As soon as we got outside of ears reach after the dinner we burst into giggles and realised that the whole idea of the dinner was almost like "magazine dating"
Sorry for the disappointment sands, yes this happens alot, although it doesn't make difference in which country or what culture, it seems many men do have such a tendency (pushing sex right into every matter, well some women do as well ..
) .. but he could at least gave some effort for the reason why you came for, for ethical purposes !! :vangry
The Emirati guys are very discreet and careful about approaching foreigners. Dating Muslims is not really allowed... although they all do it.
Come on sands! you know that most Emirati guys are very bold, ok when it comes to highly positioned people they do have lots of discreet and care, but again it applies for all men of such positions in all countries, then regarding dating being not allowed for Muslims, that applies for Sunni Muslims, not the case with Shi'at as you might know (if you ever heard of the temporary marriage term, which could be diffinately used for dating purposes).
Back also to the topic. Some of our students requested that we wear hoods and gloves, so that they didn't have to touch our skin during training. (Not allowed). Emma sweated profusely in the pool training with all this gear on, but we respected local custom and beliefs. However, those beliefs were not reciprocated as the guys were staring pointedly at us in our bikinis, particularly we thought at me for obvious larger reasons - it got very uncomfortable in the end and we discussed it together at length. We didnt walk around in bikinis, it was just in the communal outside showers where everyone took off their wetsuits. There was no other place to go.
Again, I believe this has a lot to do with applying of rules, once you understand the package of rules that applies for a muslim of certain sect, you then could judge for your-self if there are any contradictions involved in his/her practises or not .. Hey! I can give you a brief session on that (the rules for different sects of Muslims) for free ofcourse ..
.. it could help you in dealing with some situations that otherwise would feel realy weired
Back to the top dog !
we put the briefcase of ideas away as it seemed that we would not get anywhere with them, ate, chatted and went home
If you didn't try hard to reach somewhere with what you originaly came for, then I think you should have done it, push him to the corner, it might have worked out, so you come back home with full stomach and empty briefcase ..
.. coming back with both full is tiresome I geuss .. rofl