Business Dressing by Country - United Arab Emirates

This Thread is dedicated to the discussion of proper business attire in the United Arab Emirates.
As each Emirate has slightly different levels of 'strictness' pertaining to Muslim law it will be helpful for you to specifically mention the Emirate you are referring to if possible.

Originally Posted by Gdot

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This Thread is dedicated to the discussion of proper business attire in the United Arab Emirates.
As each Emirate has slightly different levels of 'strictness' pertaining to Muslim law it will be helpful for you to specifically mention the Emirate you are referring to if possible.

Originally Posted by asturiano

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This is from 2 years back in Sharjah. One of the emirates that form the UAE. http://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/uae/cr...ories-1.502149

Sharjah police enforce old law against men wearing accessories

CID men confiscate residents' bracelets, necklaces and earrings. A senior CID official told Gulf News that police are implementing an eight-year-old decency law.
By Bassma Al Jandaly, Staff Reporter
Published: 22:45 July 21, 2009

Sharjah: Thirteen-year-old Mohammad was with a group of friends in Al Qasba area when he was reportedly approached by a police officer and taken to the police headquarters. His silver necklace had to go.

Another resident, Jeril Jaison Varghese, says he was in front of the Multiplex in Mega Mall to watch a movie when a CID officer asked him for his identification.

"I was taken to the Sharjah Police office inside the mall by a security guy from the mall. My silver bracelet was confiscated by the CID," he said.

When Varghese asked why his bracelet was being taken away, he says, police said men are not allowed to wear bracelets or any fashion accessories in Sharjah malls even if it is silver and not gold.

"When did this rule come into being? There was no public notification and no posters in the mall notifying people of this rule," Varghese said. Another resident said on Saturday CID confiscated his friend's silver bracelet while they were in a mall.

"Is there a rule in Sharjah that authorises the CID to confiscate fashion accessories other than gold from residents and their children from malls?" asked Aji Alexander.

A Mexican mother who recently shifted to the UAE and is now living in Sharjah said her 14-year-old son was scared when he was stopped by police who shouted at him for wearing diamond earrings.

"Police were rude... We have no clue that such things are not allowed here," the mother said. "I am not allowing my son to go to Al Qasba again. My son is a very decent and polite boy," she said.

"If people are not offending the laws of the country and are not acting like women by wearing such accessories so why are police taking such action?" she asked.

Mohammad from Sudan said his 18-year old nephew who came from Abu Dhabi to visit his grandmother in Sharjah was taken last week to the headquarters for wearing a silver necklace.

"The boy was afraid. He was standing in front of his grandmother's house when police took him to the CID. After three hours he contacted us," said Mohammad. Residents said Sharjah authorities should inform people who wish to come here that men must not wear fashion accessories.

"Tourist companies should inform the public. Information booklets should be handed to people at the country's entry points. They should advertise that in all malls and entertainment areas such as Al Qasba which we believe are safe places for our children to spend time," said a resident.

"We are aware of the decency law in Sharjah, but wearing silver bracelets, necklaces, or even earrings in a decent way is not against the law," said a resident.

A senior CID official told Gulf News that police are implementing an eight-year-old decency law.

"Men are not allowed to wear such accessories. Everybody is aware of that," he said. "We are informing people through the media and people should be aware of that," he said.

Islam forbids men from wearing gold and silk.

-G

..

And what about wedding rings? Watches? Curious minds want to know.

Originally Posted by Gdot

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This Thread is dedicated to the discussion of proper business attire in the United Arab Emirates.
As each Emirate has slightly different levels of 'strictness' pertaining to Muslim law it will be helpful for you to specifically mention the Emirate you are referring to if possible.

For some, any pattern in which lines intersect at 90 degree angles is an offense. As it is considered to be representative of the Christian cross.

I was once asked to change my graph check shirt before presenting to HH Sheik XXXXXXX for this reason.

here, honestly, I don't do it very differently from how I dress in India. I dress in a very conservative western dress; dark suit, white shirt, dark tie, usually solid. I wear a watch, wedding band and simple sterling cufflinks. the only color or ornement that I wear would be a pocket square and simple sterling cufflinks. black shoes.

I'll tell you some things I know, but that I don't really let effect my dressing for the Gulf - people notice your suits, and "count" your suits. a lot of arabs have strong patterned suits, because they want people to be able to tell that they are wearing different suits every day. my regional sales manager for the middle east must have 30-40 suits. none of them are very good, but they are all patterned and distinctive. when he goes on a trip, he has a differnt suit for every day.

he also changes his watch every day - watches are big, maybe even (in my personal experiece) bigger than in India.

usually you are doing business with 4 groups of people - western expats, subcontinent expats, palestinians/jordanians/lebanese/egyptians or "locals" from the gulf. I don't see a substantial difference in western expats from other parts of the world, and the subcontinent expats dress pretty much like they would in mumbai.

the locals dress in a very specific way, that is very subtle. there is no benifit, and a lot of risk, in trying to adopt any of it. I have bought headscarves from oman to wear as scarfs back home, but I would never try to wear one in the gulf. their are a dozen or so subtle differences in how people from differnt areas in the gulf dress, and they can tell very well who is who. on top of the "tribal" symbols, they will often wear some luxury touches - gold cufflinks, designer sandals, gold watches, that kind of thing.

as for the arab ex-pats - they often dress very well, and very elaboratly. they really struggle to establish their position, and they often have a lot of dispossible income.

as was mentioned, any type of symbol that might remind one of religion is to be avoided. one of my devices had a logo with a large "T" on it, and we had to remove it for the Gulf market, becase it looked like a cross.

Originally Posted by Metlin

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And what about wedding rings? Watches? Curious minds want to know.

+1

That's bizarre...when I lived in Riyadh, conspicuous flaunting of gold watches, rings, bracelets (thick and manly) and fountain pens was definitely the norm among Saudi males in business settings. Necklaces were always a bit of a no-no, however.

Actually there is not problem wearing wedding bands or gold watches or even gold chains (at least in Dubai where the local population is very tolerant with the non muslims. You could be frowned upon for displaying on an ostentatious way something against their culture but very rear questioned.

As for the dressing, as globetrotter says, there is not big differences to what you can wear in India. I work on sales, mainly with Interior designers and the dress code is quite relaxed, you can wear jackets but very rear ties. Today the tmemperature was 44C, so you need a lot of open weaves, fine wools and cottons.

Regarding the 4 types of people you find here.
-Locals: the difference between locals from different areas of the gulf is not on the ornaments (cuff-links or watches) but on the way that the national dress (kandura) is cut. There are subtle differences that I fail to catch.
-Non locals arab. I didn't know about changing suits everyday. I know that they like brown and dark grey suits (not many blue ones) there is a sub-class on the lebanese. Grease hair, big watches and last model phones.
- Europeans. It is too hot to wear a jacket!
- Sub continent. Always long sleeve shirts (never short) and wool/cotton trousers. Never jackets, suits or ties. A person from the subcontinent will never shorts (not even at weekends)