barren desert to something better. Yes there is loads that is less than perfect, and one can see where it stems from. But hopefully there are fixes in the pipeline.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
thanks for reading e3ashig, please take my commentary with a pinch of salt. However the irony is, the material fixes are immediately obvious.
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