An illustrated guide to avoiding insulting the locals during your next foreign holiday. Telegraph Travel does not accept any responsibility for violence, rioting or deportation that may result from attempts to mimic the following gestures.

Five fathers

Meaning: You have five fathers, i.e., your mother is a whore

Used in: Arab countries, Caribbean

If you are looking to get yourself deported from Saudi Arabia – possibly amid a riot – you can do no better than the Five Fathers gesture. The most inflammatory hand gesture in the Arab world, this sign accuses the subject’s mother of having so many suitors that paternity is impossible to determine. To execute, point your left index finger at your right hand, while pursing all fingers of the right hand together. The insult is extreme and almost certain to provoke violence.