Mission & Justice

Nina Muslim;14/8/08

Seven Filipinos have committed suicide in the UAE over the past few months, according to a Filipino workers advocacy group, although Philippine authorities here say the figure is three. A press statement from the UAE chapter of Migrante said three suicide cases occurred in Dubai and the northern emirates, while the others were from Abu Dhabi. The earliest recorded case was of a man who hanged himself on February 4, while the latest was a woman who jumped from a building on August 10.

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Alia Al Theeb; 20/7/08

Wife-beating was the most common crime dealt with by Dubai Police’s family security department last year. The department dealt with a total of 455 cases related to various family problems. Lt Col Arif Baqer, director of the family security department, said the department dealt with 126 cases of wife beating. He said the department also dealt with 113 cases of disputes among spouses, 35 swearing cases, 50 cases involving psychological and social counselling, 26 disputes between parents and children above 18 years, 18 cases of nuisance, 17 cases of disputes over child custody and 8 cases of psychological and social threats, such as threats of divorce.

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9/7/08

The head of the Riyadh Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s (RCCI) Recruitment Committee, Waleed Al-Soweidan, has criticized a report by the US-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) on the ill treatment of housemaids in the Kingdom, saying the report is based on only “a few cases in which domestic helpers have suffered.” In its 133-page report, entitled “If I Am Not Human: Abuses Against Asian Domestic Workers in Saudi Arabia,” released yesterday, the HRW called for sweeping labor and justice reforms and for stricter punishment for sponsors who abuse workers. “Saudi families are abusing female migrant workers to the point of slavery and Riyadh needs to respond with sweeping labor and justice reforms,” the report stated. “There are more than a million domestic helpers, including maids, in the Kingdom and it is natural that there will be some problems and disputes here and there,” said Al-Soweidan.

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Hassna’a Mokhtar; 26/5/08

Court bureaucracy has further impeded the case of five Pakistani mechanics, who for five years have not been paid their salaries and are living destitute in a rundown defunct factory in south Jeddah. In order to get their case moving, the five men need a Power of Attorney (POA) to enable their lawyer to act on their behalf. However, of-ficials at the Jeddah Court refused to issue a POA, as some of the men do not have iqamas.

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Nermeen Murad; 26/5/08

The Jordan Centre for Social Research has just completed a survey on violence towards women in Jordan which, hopefully, will help lift the veil off this disturbing phenomenon. Apart from the obviously shocking finding that six out of 10 women is abused in Jordan and one in four is physically abused, the even more shocking revelation is that almost half of the women polled believe that physical violence is acceptable under certain conditions. This shocking prevalence of abuse towards women in the Kingdom is only surpassed by the lack of faith these abused women have in the ability of the system to protect women, whether through awareness campaigns, legislation that would criminalise abuse or even providing safe homes for the abused. The poll, financed by Freedom House, found that only 9 per cent of abused women seek professional help because they fear losing their family (in the case of single women abused by a father or brother) or their children (in the case of married women).

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Bassam Za’za’; 20/5/08

Two women on Tuesday stood trial for kissing and cuddling on a public beach. The women, a 30-year-old Lebanese visitor and 36-year-old Bulgarian employee, pleaded not guilty to kissing, cuddling and sleeping on each other like married couples before the Dubai Court of Misdemeanour. The Public Prosecution charged the girls with kissing, groping each other and indecently gesturing in public. The two girls, who are currently on bail, denied their charges during yesterday’s hearing.

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Bassam Za’za’; 18/4/08

A court has reduced the seven-year imprisonment of a young man who was charged with rape, to three years in jail after his lawyer maintained that “his client didn’t rape the victim”. The Dubai Court of Appeal on Thursday reduced the initial verdict, seven years in jail, to three years. The Dubai Court of First Instance earlier convicted the 18-year-old Emirati, S.K., and 20-year-old Iraqi, W.F., with kidnapping and repeatedly raping the 18-year-old Emirati girl, who reports said had fled her parents’ home. S.K.’s lawyers Jasem and Yasser Al Naqbi, of Excel Advocates and Legal Consultants, sought a reduced term for their client because of his young age.

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Bassma Al Jandaly; 18/4/08

Men, even non-Muslims, are increasingly trying to stop their ex-wives from gaining custody of their children by claiming they have committed adultery under Sharia. According to Sharia, women are not allowed to be alone with a man other than their relatives in an enclosed place. Courts have been witnessing a number of cases in which some divorced men are trying to abuse this law to get custody of their children. A British woman and mother of one child who was once married to another Briton is an example. After seeking a divorce the woman moved to Sharjah with her daughter.

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