Wordless Wednesday: The UAE's National Day Festival

She's the face of Dubai, and she has plenty to celebrate: December 2 is the United Arab Emirates' National Day Festival, commemorating the UAE's independence from Britain on that day in 1971.

The girl is not identified, except by hers smile: the Emirates have, along with Qatar and Bahrain, been the Middle East's saving grace in the last couple of decades. Those countries are less authoritarian, socially and economically freer, certainly richer, and artistically more daring and interesting than most other countries in the Middle East even if, politically and in matters of women's and other human and civil rights, they still have a very long way to go.

Here's a more complete story: "When the United Arab Emirates Won Independence From Britain."

See Also:

• UAE: Country Profile
• The National Joins the Media Landscape in the UAE
• What Is the Gulf Cooperation Council?
• The UAE Makes Arabic Its Official Language
• Millionaire Explosion in the UAE
• Bleaker UAE: A Tale of Two Rapes