Emirates: No country for gay men
By Alexander Lowë
27 August, 2014
US officials have just advised that UAE jets carried out a range of strikes across Libya condemned by statement of the
US State Department signed by Britain, France, Germany and Italy. UAE, who is believed to have one of the most powerful
air forces in the region, carried the attack using Egypt’s bases. Egypt military regime is second closest regional
partner of UAE after Iran.
Does UAE still sound like a safe place and reliable democratic partner for the west? Last year US Embassy in Abu Dhabi
and consulate in Dubai were both closed amidst security threats. But at the same time US Department of Home Security
approved pre-clearance facilities in Abu Dhabi International Airport. Such pre-clearance facilities so far have been
only established in the closest and most connected with the US territories like Canada, and the Caribbean, safest
destinations for US citizens with biggest traffic to/from the US.
As the closure of the US Embassy demonstrated, UAE is obviously not one of such safe destinations for Americans and
building a major security object there and bringing hundreds more of the US government employees would just likely to
put more US citizens in danger. And this would effectively only benefit government owned UAE airlines with no US
carriers flying to Abu Dhabi. Passengers of other airlines would not get the same treatment continuing to face
increasing wait times at the US points, getting incentive to travel on UAE carriers instead.
Fully owned and supported by the government of Dubai, Etihad and Emirates airlines behave like bullies on the world’s
stage. When Emirates were rejected additional slots in Canada, UAE imposed visas on Canadian citizens with fees up to
1,000 dollars, closed off its military base for Canadian troops and lobbied against Canada’s bid for a seat in the UN
Security Council.
Emirates have a reputation of discriminating against employment of explicitly gay and middle aged people, setting weight
restrictions for female flight attendants and firing them if they get pregnant outside of marriage. On its Skyward Frequent Flier website, family is defined as married couple plus blood relatives only. Etihad appears
more generous to its frequent fliers with membership open to polygamous families. But the only way to get your same sex
partner into family membership seems to be passing him/her as the ‘household help’.
UAE airlines choose to support all-male sports like soccer but not any efforts to change homophobic attitudes there,
sponsoring FIFA at the time anti-gay Qatar scandalously wins bid for the next World cup despite allegations of
corruption. At the same time literary festival that Emirates sponsored happen to ban a LGBT themed book that had as a
minor character fictitious gay sheikh Rashid.
Sheiks from UAE ruling royal family members seem to be above the law, both inside the country and abroad. In 2008 Sheikh
Fallah bin Zayed Al-Nahayan, half-brother of the crown prince, has been acquitted by Swiss court for the assault and
public whipping with a belt of American citizen in the Geneva hotel who rejecting subsequent advances from the sheikh in
the form of bottle of Dom Perignon champagne, lap dance, fondling and kissing. The Sheikh was fined and convicted
however on appeal, the conviction was revoked on the grounds that the belt with a metal buckle that was used for beating
could not be considered as a weapon for assault.
Sheikh Issa bin Zayed, another brother of the crown prince, asked his American business advisor to film him assaulting a
business partner over a debt, for sadistic repetitive future viewing: the torture tape shows the sheikh sexually abusing
his victim with an electric cattle prod, slapping him with a wooden plank with protruding nails, setting his genitals on
fire and finally running him over with a jeep. This smuggled USA film was shown on ABC in 2009 and led the police
investigation in UAE, however the Sheikh was acquitted, but the American was sentenced for five years in absentia for
making the recording.
Inside UAE, abuse of human rights and specifically gay rights, is notorious. Abuse of migrant workers, human trafficking, and child abuse of underage boy camel jockeys have been routinely
reported around the country. Gay and lesbian citizens and tourists are in imminent and constant risk. The police can
raid hotel rooms and private parties to find 'the offenders', they also use the internet to monitor and entrap LGBT
citizens. Every year foreign citizens get caught up and sentenced in UAE for 'gay sex', which sometimes is reported only
as a kiss, fondling or an embrace. Punishment range from deportation to prison terms while capital punishment could also be potentially enforced.
Middle Eastern Sheikhs were once showing off their pride in stallions, branding them with their insignia. Nowadays they
have more expensive toys to play around with, putting their brands onto aircraft and uniforms of their employees, also
acquiring and branding hotels, resorts, stadiums, the Melbourne Cup, Team New Zealand and marking uniforms of their
clubs’ players. UAE airlines and the UAE government make no concessions to LGBT travellers and their needs but they
force their business partners to bend over backwards to please the sheikhs.
New Emirates partner Qantas turned halal on its routes to Europe matching Muslim food policy of UAE carriers. Qantas had
also conducted cultural training for all their employees, advising that conflicts with UAE passengers should be handled
by a male employee: ''Don't take offence, don't continue to try and sort something out, simply hand it over to a male
colleague. It doesn't matter whether you are the manager or supervisor, the fact that he is male will make all the difference.''
But are human rights, gay rights once again becoming collateral damage that Western companies and governments are
prepared to have pursuing their economical and political interests? What if anything have we learned from history of
supporting other controversial regimes and helping economies of Marcos in the Philippines, Batista in Cuba, The Shah of
Iran and once even Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan? What happens when ethics are evicted from economics and politics?
Back in 1930s Nazi Germany’s economy was booming, gays were already being persecuted, but German airlines were getting
access all over the world, and marked with swastika aircrafts were flying all the world. But should we once again let
human rights and gay rights be compromised for the sake of geopolitics and profits, complying with questionable regimes
and accommodating to their expansion needs?