Whether it will take Earth a year or couple of years to handle the Coronavirus pandemic, eventually cross-continental flights will become completely normalized and travelling will re-establish itself as a part of regular modern human activities.

At the same time the level of people’s desire to interact with each other around the world will stay the same if not become even stronger. That is why we all have to be aware of legality of our actions abroad.

In this segment will look through the number of various behavioristic details that may lead to imprisonment abroad. The information will be especially useful for spontaneous and romantic travelers, whether you do it alone or with your significant other.

With each article we will go one level further. And in this part, we will start off from the most innocent gesture of communicational behavior – flirting.

Turkey

Male tourists of Turkey should refrain from the temptation to flirt with local women. The Turks and their families are very reverent and protective about the honor of their women. Thus, the intrusive courtship of a stranger creates a serious trouble for both the woman herself and the person that was attracted to her. At least her male relatives will not understand your innocent flirtation.

You got to be careful with the way you interact in public with your homeland partner. For instance, you may get away with it in certain places of Istanbul. Such district as Beşiktaş, or Taksim square are safe for romantic behavior. But in some other places it is not accepted to flirt at any level. It would be impossible for you to get away with an attempt to do it even with your own girlfriend in public. So do keep in mind to study the city and even districts you plan to visit.

France

France has a reputation of a very romantic and therefore flirting country. Nevertheless, the accident that happened in 2018 has led to creating a law that protects women from aggressive flirting.

The law was developed after a scandal with 22-year-old student Marie Lagerr. The girl was walking down the street in the evening in the XIX district of Paris, when a man walking by began to whistle, make obscene sounds and make sexual comments about her. Marie shouted to him “Ta gueule!” (“Shut up”). In response to this, he first threw an urn in her, and then walked up and hit her in the face. The incident fell on the surveillance cameras of one of the cafes and caused a wide response online.

French Minister for Gender Equality Marlene Schiappa was one of the initiators of the law and was present at the time of its adoption.

Consequences: the relevant fines law was passed by the French parliament. According to the text of the document, men are forbidden to whistle and shout vulgarities to the fair sex. Violators face a fine of € 90 to € 750 ($101- $792).

United Arab Emirates

In May of 2019 Dubai police have warned that flirting with women can be fraught for men with a large fine or even a criminal prosecution throughout the UAE.

Among the prohibited actions are: clattering, winking, as well as making comments on the appearance and figure, making obsessive attempts to take a phone number, as well as sending the air kisses. In addition, taking pictures without consent is also prohibited.

The police reminded that previous year 19 people were arrested for some of the aforementioned actions. Brigadier Jamal Salem Al Jalaf, the director of general department of criminal investigations noted, that every woman has can feel safe and protected, and that any types of harassment are contradict to the culture and traditions of UAE.

Consequences: according to the act 359 of the UAE Criminal Code, the offender is sentenced to one year in prison or a fine of up to 10 thousand dirhams. Both punishments may be imposed simultaneously if the action was committed in a public place and using verbal harassment.

Lawyers stated, that if an expat committed the crime, then after serving a prison term or paying a fine, he will be deported from the UAE. They also encourage women to immediately report about any kind of harassment or abuse.

Saudi Arabia

The final country on the list of the least flirt friendly countries is a neighbor of United Arab Emirates – Saudi Arabia. The most innocent case exemplified how seriously the country takes such element of communication as flirting happen back in 2016.

A young Saudi gentlemen Abu Sin (real name has not been made public) and Californian vlogger Christina Crockett met on a video-chat site. Their mutually (!) friendly conversation has led to the number of their interacting videos, which many people found interesting to watch. Videos had nearly 6.5 million of views on YouTube.

Abu would openly tell Christina about his feelings of love and would also (evidently jokingly) ask her to marry him. In spite of the fact that Christina was not offended by any of his compliments, Saudi authorities have found this manner of talking unacceptable.

As a result Abu got arrested for ‘Unethical’ video chats. Their exchanges took on extra significance in Saudi Arabia as it could constitute a violation of the conservative country’s cybercrime law which prohibits producing material that harms public order, morals or religious values.

Consequences: Abu Sin was facing a five-year sentence and fine reaching 3 million riyals ($799,836). Luckily, Abu was freed on bail after a detention that lasted more than a week.

This story shows, that even if both parties enjoy having romantic and open interactions online, third parties of Saudi Arabia may still find it offensive and punishable. And that is why you have to be especially careful. Since winking even to your own partner can be classified as illegal actions.

COVID-19 note: due to continuous spread of coronavirus pandemic, people’s reaction to all above mentioned types of contacts may be to 3 times stricter.

About the Author: Zack Hargrove is a remote editor at Essay Help. One of his missions is to notice interesting, unusual phenomenon and tendencies in various cultures of the world, and reporting it to a diverse scope of audience. You can find Zack on Twitter @zackhargrovejr.