Marcus, from Tottenham, North London, had been enjoying a holiday with his parents when he met a fellow Brit at the same hotel. A holiday fling sparked and the pair spent time together until the girl, also from London, flew back to Britain.
In Dubai, if an adult has a sexual relationship with a person under 18, they can be prosecuted for having a sexual relationship with a minor. The relationship would be legal in the UK.
Marcus and his parents were set to fly back shortly after - but their plans were thrown into chaos when police knocked on their hotel room door. The “terrified” teenager was then reportedly hauled in for questioning without any explanation and held at the Al Barsha Police Station, DID said. He spent three days there, during which time he was not allowed to make a phone call or speak with his parents, it is claimed.
Sry no sympathies. You vacation in a religiously oppressive hell hole this is what you get. Stay the fuck out of Dubai.
Okay look. This dude is 18. His brain isn’t fully developed, he didn’t even graduate from high school yet, his hormones are out of control, and he has a penis.
If you still can’t see why he wasn’t thinking clearly, please read this article Teen Brain: Behavior, Problem Solving, and Decision Making from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry.
The comments in this thread are practically Islamophobic and naive.
When you travel to another country, just abide by its culture and customs.
Like you cant go to India and disrespect cows, or now eat beef in public.
The comments are also naive because they show how unaware the commenters are about what actually goes on in rich countries and events for affluent people.
Okay so how do I fuck these religions exactly? I can go to these theocratic states and start doing whatever I want? Symbolising my freedom?
Why don’t you try it? Let’s see how far you can go to freeing humanity from the shackles of religion.
“The intolerance of narrow monotheism is written in letters of blood across the history of man from the time when first the tribes of Israel burst into the land of Canaan. The worshippers of the one jealous God are egged on to aggressive wars against people of alien [beliefs and cultures]. They invoke divine sanction for the cruelties inflicted on the conquered. The spirit of old Israel is inherited by Christianity and Islam, and it might not be unreasonable to suggest that it would have been better for Western civilization if Greece had moulded it on this question rather than Palestine.”
When you go through puberty, every single cell in your body is telling you to have sex NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW NOW due to well over a billion years of evolution.
This culture is punishing a teenager for not fighting evolution.
Of course, they probably don’t believe in evolution either, but that doesn’t change the fact that they’re punishing a teenager for lacking self-control (like most teenagers) and doing what his body is telling him to do in order to fulfil his biological imperative.
Islamophobic? Nah. Naive, hell yeah. You should watch what you do like a hawk when you’re going to places like Dubai. Have a good understanding of what is legal and what isn’t, like eating outside during Ramadan - this can get you actual jailtime instead of a fine or a slap on the wrist like you’d expect.
Dubai is a shithole full of rich assholes and their slave workers and influencers who are paid to paint it in pink online.
i like the part where they have a constant line of tanker trucks moving shit from buildings to wherever they dump it, because they couldn’t be bothered building a sewage system.
Poor Marcus - I have a feeling this wouldn’t be an issue if he was white.
If he was Arab
Fixed that for you. This is in the extremely oppressive Dubai/UAE where any kind of extramarital thing is very much illegal.
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.
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.
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”.
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
age of consent is 18 regardless of age difference for a reason.
Where is that the law?
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.
“Don’t shag people under 18” is not a tall ask.
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.
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?
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:
The law allows the actor a defense to prosecution if the victim is currently or was previously married (the absolute minimum marriageable age in Indiana is 16[170]), although this defense does not apply in the case of violence, threats or drugs.
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
Interviewing earlier at the I-130 petition stage provides USCIS with an additional opportunity to verify information contained in the petition and assess the bona fides of the claimed spousal relationship. USCIS officers will now conduct interviews for the following I-130 spousal petitions as part of the adjudication of any I-130 spousal petition where:
- The petitioner or the beneficiary is less than 16 years old; or
- The petitioner or the beneficiary is 16 or 17 years old and there are 10 years or more difference between the ages of the spouses.
While there are no statutory age requirements to petition for a spouse or be sponsored as a spousal beneficiary, USCIS published guidance earlier this year detailing factors that officers should consider when evaluating I-130 spousal petitions involving a minor. USCIS considers whether the age of the beneficiary or petitioner at the time the marriage was celebrated violates the law of the place of celebration. Officers also consider whether the marriage is recognized as valid in the U.S. state where the couple currently resides or will presumably reside and does not violate the state’s public policy. In some U.S. states and in some foreign countries, marriage involving a minor might be permitted under certain circumstances, including where there is parental consent, a judicial order, emancipation of the minor, or pregnancy of the minor.
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
For example, a refugee who was practicing polygamy before he immigrated will be required by U.S. immigration law to designate one wife as his legal wife to accompany him to the United States. Years later, after becoming a U.S. citizen, he might divorce that wife, and marry the woman who was formerly his second wife, in order to petition for her (on Form I-130) to immigrate to the United States.
If the petition is approved, the new/formerly second wife immigrates, and then USCIS learns that the husband is still continuing to live with the first wife (even if only some of the time), all three could be accused of practicing polygamy. This is the case because all three come from a country where polygamy is practiced. Therefore, if the man lives with both women at the same time, whether the women live separately or apart, their joint behavior meets the USCIS definition of polygamy.
Similarly, if an immigrant from a country where polygamy is practiced culturally but not legally goes through a ceremony of customary ‘marriage’ with someone in her country of origin who has other customary wives, USCIS will see her as a practicing polygamist. This will be the case even though there is no legal marriage between the couple, and even though she is living in the U.S. and he and his wives are living outside the United States.
Islam is the most common religious tradition recognizing the custom of polygamy today. Nevertheless, as a result of the biblical practice of polygamy, there exist practicing polygamists in both the Hebrew and Christian traditions. In addition, many African and some South-East Asian nations have sociocultural traditions of polygamy.
If you belong to any of these traditions (or certain sects within them), therefore, USCIS will pay close attention to indications that your household situation fits the definition of polygamy.
Because many immigrants and U.S. citizens come from religious traditions that have practiced polygamy, it is not against U.S. law to believe in polygamy, so long as you are not actually practicing it.
If you practiced polygamy before immigrating to the United States, but neither you nor your spouse(s) have practiced it since becoming a legal permanent resident, your prior history of polygamy should not cause your naturalization application to be denied.
If you have personally practiced polygamy since immigrating to the United States, (even if it was many years ago) you should not apply to naturalize without first consulting with an immigration attorney. Practicing polygamy as a legal resident of the United States will not only likely result in denial of your naturalization application, but grounds for deportation.
If you have not personally had multiple spousal relationships at the same time, but you have had a relationship with someone you considered a spouse (whether that relationship was legally recognized or not) and that person had other spousal type relationships at the same time, USCIS may determine that you are a polygamist. This is true regardless of whether your partner was living in the U.S. or abroad. It is especially true if you or your partner come from a country where polygamy is practiced, whether legally or culturally. You should definitely not apply for naturalization without first terminating that relationship (or making certain that your partner has terminated all other relationships). You should also wait to apply for naturalization until five years (or other applicable good moral character period) after the end of the relationship, unless you have a good explanation for why you got involved in the relationship; an explanation that makes it clear you did not intend to practice polygamy.
If you knew your partner was a practicing polygamist, or if you want to apply without waiting, you should definitely consult with an immigration attorney first.
Remember, USCIS examining officers are trained to spot polygamous behavior in applicants for naturalization who come from countries where polygamy is part of the culture. If you were knowingly involved with polygamy or polygamists, your application for naturalization is at risk of denial no matter who you were in the web of relationships.
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.
Hard to feel sorry about anyone travelling to Dubai.
You don’t have to be rich to travel there. My brothers and their mother traveled there, not rich by any means. I’m probably more well off, but I haven’t been there. 🤷♂️
But maybe that wasn’t your point? Sorry if I assumed incorrectly!
I mean… Okay. But… A place can be interesting to visit despite its government. 🤷♂️
This doesn’t actually say much about anyone’s actual wealth status in your story, you’re just saying you have more then them I guess? No banana for scale offered.
“They only have 2 yachts and only one can land a full size helicopter - so yeah… you don’t have to be rich to go to Dubai”
I think you’re right, but also it says something about the personality too. I know great, respectable people in their own way who have gone there, but in general I agree with the vibe that it’s for “rich people who don’t care about inequality”
Knowing my family, Hanlon’s razor definitely applies here. People do not always know what’s going on politically or otherwise in a tourist place they visit. My family are not “great respectable people” (they’re good people though), so I’m gonna go with ignorance, for sure. 😅
