Can You Have Sex in Dubai – Dubai Sex Laws for Tourists & Expats

Can You Have Sex in Dubai – Dubai Sex Laws for Tourists & Expats

Can you have sex in Dubai? Let’s learn about Dubai sex laws.

Boasting state-of-the-art attractions, Dubai has quickly become a choice destination for many. With visitors from about 120 countries exploring Dubai Tour Pro, virtually the whole world read about it or actually visit Dubai. Dubai’s government, laws and customs are informed by Islam, although Dubai is really Western. What is expected, thus, in or as a relationship in Dubai is quite different from other countries in the world, especially Western or Western-styled countries.

Having sex before marriage in Dubai has been legally unacceptable as on its Western counterparts. But premarital sex in Dubai has taken a different shape recently. With the foregoing established, let’s now get into details.

Dubai Sex Laws – Can I Have Sex in Dubai

Public Sex in Dubai
Credit: TheTravel.com

Can unmarried couples have sex in Dubai, and the rest of the UAE in 2021 and onward? Will unmarried persons having sex in Dubai hotels be fined? Can expats have premarital sex in Dubai? Is it illegal to have sex before marriage in Dubai? Who can have sex outside marriage in Dubai? Are extramarital affairs in Dubai reported? What is the punishment for sex out of wedlock in Dubai? And lastly, is Dubai safe for unmarried couples?

Having sex in Dubai is not illegal following UAE’s November 2020 law reforms. In other words, unmarried couples can now have sex in Dubai without fear of punishment by Dubai authorities for Dubai premarital sex.

Sex outside marriage had been illegal in the UAE until the reforms. A lot of unmarried couples had been in trouble in the UAE for cohabiting, although Dubai had usually turned a blind eye on consensual sex. That notwithstanding, people have been in trouble in Dubai for making out outside marriage too. This happens when the event is glaring; when a party of a sexual encounter filed for a case which involved premarital sexual encounter, for example. Another reason was if a woman were found pregnant outside marriage. The doctors usually gave them away by reporting them to the authorities.

Status Quo of The Prohibition on Sex in Dubai

Barney Almazar, director at Gulf Law said expatriates usually sought assistance when an illegal affair has resulted in pregnancy. “If we will include marital disputes involving extramarital affairs or presence of third parties, I would [deal with] an average of ten [cases] a month,” said Almazar.

“Most of the time, [the problem] will lead to a court case if the act resulted to pregnancy and the mother has to deliver here [in Dubai]. Other instances are when there are unexpected complications with pregnancy requiring medical attention–which means disclosing the fact of engaging in premarital sex. In some cases, the complication was due to induced abortion–majority are those left by their partners.”

So, if an unmarried lady were discovered with pregnancy, she’d be in legal trouble as well as with the man responsible. As a matter of fact, the local laws don’t allow unmarried man and woman — in a relationship or not — to share a roof.

In 2017, StepFeed.com reported that a British woman and a Pakistani man who through investigation were found to have had sex were promptly arrested and sentenced, even though they pleaded not guilty.

On Dubai Sex Laws Update

With the November 2020 UAE law reforms, all the fears of Dubai premarital sex are past now. The possible punishment of one-year detention for having consensual sex in Dubai, pursuant to Article 356 of the Penal Code is also past now.

Prior to the UAE sex law reforms, due to the no-sex-between-persons-not-married in country, when a woman got raped, for example, and she made this known to the court, she was also meted some sort of punishment over sex outside marriage. But again, that’s gone now too.

On the UAE law update, the government said the legal reforms were part of efforts to improve legislation and the investment climate in the country, as well as to consolidate “tolerance principles”.

“I could not be happier for these new laws that are progressive and proactive,” said Emirati film-maker Abdallah Al Kaabi, whose art has tackled taboo topics such as homosexual love and gender identity. 2020 has been a tough and transformative year for the UAE.”

The broadening of personal freedoms in Dubai and the UAE reflects the changing profile and inclusiveness of a progressive Islamic country in order to accommodate law-abiding peoples from all over the world — tourists, business persons and businesses.

The changes in other words reflect the efforts of the Emirates’ rulers to keep pace with the rapid changes happening in the UAE.

Benefactors of Dubai Sex Laws

A Filipina and Egyptian couple, both 31, who had a premarital affair dating back to 2019 were found guilty by the Dubai Court of First Instance earlier for having a sexual relationship out of wedlock and consequently were sentenced to one month in jail, to be followed by deportation in October last year. Given the law has been updated so that their action can no longer be considered a crime, they appealed the case at the Cassation Court. While the Appeal Court was upholding the verdict, upon this appeal, the couple got acquitted.

Can I Have Public Sex in Dubai?

Sex Outside Marriage in Dubai
Credit: Dreamstime.com

Can people have public sex in Dubai? Anything wrong with public affection in Dubai? Statistics show that the locals in Dubai are only roughly about 10% of the total population of the cosmopolis. But this fact notwithstanding, it’s important to be conservative in the UAE city. Today, people can be found holding hands in Dubai, particularly in relaxed places. However, kissing in Dubai publicly, and making out in Dubai publicly may result in some sort of trouble or embarrassment.

Consequences of Having Public Sex in Dubai

In 2006, an unmarried who were caught half-dressed having sexual intercourse in a small car on Shaikh Zayed Road were jailed and were to be deported after serving their term. The 19-year-old female, from Kyrgyzstan, and a 20-year-old male, from Kazakhstan, were charged with having an illicit relationship.

Take note though that they were not charged with having sex in the car but with having an illicit relationship. If they hadn’t done this in public, it would have gone without notice. But because it was known, they got deported. This was when cohabitation was still illegal though.

In 2008, a British couple, Vince Acors and Michelle Palmer who were caught having extra-marital sex in public on a Dubai beach were sentenced on jail terms. On appeal, their terms were suspended with the clause that they’d get married on their return to England but the marriage didn’t happen especially because the man had a wife already.

In 2012, a 21-year-old countrywoman, M.S, who was found by her boss to be pregnant gave her away thinking the lady was unmarried. It’s quite embarrassing when the lady and her husband defend themselves as the lady got impregnated in the car.

Defending herself and her husband, she said: “I am not guilty. We got married and had consensual sex in the back seat of my husband’s car in the park. On April 25, my pregnancy became obvious and that’s when my boss reported [me to] the police. I slept with J.A., the husband, but after he became my husband”

“I cannot remember how many times we had sex in his car, but the last intercourse we had was on April 16. The imam did not provide us with any document or marriage certificate, but he just pronounced us as husband and wife,” the woman claimed.

J.A. claimed to the prosecutors, “We went to the imam and married. We had sex five times in my car… thrice in Al Mamzar and twice in a parking lot because we did not have a proper house”

In 2017, a Japanese duo were reported to be deported from Dubai for having sex on the beach in Dubai.

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Attitude Towards Ladies in Dubai

Sex Before Marriage in Dubai
Credit: 123rf.com

The watchword’s chivalry. You should generally be courteous to ladies in Dubai. Foul languages are completely unacceptable. In the beach with a camera, mind how you use it. You don’t want to be charged with photographing or filming a lady’s body. You could, but not a lady you don’t know.

Others

Approaching A Lady in Dubai

While Dubai is an Islamic domain, the city is heavily cosmopolitan with only about 10 percent of its population being locals (Emiratis). You’d find lots of ladies who are cosmopolitan; ladies who are rather Western. This means you could still excuse a lady in Dubai as you could in, say, the US.

Muslim ladies in Dubai may evince much of the Islamic characteristic but it has been said that they go to Dubai to loosen up. You may ignore what a visitor in Dubai says, namely tangentially, that the Muslim ladies are like every other lady behind veils.

Dressing

Since you’re already here, let’s touch upon dressing. Dressing in Dubai should upon dressing. Dressing in Dubai should be modest — yes, honestly modest. While a non-Muslim woman may not necessarily wear the female Islamic dress — abaya and sheyla — they’re not allowed to dress inappropriately.

Dressing well would save you a lot. I have seen an Emirati woman on a video aggressively abusing a woman for what she thought was an immodest dressing. A good suggestion would be that women should cover up to their elbows and knees, as well as cover their décolletage. And clothes mustn’t have things considered foul, sexually explicit or insulting to the government.

Funnily, men like woman are not allowed to be in public with sensitive parts of their bodies, say their chests, seen as may be customary especially in non-Islamic countries.

Conclusion — Expectations, Actuality and Exemptions

The talk so far on Dubai sex laws on sex outside marriage, covering up and doing so modestly, avoidance of public show of affection are all largely only expectations — what’s expected of you. Before the law update, no one really was going about looking for unmarried couples making love.

So, there were actually many unmarried couples in Dubai dating. Independent.co.uk puts it, in 2017, that “In the UAE, all sex outside marriage is illegal, although in Dubai, a blind eye is usually turned to unmarried western couples who co-habit”. Trouble might only erupt over premarital sex in Dubai when it results in pregnancy and the service of the hospital might be needed, which means it’d be made known with evidence; or when an enemy testifies in court with concrete evidence such as a photograph or a video…

But now that the law has been updated, there is no worries whatever on this question anymore.

Further, on public show of affection in Dubai, people hug, shake hands, and may hold hands. It all depends on where they do it. In the beach and bars, for example, one could completely hold hands, play and frolic. As a rule of thumb, however, make out nowhere in public in Dubai.

At this point, it’s obvious premarital sex in Dubai is not a crime and that Dubai is safe for unmarried couples, in this connection. Stay guided!

Can I have public Sex in Dubai?

In Dubai, it is forbidden to engage in public physical intercourse with your spouse. It is against the law to have sex in public places like beaches or cars. Although there is no specific rule that addresses having sex in public, Article 358 stipulates that anyone caught engaging in a vulgar or humiliating act in public or openly faces jail time and expulsion (for foreigners only).

References:
Independent.co.uk
BBC.com
GulfNews.com 1 2 & 3
Reuters.com
AlJazeera.com
EqualDex.com