DUBAI // A woman has been sentenced to a month in jail for flashing her middle finger at a man in traffic and insulting him.

Just before midnight on September 20 last year E A, 30, an Emirati financial auditor, was in a line a few cars behind O A, 24, and his friend in the car park at Mirdif City Centre.

“There was a traffic jam ahead of me as drivers were looking for parking,” he said.

“She passed the cars between my car and hers and, as she reached mine, she started honking her horn at me so I would make way.

“I couldn’t get out of the way for her. Then I saw her in the mirror flashing her middle finger at me.”

He said that as he parked his car she passed him with her window open, laughing loudly at him, so he wrote down her plate number.

“Then she was called by police and came to the Rashidiya police station,” he said. “She insulted me in front of police, telling me I was an indecent man and that she would drag me to prosecution and show me what she can do.”

The defendant denied the story during investigations, saying the man had lowered his window and was trying to flirt with her and get her mobile number.

“I did not flash my finger at him nor did I insult him,” she said. “I was angry at the time but I didn’t do any of the things he said I did.”

She denied committing a publicly indecent act but was found guilty in the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours and sentenced to a month in jail, with a Dh2,000 fine.

salamir@thenational.ae