Woman Arrested in Dubai For Wearing Bikini At Mall

In Sex and the City II Samantha Jones was arrested for having sex on the beach in Dubai. It takes a lot less than that to get arrested there-such as wearing a bikini to the mall, or kissing in public. The Daily Mail reports:

A British holidaymaker has been charged with indecency in Dubai after walking through the world’s largest shopping centre in a bikini.

The woman was buying clothes and gifts in the Dubai Mall, fully dressed but in a low-cut top, when she was accosted by an Arabic woman and criticised for wearing ‘revealing clothing’.

The pair then became embroiled in a heated row in front of hundreds of bemused shoppers.

Incensed by the Arabic woman’s comments, the British woman told her to ‘mind her own business’ before stripping out of her clothes and ‘taunting’ the locals by walking around in only her bikini, it is alleged.

Fortunately the charges have been dropped. There are signs up warning about dress in the malls, and other offenses have also led to arrests:

There are numerous signs around the Dubai Mall urging women to ‘wear respectful clothing-Similar messages are flashed up on LCD screens in most shopping malls across the United Arab Emirates.

Dubai, which attracts more than one million British tourists a year, tends to operate a more lenient policy than other Arab states.

However, officials in the Gulf state have prosecuted several British tourists for indecent behaviour over the past two years.

Earlier this year estate agent Charlotte Adams, 26, and Ayman Najafi, 24, were jailed for a month by a Dubai court for kissing and fondling each other in a restaurant.

The pair, from North London, always maintained that the embrace was nothing but a ‘peck on the cheek’.

They were arrested in November last year at a busy burger restaurant after a 38-year-old local woman claimed she spotted them kissing on the lips and stroking each other’s backs.