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London teen jailed for one year in Dubai after 'holiday romance' with 17-year-old girl
(www.mylondon.news)
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I really hope y'all ain't defending his actions. The age of consent is the age of consent. That he couldn't keep it in his pants is on him. It doesn't matter what the AoC in UK is when you're in another country.
The law not having a provision for such a situation is a completely separate issue. To criticise that is valid. It still doesn't give him an excuse to break it.
The age difference is less than a year are you fucking insane, legality is not morality and we should always push back against unjust laws
you have no idea how easy but low it is to trick an underage girlfriend into sex. age of consent is 18 regardless of age difference for a reason. if you have an underage girlfriend, you should wait until she can consent and choose what to do with her body
You realize in the vast majority of the world there ARE exceptions for exactly this reason. Teenagers do what they're gonna do.
What do you think on your 18th birthday you magically grow a consent organ? If they're both teenagers there's really no issue.
Does that suddenly become difficult when they pass an arbitrary date? This girl was months away from turning 18. Nobody involved in this case is even a citizen of Dubai.
I'm usually the last person to make this type of comment, but these circumstances are absurd.
Where is that the law?
well, in Iraq it's 9. afganistan it's 2 probably, but dubai, and so many other countries made the law to be 18. and if you asked me, it's good they enforced such age limit for Dubai considering its rampant international prostitution businesses there. If they didn't, you would see 14 yr olds from east south asia getting trafficed there by the tens of thousands
There are exceptions made to laws all the time. And exceptions are almost always made when it's sex between a 17 and 18-year-old.
Just not in crazy theocratic countries.
...in Dubai? No one has a voice there
Weird hill to die on but ok. Again, the law itself can be argued about, breaking it not really. No one made him jump in bed, nor is the law some violation of human rights. "Don't shag people under 18" is not a tall ask.
I sure see that splattered all over the passport and travel office
For people with fully formed brains, sure.
For a literal teenager going through puberty, on vacation in a hot, foreign place, that runs into someone they're attracted to who is from the same place as them? Yeah, not so much. It's literal biology.
The kid is 18. Were y'all assuming he was older for some reason?
It creates an few different odd possibilities though, in the UK you can be married before 18, let's say an 18 year old wife and her 17 year old husband went on their honeymoon to Dubai, would they legally be allowed to consummate their marriage?
Would Dubai recognise their marriage?
Simply don't visit Dubai then. Because "no".
I don't know about the UAE, but in the US, most states have some lower age of consent to sex for married people, and I assume that normally marriages from abroad would recognized. So I'd guess that as long as you were having sex with someone you were married to and it met that lower bar for age, you could still have sex with them.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marriage_age_in_the_United_States
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent_in_the_United_States
So, for example, for Illinois's age of consent, the age is lower if the people involved are married:
Whereas normally, the age doesn't go below 18.
I'd expect that Illinois would still potentially charge people who were legally married abroad to, say, a 14-year-old and then have sex with them in Illinois.
Specifically for immigration -- not just visiting the US --it looks like US immigration considers whether marriage would be legal at the age in question in the intended state of residence.
https://www.uscis.gov/archive/uscis-strengthens-guidance-for-spousal-petitions-involving-minors
A related topic where legalities differ between countries: polygamy. I'm pretty sure that I recall reading that if you immigrate -- not just the same thing as traveling to -- the US, and are in a polygamous relationship, you are required to only choose one spouse to be your wife under US law.
kagis
Yeah:
https://www.quora.com/Does-the-US-recognize-polygamous-marriages-from-other-countries
EDIT: Under certain specific situations, some states have no minimum age for marriage in the US -- one could, hypothetically, become legally married to a four-year-old in California. Under the Full Faith and Credit Clause, all states are required to honor marriages performed in other US states, so someone can become married in State A and then move residence to State B. Thus, I'm pretty sure that it's possible to be legally married to someone in a state where one could not actually become married to that person, and still be legally prohibited from having sex with them while in the territory of that state.
All that post and you didn’t include that many US states have “Romeo and Juliet” laws, which the UK does as well, and which Dubai evidently doesn’t.
The differing laws between countries is the point here.
The UK doesn't have "romeo and juliet" laws, but from what I hear, prosecutions for people who are close in age but one is over consent is rare
I too read every law of a foreign country before I visit them. /s
Word to the wise, there are countries you absolutely should read the laws for certain things.
Like Singapore. Watch out with things like ADHD meds which need prior approval.
I agree, but most people aren’t going to do more than search “important rules to know before visiting x”.
I mean.... When I searched for "important rule to know before visiting dubai" I found this: https://www.expatwoman.com/dubai/guide/faqs/expatwomans-guide-to-dubai-etiquette-how-to-behave-in-dubai
Important to note that I DO NOT blame the teens. They were doing what teens do. BUT they would have been well advised to research Dubai a bit more than, say, France for what to do and what not to do.
Those laws were changed starting in January of 2022.
So while you did research you are trusting some no-name website with information from 2013 in regard to legal matters, matters that could result in execution if you get it wrong. As a point of fact before the law change in 2022 the so called "Age of Puberty" was 14 so what this guy did wouldn't have been illegal based on age!
https://www.khaleejtimes.com/legal/explained-new-uae-law-on-unmarried-parenting-sexual-assault-extramarital-affairs
This kind of circumstance is why reasonable places in the world don't prosecute this stuff when both parties are tourists. It can be damn difficult to know precisely what is and what isn't in any given area.
People need to stay the hell out of Dubai.
No - I just did a quick google search.. That's not "research" unless you're a partisan trying to support a position...
My point is that that alone would be enough to make me start looking further into what's up with my destination. I've considered trips to the middle east before and my wife is very nervous about going there as a woman. Because, as you say, it can be very difficult to know what is or is not legal. Or even just what will get us in trouble with hyper-religious assholes.
This arrest is shitty and the comment above you is stupid, but you should absolutely be aware of the laws of wherever you go. Being a visitor somewhere doesn't bestow the right to ignore the law.
Yes, although I wouldn’t really expect a teenager to read up on age of consent laws, especially when traveling. They probably should, but I wouldn’t think them likely to.
let the lad get a piece of pussy smh