Fortune Telling

I was sitting outside a restaurant when I noticed two ladies sitting inside with a deck of cards. I have seen many men sitting in shisha parlours playing cards, but never women. However, after passing the deck back and forth a few times, one lady began laying the cards out, and I realized what I was watching.

In the West, one occasionally sees a sign (usually in the less reputable sections of a city) that says 'Fortunes Told.' (After Clinton abolished welfare for mothers with small children, the City of New York proposed putting all its former welfare mothers to work as fortune tellers.)

I have never seen such a sign advertising fortune telling anywhere in the UAE, nor have I seen anyone plying such a trade in Dubai (though it probably happens somewhere, but more surreptitiously than in the Northern Emirate where I was sitting).

The nature of fortune telling is such that I couldn't really get any closer to get a better look, but as best I could see, it looked like any normal cartomancy.

I'm not certain what the legal status of fortune telling is in the UAE, or if the laws are local rather than federal.

But this was the first time I've ever seen cartomancy practised in front of a large window.

Perhaps I should go back to the restaurant and ask the lady about the DFM, freehold property, and the future price of oil.