Men must treat their wives with respect in line with Islamic tenets which guarantee women their rights and a fair treatment, according to the government Fatwa (Islamic edict) Centre in Abu Dhabi.
The Centre said the UAE, acting in line with such tenets, has enforced laws to ensure women’s rights and allow them to participate in their country’s development by encouraging them to take up all types of jobs.
The Centre was responding to a question by the public on the woman’s status in the UAE, according to Alkhaleej newspaper.
“The UAE’s personal law is fair to the woman and ensure all her rights…it has annulled discrimination against women and punishes those who practice violence against them…the judicial law is also fair to women and protect them against oppression,” the Centre said in a fatwa (edict) published in Alkhaleej Wednesday.
“The Centre appeals for all husbands to follow sui.t…you are invited to stick to the tenets of the Koran and Islam in treating your wives nicely and in respecting them and their role, privacy and status.”
Abuse your wife? It will cost you. Husbands must now pay wives half their marriage dowry.
Published Monday, July 05, 2010
Husbands who abuse their wives to get them to divorce them are now going to have to pay dearly, following a landmark court case. (AFP)
Husbands divorced by their wives must now pay them half the marriage dowry if there is evidence of abuse, following a landmark Federal Supreme Court ruling.
According to a report in The National, this latest ruling, in which a Northern Emirates wife applied to divorce her husband on the grounds that he was abusive, will set a legal precedent likely to become law.
The ruling is designed to prevent a husband from abusing his wife with the intention of forcing her to divorce him – a circumstance that previously meant the wife usually forfeited her deferred dowry. A deferred dowry is a portion of the marriage dowry money that goes to the wife after the divorce.
According to the report, UAE husbands frequently desert their wives and refuse to pay for their daily needs, with some wives even paying to get their husbands to divorce them.
The newspaper reported that in this landmark case, the wife had demanded Dh60,000 for the deferred dowry; Dh6,000 a month for a marriage allowance (a payment under Sharia law); and Dh50,000 for the 40-day period after divorcing, during which the wife cannot re-marry.
The court found that the husband had neglected the wife and had not paid the required monthly allowance since their marriage on November, 2008. The marriage had been annulled in December, 2009 on the condition that the wife forfeit her right to the deferred dowry. The wife appealed and the Appeals Court upheld the lower-court verdict. The woman then appealed to the Federal Supreme Court, which struck down all other verdicts and granted the wife all of her demands.
Nashwa Al Qubaisi, a lawyer who deals with marriage and divorce disputes, told The National that the verdict would likely “reduce violence and exploitation often practised by husbands”.
“This kind of ruling would definitely help prevent husbands from taking advantage of the family law,” said Ms Al Qubaisi.
“A large number of women sacrifice themselves and all that they have in order to get a divorce.”
She said the current family law needed such legal precedents to move forward.
While change may not be happening at lightening speed things really are changing.
Husband slaps doctor for checking wife
By Staff Published Saturday, March 12, 2011
A Saudi man slapped a doctor in the face after he asked his sick wife to show him where she feels pain during examination at a hospital in the Gulf Kingdom, a newspaper reported on Saturday.
The man had brought his veiled wife to the hospital in the southern province of Jazan with pain in her abdomen and asked the male doctor to treat her.
“When the doctor asked her to show him where the pain is, her husband jumped and slapped him in the face,” Aljazeera Arabic language daily said.
“Hospital security men seized the husband and handed him to the police…a local court ordered that he is lashed 15 times in the presence of that doctor.”
Dad left in shock after kid checked by stranger
By Staff Published Wednesday, February 23, 2011
A Saudi man who took his ill little daughter to a clinic in the Gulf kingdom was left in a state of shock after a presumed doctor who checked her vanished, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.
The unnamed father was waiting in the examination room when a man wearing a necktie came in and asked him about his daughter, the online Arabic language paper 'Sabq' said.
“He then checked her and left…the father waited for a long period of time but that man did not come back,” the paper said in a report from the central town of Makkah.
“When he asked the nurse about the doctor who checked his daughter, she replied that there is only one doctor who was busy with another patient…the father searched the other sections of the clinic and then rushed out to look for that strange man….he could not find him and remained in a state of a shock about his identity.”