Don't let the opulence fool you - the UAE's legal system is as backwards as Pakistan's or Saudi Arabia's. Regime change is scary business, but that particular region of the world is in desperate need of a liberal movement. We can only hope that when the dust settles in Egypt, Libya, Syria, Bahrain, Yemen, Tunisia, and throughout the Mideast and Northern Africa, the paradigm will have shifted a few miles to the left.
EDIT: I just read this story about a Bengladeshi girl who, by decree of a local imam, and under the auspices of Sharia, was beaten to death at the age of 14. The crime, for which she received the capital punishment, was being raped by her married uncle. Yes, I phrased that correctly - she was murdered for being raped.
According to the article, such practices are illegal in Bangladesh, an ostensibly moderate Muslim nation. In light of my earlier post, I should stress that the ultimate source of this and related problems is an endemic perversion of values, as opposed to any particular governmental policy. The sweeping changes so desperately needed must therefore come from the ground up: it's a matter of attitude adjustment, not regime change.
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