DUBAI (Reuters) - Khadija Ahmad and her family are the onlyresidents left in Dubai’s old Bastakiya quarter, her houselittle changed since she arrived as a new bride more than 70years ago.
Nestled among mushrooming skyscrapers and multi-lanehighways, the rabbit warren of streets dating from the 1890s isone of the few reminders left of Dubai’s past as a sleepyvillage where people earned money by diving for pearls.
In the 1990s, the government bought out most homeowners inBastakiya to protect the run-down district from developers.Today, the area beside Dubai creek is home to galleries, cafesand restaurants, and to Ahmad and her family who declined thestate’s offer to buy them out.
“Fifteen years ago, they moved everyone out. Thank God, wewere able to stay,” said Ahmad, standing just inside her frontdoor, out of sight of male passers-by.
In less than 60 years, the United Arab Emirates’ hub hasbecome a byword for ostentatious wealth, speckled with onejaw-dropping development after another, like a set of islandsshaped like palm trees and the sail-shaped Burj al-Arab hotel
SOURCE: elEconomista – Old Dubai clings to life as new city rises
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