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LAST UPDATE | 5 Mar
A GENUINE DAILY MAIL headline this week: “I’m trapped and under attack in Dubai – while back home in Chichester my daughters are furious, the labradoodles are sick and, worst of all, I left my Mounjaro pen in the fridge.”
Surely it was satire, I thought. But no. Shona Sibary, a British woman who writes for the paper and divides her time between England and Dubai, was explaining how stressful she has found the past few days, apparently without the slightest hint of self-awareness or context.
“Thanks to the drone explosion this morning, the Sheikh has also shut the golf course, which in itself is unprecedented. And there is a noticeable lack of bottled water in the Waitrose across the road,” she wrote. “I can’t help feeling like we are on the brink of something big.”
But her overwhelming concern was herself and her appearance: “Perhaps worst of all – I left my Mounjaro pen in the fridge at home because I thought I was only going to be away for a week. It appears that I’m not only trapped in a warzone, but I’m going to get fat again as well.”
“There isn’t a violin small enough”, one online commentator rightly replied. On the fifth day of US and Israel’s bombardment of Iran, the death toll in Iran alone has reportedly reached 1,045, and Tehran continues its retaliatory attacks across the Middle East.
It’s been a difficult week for all countries in the region. The surprise aerial attacks on Iran by the US and Israel began on Saturday, involving the killing of Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and other regime leaders, and a direct missile hit on a school in Southern Iran, killing dozens of schoolgirls.
Iran has struck back with intensity, widening the conflict across the Middle East. Cities across the UAE, including Dubai, have had to fend off hundreds of missiles and drones shot in from inside Iran. Flights have been cancelled, and many are sheltering in place for now.
Around 12,000 Irish citizens are believed to live in the UAE, which is an ally of the US. The country is known for its great weather, glamorous skyscraper hotels and luxury shopping, as a hotspot for famous footballers, influencers and jetsetters. But there is a darker side to the UAE, a dark underbelly of human rights abuses.
There are, of course, many Irish citizens caught up in events this week in Dubai, families and young people, some on a flight layover to another destination, and the priority must be their safety. It is hugely traumatic to be caught up in an unexpected and unpredictable war, and it is heartening to see the Irish Government push hard to get them out and home as soon as possible. We are lucky, as Irish citizens, to be able to get home to a safe and peaceful country. That, in itself, is a privilege.
Many millions in this world are not so lucky. Having spent much of this week speaking with clients and friends with family members in Iran, at grave risk both from the brutal regime and from the bombardment, I have zero sympathy for Sibary’s Chichester labradoodles or her GLP-1 woes. It is clear she, and many more ‘ex-pats’ like her in the region, think the attacks should happen somewhere else, to someone else, not to them, and not in Dubai.
“Of course, people live in war zones, and they suffer drone and missile attacks on a daily basis. But this is Dubai,” she wrote. “It’s supposed to be the safest city in the world. Not only that, it’s where I come… to top up my tan… not dodge debris from Iranian onslaughts.”
But Sibary’s self-obsessed, tone-deaf response to this week’s escalating violence in the Middle East is sadly far from unique. Australian influencer Louise Starkey, who posts about life in Dubai under #dubaiexpat, posted an Instagram video (since deleted), filmed on her hotel balcony with Iranian missiles visible in the night sky behind her.
Starkey was in a white bathrobe, clutching her face. “It’s not meant to be happening here. Can’t everyone just chill out?” she said. “This is not fun, guys. We’re supposed to be in the safest place. I love the UAE. I love being here, I feel so safe all the time – and now I can see it. Please just stop.”
Starkey was widely criticised for her response. “‘Not meant to be happening here’ has to be one of the most selfish statements I have ever heard,” one commentator wrote on her video.
Another added: “The entitlement. It happens in Gaza, it’s fine. But if it happens to your luxury lifestyle, ‘it’s not meant to happen.’”
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) authorities quickly warned that it is illegal to spread “false news, rumours or misleading information” or content that “causes panic or public confusion,” announcing that the circulation of “unverified information about wars, security or national safety” will be punishable with a jail term and/ or a heavy fine.
Under the country’s cybercrime law, penalties include imprisonment of up to five years and fines up to AED 3 million (over €700,000). And there are more subtle threats, too: as of 1 February 2026, all influencers and content creators must obtain a mandatory Advertiser Permit from the UAE Media Council to publish any promotional content, paid or unpaid; and the permits can be revoked if a person fails to comply with stringent media regulations.
Many influencers – a ragtag mix of ex-Love Island contestants, retired sports stars and their families, make-up artists, vloggers and stylists – are now posting gushing videos on social media about how wonderful UAE’s leadership is.
A template many of them use begins, “You live in Dubai / UAE. Aren’t you scared?” It then cuts to footage of Emirati leaders with text praising them: “No, because I know who is protecting us.”
Posts say things like, “here we are with the strongest and best leader in the world,” and express “trust” in the authorities. An Irish influencer in Dubai, Jessie Willis – one of a tiny number who acknowledged the impact on those in neighbouring countries – said, “I never knew the UAE had such a strong defence system and I do feel very reassured that they’re in control of it all… Praying for those in Lebanon today who are being struck and all those in countries who deal with this everyday with no defence systems this has given us all so much perspective. We are so so lucky to have the leadership we have in UAE.”
My perspective – as an experienced human rights lawyer – is very different. UAE promotes itself as a safe, progressive destination, but behind the glitzy, polished image lies a grubby reality, with rampant human rights abuses.
I doubt Roscommon woman Tori Towey felt “lucky” to live under UAE leadership. She was reportedly a victim of assault, but treated as a criminal, charged with attempted suicide and alcohol consumption.
She has spoken out about being taken to the police station, terrified, on the night she tried to take her own life, and urged people to think of the other women languishing in UAE jails.
Human Rights Watch and BBC Arabic have documented how hundreds of women, some of them pregnant or domestic servants who are victims of rape, are imprisoned every year in the UAE under laws that outlaw consensual sex outside marriage. Lucky?
And people who are gay certainly do not feel lucky to live under UAE leadership. UAE criminalises same-sex sexual activity. Article 177 of the Dubai Criminal Code criminalises ‘sodomy’ with a penalty of up to ten years’ imprisonment, and under Sharia law, same-sex sexual activity is punishable with death.
The Human Dignity Trust has noted evidence of the law being enforced in recent years and LGBT people being subjected to discrimination and violence.
I have acted for people prosecuted and jailed in UAE for daring to work with human rights organisations or criticise the authorities. United Nations experts – including the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights Defenders, Irishwoman Mary Lawlor – have expressed grave concerns at the treatment of defendants in one mass trial, stating, chillingly, that they had been “subjected to enforced disappearance, solitary confinement and incommunicado detention, some for over a year and often in abusive detention conditions.” Lucky?
And UAE’s human rights abuses don’t stop at their own borders: it is a clearing house for other abusive regimes. As I have previously written, I am aware of multiple cases of human rights activists and other innocent people being kidnapped when in transit at Dubai or Abu Dhabi airports and transferred to prisons in other countries, such as Saudi Arabia, China and Rwanda.
And as recently as December 2025, the Committee to Protect Journalists (I sit on its Board) highlighted the shocking case of political commentator Adel al-Nazili, abducted from his home in Yemen by the National Resistance Forces paramilitaries backed by the UAE, as punishment for Facebook posts.
This week, the Middle East is in the spotlight, with hundreds of thousands of people across the region terrified and at grave risk. It may be too much to hope that UAE influencers who have long turned a blind eye to the realities of the region and the human rights abuses happening under their noses will wake up.
But the rest of us must. Lucky to have this UAE leadership? No. UAE’s security is maintained through serious human rights abuses, repression and threats. Scratch beneath the surface of the inane social media posts and look at what is truly happening.
Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC is a human rights lawyer and barrister. She has acted for many journalists, writers, lawyers and activists unlawfully imprisoned around the world, including in UAE. In 2023 she was awarded the President of Ireland’s Distinguished Service Award for the Irish Abroad for her work, and in 2025 she was named Irish Tatler’s International Woman of the Year.
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