‘Sorry about that,’ the Bangladeshi taxi driver said as another car pulled out in front of us. Aggressive lane changing without indicating is common during rush hour in Dubai. I was heading to the Shangri-La hotel for a press dinner invitation and was relieved that at least this driver seemed confident he knew where he was going. ‘Driving is easy in Dubai,’ the driver continued. ‘The roads are big [sic].’
‘Yes, everything is big here,’ I acknowledged.
‘It is even easy for women to drive here,’ he added, seriously.

Nursing a hangover the following morning, I headed to the medical centre to get my medical test as part of my employment visa application. The service was run like a production line. As I was called in to have my blood sample taken, another lady was having hers taken while a lady ahead of me in the queue was sitting on a nearby chair. The X-ray procedure ran along similar lines. However, the last stage – finger printing – went less smoothly. In a room upstairs, I handed my forms to a security man, who peered at them before indicating for me to sit in the second half of the room where chairs were clearly marked, ‘Ladies Only’. ‘How long, approximately, will the wait be?’ I asked. The security man mumbled something incoherently.
‘Twenty minutes?’ Again the security mumbled. ‘Thirty minutes?’ He nodded.

It wasn’t until a lady sat down next to me that I noticed that she’d been given a pink numbered ticket (the men were given blue tickets) so I returned to ask for mine. A couple of Asian ladies asked another official how long they would be waiting. It transpired that 30 minutes had passed since a single lady had been called through. Meanwhile, the men were being processed every few minutes. The official shrugged his shoulders and I was sure he looked at his colleague and smirked. ‘This is so sexist,’ I said to no one in particular. When the next guy had completed the process, he high-fived the security guard on his exit. I turned round to the Asian ladies, ‘Is this some kind of boys’ club?’

When I finally returned to the office, I started retelling the ‘sexist’ story to my colleagues. They seemed confused. The consensus was that it was usually the men who had to wait longer.

If you would like to stay up to date with WLG’s blog, subscribe to our weekly e-newsletter.