Still boycott Dubai

After international outrage exposed the medieval underbelly of ultra-modern Dubai, a Norwegian woman sentenced to 16 months in prison for being raped there has been pardoned.

There are countless lessons to be learned from what happened to Marte Deborah Dalelv. The 24-year-old interior designer (who worked for recording star Janet Jackson’s billionaire husband, who fired Dalelv for being raped) had her freedom and her passport returned to her by authorities of the city state after her story went public.

The young woman was convicted of having sex outside of marriage after she went to hospital to receive treatment for a sexual assault that occurred in March. The hospital called the police instead of treating her like a victim of crime and she was thrown into jail, where she wasn’t even allowed to make a phone call for days.

To add insult to her injury, her alleged attacker was only sentenced to 13 months behind bars — three months less than she received.

What her pardon proves is despite its continued misogynistic mindset and laws based on Islamic sharia teachings, rulers in these backward nations care about international perception.

Dubai, which is part of the United Arab Emirates, and is renowned for having the world’s only seven-star hotel, is bidding to host the 2020 World Expo. Officials of that fair must demand that if Dubai wishes to remain in the running for the exhibition, it must abolish this law, not just for foreign-born women, but all women in Dubai.

Further, women should boycott travelling to Dubai and other states with similar laws, if at all possible. Hitting these rulers in their pocketbooks may prove that women are equally able to hit them where it hurts.