Dubai, August 3 (Khaleej Times): Women are allegedly subjected to catcalls and downright harassment at the hands of unruly men, most of whom appear drunk, on a popular public beach in Dubai.
Some women who went to the open beach in Jumeirah on the weekend told Khaleej Times that they were subjected to “horrible harassment”. One woman claimed that on Thursday night, groups of men were drinking liquor from bottles of soft drinks and throwing them at women — particularly those unaccompanied by men on the beach. “They used abusive and vulgar language and tried to grope female swimmers repeatedly.”
Khaleej Times could not get any immediate response from the Dubai Police.
A woman, S.M.T, who works at the reservation desk of a nearby hotel, told Khaleej Times that she visited the beach with two other female colleagues after 9.30pm.
“It was not our first time there. I had been there on a Tuesday and the place was quiet and we did not have any issues. We went there ... on (July 24, which was a) Thursday ... and that was when we noticed that some men were misbehaving with the ladies and we decided not to swim that day,” she said.
S.M.T. and her friends went back last Thursday (July 31) determined not to be intimidated by the men, who, she said, were “pestering another group of female swimmers”.
“Those women told us to join them so that we would be a bigger group thinking that they would back off. On the contrary, the men did not. We went to the other side of the beach, but they followed us and started pestering us. They had no right to do it ... (They did it) ... just because we were not accompanied by our husbands or boyfriends,” said S.M.T. “They were using vulgar language and threw bottles at us ... We could smell that (the bottles had) alcohol (and) not soft drinks.
“We were not the only women on the beach. There were a few families, including some locals. Nobody disturbed the families. There were two older women. These guys didn’t spare them either.”
S.M.T. said none of the other men present on the beach came to their rescue.
“One of the men groped a friend of mine. She was shattered and she cried. Another man came to the water and tried to touch me from the side. I slapped him hard. He ran away so fast that I couldn’t catch him. Due to nervousness, we couldn’t recollect the emergency number to call the police either.”
It was only after getting into a taxi that the women managed to collect the number and contact the cops. “I am thankful that the police asked if they can send the cops there. But we had already left the place.”
The woman said policemen are present in the area, but they are positioned on the main road. “It doesn’t help if the police patrol is only on the main road. There should be cops to monitor the beach every hour and there should be strict punishment for such men.”
S.M.T. said she is determined not to give in to the hooligans. “Where is it written that women cannot go to the beach and swim without being accompanied by men? I am not going to give up and I will visit the same place next weekend and report the matter to the police from the spot if the situation is the same,” she said.
Mohammed Al Fardan, Head of Parks at the Dubai Municipality, said this stretch of the beach is not under the management of the municipality, which supervises the beachside of the Jumeirah Open Beach Park.