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, The Guardian reported.
ArabianBusiness.com reported that forty cross-dressing tourists have been arrested in shopping malls and other public places. Police revealed that they will be deported soon.
The visitors were held after police launched a campaign against transvestites in May.
The 40 offenders were referred to the Public Prosecution, which issued an administrative deportation order against them, UAE daily Gulf News reported.
Police stressed that all of those arrested were visitors and tourists and not residents.
"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 fuelled 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.
Openly gay behaviour 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 behaviour. 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 Guardian reported that 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.
