The murder of an American teacher last week in Abu Dhabi brought scores of comments to me from colleagues and acquaintances.
After all, I twice lived in Abu Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates. During those periods, I authored “Dateline Abu Dhabi,” a monthly e-mail newsletter that chronicled my adventures as an expat professor in what has been called the richest city in the world.
Through these missives I detailed how safe that city was, and how I felt free to walk the streets at any time of night or day. My stories focused on some of the funny things that happened to me, including being called on the carpet (sort of a funny term for an incident in a city filled with Oriental rugs) at Zayed University because a group of students brought in a gazelle as part of a group project. Never mind that the group included the daughter of the sheik who was president of the university---I still had to stand before the administrators and listen to their rant about how animals were not allowed on campus. I figured I would be a Fulbright Scholar deported back home (and not the first, by the way). But alas---the student presented the administrators with expensive bottles of oud, the Arabian perfume, and everyone seemed happy!
Yes, Abu Dhabi to me represents a trove of great memories and many marvelous friends, including my Emirati students.
So, to think a teacher would be butchered to death astounded me.
And, then, to find out that the killer was an Emirati woman, reportedly from a good family, proved more shocking to me. For my Fulbright research, I spent a year in interviewing Emirati women of all ages to determine how life had changed for them in a country that went from abject poverty to wealth in less than a generation because of the discovery of oil. All of the women were forthcoming and kind to me---they welcomed me into their homes and always served traditional fare to me. Many gave me gifts that now adorn my home and office.
It is true that the U.S. Embassy had sent out a warning this year about Americans being targeted, but I saw some warnings myself while I was in Abu Dhabi. Yet nothing materialized and we expats went about our lives---spending our leisure time at the beach or on the links or on the desert.
So, friends now ask: would you ever go back there?
Yes.
The sick mind of an Emirati woman---and her associates, if she had any---would not stop me from enjoying the amenities of a lovely city.
I doubt if I will get back there as my teaching days are over, but you never know…and I do love that place.