Cross-dressing Tourists Held in Dubai Crackdown on 'indecency'

Foreigners visiting the Gulf tourist hub of Dubai have discovered the limits of tolerance after cross-dressing in the city's shopping malls and other public places.

On Wednesday police detained 40 "cross-dressing tourists", the Gulf News reported, quoting the local police chief as complaining that transvestites were frequently being spotted.

"This is against the UAE's traditions and social values," said General Dhahi Khalfan Tamim. Any man or woman who behaved like the opposite gender in public would be questioned and action would be taken, he added.

Dubai, a city state that is part of the United Arab Emirates, is a magnet for foreign tourists as well as investors and is known for a liberal lifestyle fueled by a booming property sector. More than half the population are expatriates, with thousands sporting bikinis on public beaches, wearing shorts and drinking alcohol that is freely available in bars and restaurants. In 2006 more than a million British visitors traveled to the UAE and 100,000 British nationals live there.

Openly gay behavior is banned. Despite its western and cosmopolitan outlook, Dubai is a conservative Muslim society and - like much of the Arab world - is largely hostile to homosexuality.

This month a British couple were arrested for allegedly having sex on a public beach - generating tabloid headlines in Britain. Since then undercover police have been patrolling beaches to crack down on nudity and other forms of indecent behavior. Nearly 80 people have been detained in recent days.

There is mounting sensitivity to public displays of what is seen as indecency. Dr Rima Sabban, a sociologist, said Emiratis were becoming frustrated with violations of local sensitivities. "With the inflow of so many people, things are getting out of hand," she told Gulf News.

The paper advised readers that cross-dressing would be punished by law. But it added, under a picture of two men in kilts and one in a white dishdasha, that national dress was fine.