Prologue
A few years ago, I posted a comment about my time teaching in the UAE to a mailing list for alumni of St. John's College (my alma mater), commonly referred to as the "j-list." Another list member who had also spent time teaching overseas inquired what it was like. My answer eventually evolved into a whole series. I reproduce it here for your enjoyment.
The place I taught was the UAE University, in the "Garden City" of Al Ain, ancestral home of HRH Sheik Zayed, ruler of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, and president of the UAE. It was a much more provincial city than the political capital, in Abu Dhabi, or the commercial center in Dubai.
The country is one of the most liberal and pro-Western of all the Gulf nations. Translation: Women are allowed to drive, own property, travel unaccompanied, etc. and a non-Muslim can get a drink if he wants, although to purchase alcoholic beverages for home consumption requires a license, and the amount you're allowed to spend each month is tied to your salary.
Things were a bit more restrictive for the citizens (known as Emiratis), however. We had completely separate campuses, at opposite ends of town, for the boys and the girls. The girl's campus had a high wall around it and a guard station. The girls were only allowed to leave in the company of a male relative. The boys could come and go as they pleased, and most of them had either an expensive SUV, or a Mercedes, Lexus, or BMW.
The boys were also allowed to leave the country to go to any college they could get into (on full UAE-paid scholarship), while the girls were not. Needless to say, this produced a huge disparity in the academic abilities of the students on the 2 campuses. The girls were generally quite bright, and hard-working (There were exceptions though. A colleague told me about one girl who flunked her final on purpose because if she graduated, her father would make her get married and start having babies.)
The boys, OTOH, either couldn't get into any other college in the entire world, or had business interests they wanted to keep an eye on, so weren't too attentive to their studies. I had plenty of students who'd sit in the back and read the newspaper all period, or play (usually virus-infected) computer games over the classroom network.
The Nissan Patrol I used to go duning.
Of course, that was excellent practice for their future, as most government employees I had any contact with spent most of their time drinking tea and reading the newspaper too. You think the DMV wherever you live is a hell-hole? Hah! Try getting a "permission for a foreigner to own an SUV" form signed by "Captain Mohammed" when he only comes in about 6 hours a week.
The worst part was the fact that it was pretty much a case of "the inmates running the asylum." The university administration was generally composed of non-Gulf Arabs (Egyptians, Palestinians, Jordanians, etc.). They had cushy jobs in a rich country, making a whole lot more money than they could possibly hope to earn at home, and they were scared to death that they were going to piss off some sheik's son, and get shipped back to wherever they came from. So when I did something the students didn't like (such as requiring them to do their homework), they all traipsed off to the Dean's office to complain.