Sexy Texts Land Emirates Airline Crew In Dubai Jail

An Emirates airlines flight attendant and her cabin services supervisor, both from India, have been sentenced to three months in a Dubai jail for exchanging suggestive text messages.  The official charge is “coercion to commit sin,” and the pair was originally sentenced to six months.

The text messages came to light because the flight attendant’s estranged husband got a court order in an attempt to prove she was having an affair with her supervisor.  An appeals court did not find enough evidence to prove that the affair was actually consummated, which would likely have resulted in an even harsher sentence.

The case is only the latest in a string of recent decency cases against foreigners in Dubai as the city’s foreign population continues to increase.  Other recent cases include:

• a one-month jail sentence for a British couple caught kissing in public after an Emirati mother complained that her child was exposed to the kissing; the couple was also accused of intimate touching in public and consuming alcohol
• in 2008, another British couple was found guilty of drunken sexual activity out of wedlock on a public beach; they were sentenced to three months and deportation, but the jail time was suspended on appeal
• in another case this year, a British couple was to be tried for sharing a hotel room, but charges were dropped when they produced a marriage certificate

I suppose some culture clash in a conservative country is to be expected, but it’s particularly difficult to understand how suggestive text messages would result in jail time, but public sex on a beach would not.

[Image: davidwrightphoto.com]