Houston Woman Faces Jail for Screaming in Dubai

A popular social media influencer and truck driver from Texas has reportedly been stuck in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates for months after she was arrested following a public argument. Police are believed to have confiscated her passport, meaning she cannot leave the country.

Houston woman Tierra Allen could now face prison time after being charged with screaming in public, her mom, Tina Baxter, told local news station FOX 26. The incident is said to have occurred during a dispute between the 29-year-old and a male employee at a car rental firm. However, Dubai Police subsequently told Newsweek that Allen was not arrested "merely for 'yelling'" but for "slandering and defaming" the man.

Laws on conduct in public in the U.A.E are very different to those in the U.S. and the Department of State has warned Americans who consider visiting the predominantly Muslim country, that: "Public decency and morality laws throughout the U.A.E are much stricter than in the United States."

Illegal activities include homosexual relationships, public displays of affection, dressing immodestly, and swearing or arguing in public, according to an advisory issued by travel firm HolidayExtras.

Allen, who is originally from San Diego, California, is known online for running a social media account across various platforms called The Sassy Trucker that documents her journeys.

Her accounts have proven popular on social media, and she was even featured by CNN in a 2021 article about female truckers becoming TikTok influencers. Her TikTok page boasts more than 182,000 followers, her Instagram has almost 52,000 accounts following it, while her Facebook page is followed by 61,000 accounts.

Newsweek has reached out to Allen through Facebook, although it is unclear whether she has access to her account.

Allen's mom Tina Baxter told Fox 26 that her daughter had been with a friend in their hired car when they became involved in an accident around two months' ago. Neither was hurt, but Allen then became embroiled in a dispute with an employee at the rental company as she tried to retrieve her I.D., credit card and other personal items that she had left in the vehicle.

"She found out she could only receive those items if she paid an undisclosed amount of money. She dealt with a very aggressive individual, a young man there who was screaming at her," Baxter said.

The mom told the broadcaster that during the confrontation her daughter yelled back at the worker. The encounter was captured on a surveillance camera and the footage is likely to be used as evidence.

Dubai's police force—which is well-funded and boasts a fleet of eye-wateringly expensive cars, including Aston Martins, Bugattis, and Ferraris—are said to have arrested Allen after the incident. Her passport was reportedly confiscated while an investigation is conducted.

Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in the U.A.E. and Dubai Police by email on Monday, July 17, requesting further information and comment on the case.

Newsweek received the following reply from the police just over a week later on Tuesday, July 25: "The Dubai Police General Command firmly denies allegations made in some stories circulating in the media that an American woman was arrested merely for 'yelling' in public. The reports present a completely distorted picture of the case.

"Dubai police received a complaint from a car rental office, accusing her of slandering and defaming an employee amidst a dispute over car rental fees.

"The individual was questioned as per legal procedures and subsequently released pending the resolution of ongoing legal proceedings between her and the car rental office."

In any case, Baxter told Fox 26: "It also could result in prison time. So, it's very scary." Discussing the effect the case has had on her family, she added: "It's been very emotional. There are some days I stay up all night crying[...] It's very frightening. The longer she's been there the more reality has started to kick in."

Legal advice website Detained in Dubai CEO Radha Stirling CEO told Newsweek that she has called on Allen's political representatives, including Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and Senator Ted Cruz, to step in. She said she has asked the pair "to liaise with the U.S. Consulate in the U.A.E....before she (Allen) ends up in a desert prison."

It is not the first time Westerners have found themselves in legal hot water during their vacations.

A British mom, Laleh Shahravesh, was arrested after calling her ex-husband's new wife a "horse" on Facebook. Even though she wrote the post while in the U.K., when she traveled to Dubai in 2019 she was accused of breaking the country's strict cyber crime laws and was forced to wait for her trial for weeks in a hotel room. She was eventually allowed to leave after paying an $800 fine, the BBC reported.

While a U.K.-based dentist, originally from Sweden, was detained for three days along with her four-year-old daughter after accepting a complimentary alcoholic drink on her flight to Dubai. Ellie Holman and her daughter Bibi were kept in a cell during the incident in July 2018, according to a report by the website cited by the British newspaper The Guardian.

Update 07/17/23, 1:29 p.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Detained in Dubai CEO Radha Stirling.

Update 07/25/23, 11:18 a.m. ET: This article was updated with a comment from Dubai Police.