Yes, crime in Dubai happens. Yes, they have unreasonable and archaic Sharia laws. Yes, awful situations, like women being jailed for being raped happen, according to some sources, possibly even several times a year. But here’s the unintuitive thing, it’s still statistically safe. Whether you like it or not, that’s how statistics work.
Here’s an example to help people visualize it better. Every year, on average, 10-20 planes crash, with 100s of deaths, which is terrible. But, every year, on average, there are about 40 million flights, which comes up to about 0.00004% crash rate percentage. Every time you get on a plane there’s a chance you’re going to die in a crash, cause crashes happen regularly, and yet, it’s the safest method of transportation.
Now let’s make a rough calculation for the rape cases for tourists. Let’s be generous (because UAE definitely underreports these incidents) and assume it happens not just several, but 10 times annually. There are 15 million tourist visits annually. That is roughly… 0.00007% chance. Depending on what numbers you pick, that is about twice as likely as being in a plane crash.

And to drive the final nail into the coffin, let’s looks at some official numbers:

• Safe Cities Index 2021 Personal Security score: 67 (slightly above New York, San Francisco, to name a few), 35th safest city in the world.
• Numbeo Safety Index: 84.00 (Very high) (for comparison, New York has safety index of 50)
• Expat Insider Survey: Expats report their personal safety (93% vs. 83% globally) very positively.

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In conclusion:

• UAE has archaic Sharia laws.
• If you are aware of the local laws and customs, and don’t disobey them, you have very low probability of having any issues.