The law regulates everything in our life. And in this podcast, this is our mission. We would like to make it easy for you to make life simple but legal. Today's episode is a special one. It's for the dreamers, the doers, the side hustlers, the content creators, the students, and the first time in their job. This one is for the Gen Z living in Dubai. If you've ever asked yourself, can I post this meme without getting fired? Can I legally live with my girlfriend? Is it safe to freelance on the side while on a student visa? How legal is my crypto wallet really? Then buckle up. We're about to answer all of your questions. I've rounded up the most googled, whispered, and misunderstood legal questions that Gen Z's are asking today in Dubai, and I'm answering them straight up. No jargon, just real talk. Because understanding the law is not boring. It's your right. It's time to make the law Gen Z friendly. Good morning everybody and welcome to Monday legal podcast. Today I'm alone because I rounded up and I collected a lot of questions that comes to me through all the social media and sometimes via email and many people ask me these questions especially the Gen Z followers of our podcast. Thank you very much for following and subscribing and sharing all our knowledge. I made all your questions in one list and I will take them one by one. So I have here the first question here. I will not say names. Huh? Could I get in trouble for bad mouthing someone or sharing their personal photos on social media? You bet. Of course you will. um writing down any bad comment or uh insulting someone online or sharing their photos or bad mouthing them for any reason in any way can get you in trouble because whatever you put out there in social media stays and it can be shared and it can be copied and this is some kind of bullying that can go viral and can stay for a very long time. So, please be very careful of what you post about yourself and about other people in your community. I have here a question that says, "What happened if I post something offensive or harmful on Tik Tok or Instagram in Dubai?" Well, it depends harmful for who and it's offensive to whom, but in general, the UEE monitors very very well the social media and what exactly is posted. So if you say harmful for a group of people for example is like you're you're you're you're I don't know insulting one nationality or talking bad about the habits of people of a certain religion. This is illegal and this is really regulated in the UAE with hefty fines and sometimes even imprisonment. So you have to be very careful what you put online. Do I really need a license to be an influencer in Dubai? Well, the most important part in this is to understand whether you're making money or not. So, being an influencer or being famous on social media in general, you don't really need to uh to have a license for that. And you can do your own social media or manage it in the way you wish. But the moment you're going to commercialize your account and to do um business with it or earn money on it and not necessarily money by the way it can be a lot of benefits that you can get. I don't know like getting free access to events or free restaurants or free meals here and there and you're getting benefit from uh freelancing in cash or in kind. this uh is is considered a business and of course you need to have the correct freelancer permit uh to run this business. I am on a student visa. Can I do freelance work in Dubai? Well, theoretically yes. uh as long as you are work living in the UAE on a student visa, the university is sponsoring your uh your residency here and it's for that purpose you're not allowed to work unless you get a permit from the university which means that you have to fulfill their requirements and the details that would like to know about the job and then you'll be able to get this permit uh granted to you and you will be allowed to because the UAE law have allowed now students to freelance to do some work on the side while studying. Is cryptocurrency legal in Dubai? Yes, of course, cryptocurrency is legal in Dubai and uh you can purchase and trade a lot of cryptocurrencies at the moment as long as you use the legitimate exchange house or financial institutions who are allowed and licensed to deal in crypto. Many uh of these companies uh get um a VAR license or a virtual assets regulatory authority license and who are permitted to do trading in crypto and exchange uh of these cryptocurrency uh and dealing with crypto then is legal unless you're doing it in a in an unregulated way then it is definitely illegal. What should I know about crypto scams in Dubai? I think what you really need to understand very well because you might be able to uh deal with crypto and understand how to have a wallet and how to trade. But what you need to understand of the type of scams is to understand what is due diligence and uh KYC requirements. What is compliance for crypto in general? This is a completely different um compliance regulations that is from the traditional compliance requirements when it comes to financial services or any financial transaction. You need to understand very well that the legitimacy of any transaction or anybody who is working in the crypto is connected to being licensed and allowed to do that and to identify the source of these funds. So for example, if you have met someone who we have no idea about and you have never seen their license and you don't know if they are regulated or not and you're going to be trading or exchanging any money or financial transaction involved and a crypto element in it, you might fall under any scam because in in order to make sure that you avoid being scammed with these kind of currencies. Uh you will have to be dealing with authorized people who are licensed to do that. Oh, that's a very nice question. Back to uh youngsters. Any tips for signing my first job contract in Dubai? I can make you a very big list. Uh first of all, if you're signing your first job in Dubai, you have to make sure that you are signing you that you actually read the agreement that you are giving enough time to look at every term and you get the contract and given time to go home with it and read and consult read every line and the things that you don't understand you have to ask and consult a lawyer or someone who is um I don't know more seen senior than you who you can trust. And what these terms mean because there's a lot of information in any employment contract that um affects your holidays or affects your payment or affects your end of service or affects your u place of work itself. Where are you going to work full-time or part-time and what does it mean? and the working hours and the working days and what happen if and what are your obligation what are your KPIs there's a lot of things that you need to understand very well in the contract so the first and the most important advice that I can give you is to read every single word in the contract and understand what it means at the same time you have to read every single article of the labor law of the UAE and you have to make sure that you are reading the law that is relevant to your job whether you have a company your employer is a company registered in DIC for example or in ADGM for example or in the mainland in Dubai or any of the other emirates you have to read the federal law uh employment law because this clarifies a lot your rights and your obligations because everything you will not find in the contract itself self will be mentioned in the law and you will have to abide and adhere too. Are unpaid internships legal in the UAE? Well, technically yes. Unpaid internships are legal. Uh no one should force you to take an unpaid uh job or to do any unpaid work. However, it's your choice. you want to gain the experience or you want to work with a specific manager or in a specific company and this for you um translates into an experience that you would like to uh take anyways. A lot of interns offer themselves for free internships. Some inter internships and some employers look for paid interns and you just have to find the right one for you. But yes, technically it is legal to have an internship that is unpaid. Are my therapy sessions and mental health records kept private in Dubai? This is a very important topic. the privacy of your medical records and uh in in general not just mental health in in general any medical related records for you whether it is uh or any hospital or clinic that you visit or any lab that you go to or your therapist or your doctor everybody have to be very very careful with your medical records and everything have to be kept very confidential and that's Why? Probably when you go to any hospital or a clinic, they ask you for a lot of details, personal details because these records stay with them. They have to report it to Dubai Health Authority or to any health authority in any hospital and they have to connect your profile, to your email address and to your telephone number because these are the two ways all the medical facilities communicate with you through. So, if you for example go to the clinic or the hospital and put your boyfriend's uh email address because you I don't know for whatever reason or you put the telephone number of your cousin um and and because you don't have a phone number right now or because I don't know they they they were at the counter with you when you visit. your information can be uh transferred to them or the medical uh tests that you did in the lab might go to them through a link so that they get updated about it. So you have to be very careful what data do you connect to your medical record and at the same time you have to be very very very careful if you're talking to a psychologist or a mental health uh professional you have to make sure that they are licensed and regulated whether in uh the emirate where you live in or anywhere in the UAE because your data uh will be with them and if they are regulated by an authority, you are protected and your confidentiality is kept and you have the right to sue them if they do anything wrong to you or to your data or they leak any of these confidential information. And maybe this is also a very good advice that I would give. A lot of uh patients uh choose to do this um sessions online and they do very little due diligence on the medical practitioner or the person who is providing them with this aid. So if they do it with someone who lives outside of the UAE, you have to also be very sure where they are licensed and if the laws there are protecting you. But rest assured, if you live in the UAE, your medical records, whether mental or physical, are protected by the law. And if anyone leaked these information, you can definitely sue them and complain about their malpractice. Can my employer fire me just because I'm seeing a therapist or have mental health issues? Of course not. Mental health is just like any other physical um disease or or or condition that you might have and you're allowed to visit your medical uh health practitioner or therapist uh at any point. Um but but in general I don't think it is wise. I know as a as a a lot of people don't feel um don't feel it shy to say what that they are visiting this doctor or that doctor and they give too much information and is like kind of oversharing their conditions because they feel like I'm not shy about it. Yes, that's true and that's good. But private life is a happy life. You have to keep this information for yourself. No one is supposed to know that you are suffering or you have a mental health issue. Of course, it's illegal to be fired or to even take less benefits because you have a mental uh therapist or you attend sessions to know more about yourself or your behavior. uh but at the same time I don't see any relevance of running to your boss or to your manager and telling them hey I have this session with this doctor medical condition or you have an appointment with a clinic is something that is very private and you should keep it for yourself but for sure you should not be fired for such thing. I have a question here from a lady. She says, "I'm only 20. Can I rent an apartment in Dubai?" Well, uh it's a bit tough because if you are under uh 21 in the UAE, you're u generally considered as um below the age where you can um sign contracts and have the the right to um oblige yourself with legal obligations. So you could wait one more year. Uh however uh you might need a parent for example to uh consent or to confirm that they have no problem for you to sign that contract. And in this case the contract will be uh a valid one. But in general I I would say it might be difficult especially if you're signing this contract for employment or for anything else. It might be uh an issue you will not be able to sign on your own at the age of 21. Uh sorry, at the age of 20 once you reach the age of 21, you can sign these contracts on your own. Can I share a flat with friends or sublet my apartment in Dubai? These are two questions by the way. So sharing a flat with your friends is not a problem and it's allowed in the UAE. Uh so cohabilitation even if you are a man and a woman living together in one apartment it's not illegal uh in the UAE anymore. You can do that. However, subletting an apartment or subletting a room in your apartment uh in the UAE is uh not automatically legal but it's not illegal. So you need to make sure in the rental agreement that you are renting uh is mentioning that you have the right to sublet part of this uh apartment or a room in this apartment because the landlord have to approve it whether you are subletting the whole apartment to someone else or you subleting part of it. So the landlord needs to know about it for sure and needs to approve it. And a verbal knowledge is not enough in this case. You need either this term to be mentioned in the contract in writing or to have a complete separate letter from the landlord signed confirming their knowledge and consent. I have a question here that is a bit sad and funny. What if my roommate is stealing my stuff while we live together? He lives legally and he is stealing my stuff. Well, stealing in general is a crime. I mean, you can immediately go and report it to the police. Whether you are roommates or not, stealing in general is something that is uh punishable by law. But you need to prove it. You need to have uh a proof that this object or this stuff belongs to you or was at your possession and you have acquired it, you bought it, you have a receipt or something like that to prove that it belongs to you and it was stolen. Is it okay to live with my boyfriend in Dubai without being married? Well, yes, it is legal for unmarried couple to live together in the UAE. Few years ago, it was uh uh not allowed and it cohabilitation in general was uh illegal. However, you have to understand very well that the consequences of living together as a couple does not protect you. So, as a woman living in the UAE, for example, with your boyfriend, I it's not illegal to live together, but still you're not considered as a couple before the law. So, you don't have any joint rights or you don't have any um he doesn't have any obligation towards you. And if you for example have a baby together, it will be very problematic for you as well. So it is not something that is recommended and I think your rights as a mother will uh will be much lower and much uh harder to prove and to get if you are unmarried couple. So maybe you should think about that. What's the legal age of consent in the UAE? Well, it depends. It's consent to what? So I would uh give a general um legal age of content. For example, for um marriage it would be 21. You can get married before the age of 21 uh if your parent or uh approve it. So in in this case you need to uh a little bit be specific what is consent to what exactly. Can I get in trouble for posting a bad review of a business online? I I I can't repeat that enough. Yes, you can and will get in trouble if you um uh put a bad review for any commercial entity on for example Google reviews. uh whether it is an honest or not uh review uh you can get in trouble because the commercial entity who gets um this bad review that affects its business a lot and this review uh affects it the algorithm and the algorithm affects their business operation very much. So they have the right automatically to go to court and file a case against you for harming their business or for defamation. Maybe the court goes to court and you win because you did not do anything wrong uh or write anything offensive or defamatory in nature in your review. However, you'll be subject to uh be taken to court and you might be not able to travel until the case is over. So, be very careful and think twice before you post a bad review uh online. Can I take a photo or video of someone in public without asking them in Dubai? No, please don't do that. I know some tourists feel uh like doing things like that or some people who live in the UAE but they are I don't know they they got studying abroad and they felt like this kind of uh behavior is accepted in other cultures or other countries. Here in the UAE privacy is a very very important thing and is treated very highly by the authorities. You are not allowed to take my photo or take a video of me or post it without my consent. This is a very serious topic and you might not just be taken to court for doing something like this. You might pay a hefty penalty and the punishment can be jail. So please don't do that. Do I have any right over my personal data in the UAE? Of course, your data is very much protected in the UAE. There's a data personal data protection laws and regulations and the confidentiality of your data is treated very highly. You just have to be a little bit more specific next time you send a question because um it depends. Are you talking about your employer for example or are you talking about your personal data that you share willingly with an app developer or your data that you put on the the the I don't know sheet when you enter a building where you are visiting your friend. Of course all this data is is uh should be treated with highest confidentiality and you have the right to it. What protection do I have against harassment at work? Again, harassment and bullying in general, if you are talking um it is an illegal behavior whether it happens at work or uh anywhere. So uh of course it is uh the punishment to it is even higher if the harasser or the person who are doing the bullying is uh superior to you or have certain powers like your boss or the manager of the company or or so on so forth. So uh of course you have to speak up. You cannot and should not take the bullying and not do anything about it. you have to take it up with um I don't know with your teachers, with your uh other colleagues, you have to take it up with the police. If uh you feel that you are unsafe, it is very important for everybody who is having a bad experience whether verbal harassment, physical harassment or even sexual harassment to speak up. It is on you and if you don't speak up it will get worse. be very careful and speak up about your rights. Protect yourself. The law is on your side. What happen if I drive without a license in Dubai? I mean, I think it's very obvious that a lot of people do that, especially uh newcomers to the UAE who have a little bit of uh uh hard time to uh go through the cost and the time to uh to get a driver's license. And uh but let me tell you it's a it's a bad thing to do and there's a big fine that you might be subject to and whoever is helping you by giving you a car or renting a car for you uh is also going to be in trouble. So the rent a car company that gives uh you the car without the proper license for it is going to be punished and penalized and the insurance will not be covered. uh you're only allowed to drive with a correct license in the UAE. So, if you're a visitor, you need uh either an international driver's license or a driver's license that is acceptable from your home country and you have to stay a tourist in order to benefit from that. Or if you're a resident in the UAE and you have an Emirates ID, your only way to drive is to have your own driver's license issued by the UAE authorities. So if you have a German driver's license and you think it is an automatic thing that I'm going to use it, that's not correct. What you will do is that you will need to go take your European driver's license and go to the public authorities here. you'll be able to produce automatically the UAE driver's license and um be able to drive legally in the UAE. And in this case, by the way, you'll be able to legally rent a car in the UAE and legally buy a car in the UAE and drive safely. Is it allowed to drink alcohol in the UAE? Yes, it is allowed to drink alcohol in the UAE as long as you are of the uh legal age and as long as you are drinking the alcohol in the right uh places which is licensed for this and as long as you are not behaving in a in a drunk uh way in the public uh areas where you're not allowed to uh to be drunk. So be very careful. Uh what is the percentage of alcohol that is accepted in my body to be able to drive? Uh zero. The UAE is taking this matter very very seriously and it's a zero tolerance country. You are not allowed to have one beer and drive. You are not allowed to have one glass of wine and drive. You are not allowed to drink one drink and after two hours to drive. You cannot do that. It is a zero tolerance country. You should never drink and drive. The penalty is hefty. You'll be in jail and you'll be in custody until the prosecutor give you the punishment. Sometimes it can be only penalty. Sometimes it can be penalty and imprisonment and it depends on the damage that you do because of your driving uh under the influence. Be very careful. Will I go to jail if I'm caught with weed in Dubai? Basically, yes. We have also zero tolerance to this kind of drugs. Whether you are consuming or you are processing or you are even um passing by the UEE on a transit, you uh you can be uh put in trouble if you are found to be uh in possession or under the influence of any kind of drugs. Here it is a zero tolerance country. Is trolling or cyber bullying someone online illegal? I think guys you you know the answers of these questions. I'm not sure uh if if you want a yes or no answer. So yes, it's illegal. You cannot do that here for sure. Uh what is the penalty for it? It's it's jail time. So be very careful. And uh it doesn't matter if if if this bullying is uh is happening to someone you don't know or someone you know. So maybe you think it's funny to uh bully someone online of your classroom or if you're a university or even your colleague at work uh and uh and you you think that they would never take it up to the court. Uh you'll be wrong because there's so many examples of friends and even family members who take each other to court because of such behavior. Do I need a license to sell my clothes or sneakers online in Dubai? Uh, no. Basically, no. As long as it's an occasional thing and it's actually yours and you are not making a business out of it, then it's okay. There are many websites and uh marketplaces where you can post pictures and put a price and and do this transaction whether online or cash. That's not a problem. and it's not a commercial activity and it's not a business in sense. But if you like it very much and you're good and all your friends and family and colleagues are giving you their stuff for a certain price and you are putting a margin on it and you're posting it online and you are doing it this as a side hustle and the business. So for sure then you will need a license to do that. What kind of public behavior is okay in Dubai like uh holding hands or the way I dress? Um it is uh very important to explain this because um you have to be very careful. I mean holding hands in general is not uh something like a public display of affection. It's not considered in this sense an a prohibited uh activity or a prohibited behavior that you can do in public. But of course, kissing in public for example uh can be um uh taking in in a disrespectful manner. You have to understand very well who are the people around you and you have to understand very well where are you. If you are on the beach, there is a dress code for the beach. If you are on the swimming pool, there is a dress code for that. If you're in the shopping mall, there's a dress code for that. It's it's common sense. It's not something that um that that is very hard to grasp or very hard to get. The moment you enter the UAE in any airport, you will realize and you will understand how people are dressing up. If you go to the shopping mall, you understand that people also can dress up freely and can dress up based on the weather. This is understood but there is a limit to that and you will understand that you cannot wear the beach wear in the shopping mall exactly like you cannot be wear the same clothes that you wear in the office you know so it is a mix up of common sense and understanding the space around you if you feel like I'm free and I can do whatever I want and you walk around in a shopping mall in a bikini you'll be stopped and uh you might face some trouble. In the same sense, the way you behave with the people around you is also something that you have to be very careful for with public display of affection is is also levels. There's holding hands, there's a nice kiss on the cheek and there is a a very uh warm hug that can be tolerated in many places all around the UAE. But there are other levels of public display of affection that you have to understand that is not uh it's not something that you can do. So it's again reading the space around you is how you uh protect yourself. Oh okay that's a big question. I'm 20 years old girl living in Dubai and I am from Russia. My boyfriend is a local Emirati, 22 years old, and we want to get married. Good. Uh, we are both Muslim and we want to get married. I want to put financial terms in the future for al- Mah and to be able to divorce myself under certain conditions. Is that possible? Well, first of all, congratulations and uh you're too young to make this decision. However, it is a very good thing that you have decided to get married. And if your family is approved and you agree, then you will have the freedom to do that. As a 20 years old uh girl, you will need the consent of your father uh into this marriage. And if he is not available in the UAE for whatever reason, the uh power of attorney will be needed to uh of to officially uh sign the marriage contract. The 20 years old, 22 years old uh Emirati uh gentleman, your boyfriend will be able to represent himself. Of course, you will need two uh witnesses who will witness this uh marriage contract and it can be done in the UAE. In terms of the financial terms of in the future, this is also a possibility, but you will have to inform the marriage official who will be uh notoriizing and uh officially uh getting the marriage registered. What are these terms? because they have to be quantified because of mah have to be mentioned in the contract very clearly and if you are putting it in the future you will have to say within uh what specific period of time. Um in terms of the conditions that will allow you to divorce divorce yourself. Um yes of course you will have to uh put reasonable and legal conditions that if uh they happen you will be able to divorce yourself. But in general and practically, I think you also have the right to ask for the permission to divorce yourself without um specifically putting a specific condition. So that is uh make more sense and maybe much easier to uh to translate and to put in writing. So you can uh officially write that down and u conclude the marriage contract and congratulations in the end. I have to uh thank you so much everybody who uh sent me a question. Uh it is very nice and these questions are very amazing and uh they help us a lot to create uh valuable content. I will not tag you into uh answering any of these questions and uh I will leave you to share them. Please if you find this content valuable and beneficial, share with your colleagues, share with your family and friends, subscribe to the channel and see you next week.