How Safe Are Women Inside Ladies Rooms?

Ladies, watch out. Perverts are on the loose in Dubai!

She was in the stall, all alone in the ladies room in Hayyat Regency, when she heard someone enter the next stall. Done with her business, she opened the stall door and saw a man waiting just outside it. He was playing with a hand-held device and looked side ways creepily at her. She screamed and slammed back the stall door shut. Her scream continued till she heard him drift out of the room though no one came to her rescue. She gathered what little left of her courage, opened the stall and left the ladies rooms. She saw a man leaving the close-by prayers room and asked him for help. He called for security and they came rushing.

Since she was able to identify the peeping tom, Security asked her if she wants to press charges. Shaken and scared, she decided not to, especially that Security promised to talk to the culprit and ban him from entering the hotel again.

If I read the above anywhere, I would have felt that the situation was well handled, even though personally I would have pressed charged and sued everyone! This story however happened to my sister yesterday and I know other facts that would usually not make it to print. These facts are disturbing.

For one, the Security Supervisor discouraged pressing charges by saying the man would counter back the charges and say that he entered the ladies room by a simple mistake. Another Michael Jackson is he? Of course my sister was very traumatized by the incident and did not see the illogic by that statement. The ladies room does not have urinals, if it was a mistake, he would have discovered it the minute he went in. The fact is the pervert used the stall next to hers and waited for her till she was done. He did not seem surprised when he saw a woman in the next stall! There was NO mistake!

Another worrying fact was the security guard statement. He confessed to my sister that he saw the same offender enter the ladies room just few days ago. He said after this latest incident he will speak to his supervisor about this man! Really Thank You! I’m glad he decided that NOW! What was he waiting for? A rape victim broken in a stall before they act?

A third sickening fact was that there was a group of people (men and women) who witnessed the whole situation (sister going in, man going in, sister screaming, man leaving, sister leaving shaken and looking for help) but did absolutely NOTHING. The later told the security the whole thing but AFTER he approached them. What happened to people? What happened to chivalry? Have they lost all virtues??

Ladies, watch out. Perverts are on the loose in Dubai and no one is there to protect you or even help you. If you need to go to the ladies, check if a female cleaner is inside or not. It’s safer to go to toilets that always have cleaners stationed inside them. If that luxury was not available, go with your girlfriend. If you were alone, then wait till you see another female user comes in and then walk into the stall. If you really need to go and no woman shows up, just lock the whole ladies room. You might be in trouble later, but at least you were not harmed in any sordid way!