A few days ago, the news story about a Swedish national who got detained at Dubai International Airport came out. According to The Guardian, the woman was held for drinking a glass of wine on the plane. However, we all know this isn’t entirely true!
On the contrary, the woman was detained for perfectly legal reasons. On his Facebook page, Emirati vlogger Khalid Al Ameri discussed these matters and shared his thoughts about the issue.
Woman Held for Taking Pictures of Airport Official
While The Guardian reported that the woman got detained over a glass of wine, the attorney general of Dubai released a statement about what really happened. She was held up for having an expired passport — a fact that The Guardian seemed to have overlooked, Al Ameri noted
The Swedish woman produced an Iranian passport, which would have allowed her to stay in the country for 96 hours. However, she got angry and refused to pay the fees for visa processing. Worse, she started to verbally insult and take pictures of the immigration officer.
As a result, the woman was charged for profanity and for taking pictures of an airport official at a border crossing (which is illegal in the UAE and anywhere else, for that matter). Nonetheless, the officials decided to drop the charges and deport her instead. The woman, who was traveling with her 4-year-old daughter, was at the airport security office for less than 24 hours.
According to Al Ameri, journalists [such as the writer of The Guardian article] seemed to get something out of “bashing” this part of the world. He recalled the financial crisis in Dubai, during which a similar thing happened and some people said that the city would not survive — yet it did.
Towards the end of his video, Al Ameri reminded everyone to “take everything with a grain of salt.” In other words, we should always watch out for fake news and verify the stories we see or hear.
Here is the video shared by Al Ameri on his Facebook page:
Thank you, Khalid Al Ameri, for speaking out for Dubai and for sharing your insights! Meanwhile, the vlogger has another video featuring his reaction to Sondos Al Qattan — the Kuwaiti blogger who remarked that Filipino domestic workers shouldn’t have the right to keep their passports or have weekly days off. Check out this video, in case you missed it!
