Posts Tagged ‘UAE’

This Christmas ‘spotlight is on religious harmony’ in UAE

Thursday, December 24th, 2009

Binsal Abdul Kader’ 24/12/09

On Thursday, thousands of Christians will attend the Christmas service at St Andrew’s Church while their Muslim neighbours will be attending the Friday sermon at the mosque next door, illustrating the religious harmony of the UAE, said the church’s pastor. “Every Friday, when mass at church and the prayer call and Friday Sermon at Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Mosque [off Airport Road] go together, I always think of Abu Dhabi as a religious enclave”, pastor Clive Windebank told Gulf News. The pastor added that it was wonderful that Christians in a Muslim country enjoy the freedom to worship and celebrate the religious festival. Considering the religious freedom granted to other faiths, the UAE has a unique position among Muslim countries, according to the Rev Windebank, who is from the UK.

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Couple jailed for forcing girl into prostitution

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Bassam Za’za’; 23/12/09; (3 Items)

An Iraqi and his wife have been jailed after a court convicted them of sexually exploiting a teenage girl to work as an exotic dancer and sex worker. The Dubai Court of First Instance sentenced the 52-year-old electrician, R.A., and his 45-year-old wife, A.I., to three years in jail each followed by deportation. Presiding Judge Al Saeed Mohammad Barghout, who pronounced Tuesday’s judgment, also sentenced a 26-year-old Iraqi salesman, H.M., to a year in jail followed by deportation for aiding and abetting the couple. The court pardoned a 25-year-old Iraqi housewife, B.A., from serving a punishment, which the judge did not specify. She had refuted the charge of failing to report the couple to the authorities. The couple had earlier denied buying the 17-year-old girl from her parents in Iraq and forcing her to work as an exotic dancer and prostitute in Dubai.
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Strength through tolerance

Thursday, July 2nd, 2009

Francis Matthew; 2/7/09

Almost any day you want to, it is possible to go to a mall in the UAE and see groups of women walk-ing arm in arm, in perfect harmony, going shopping and stopping for a coffee. Some will be wearing jeans and a T-shirt, while others will be wearing a black abaya and have covered their hair with a shaila. The women could be Emirati or foreign and none of them have the right to say the others are not believing, practising Muslims. The key to this successful scene of tolerance in the UAE is that each person has the liberty to make personal choices, as long as these choices do not harm others. This principle of liberty being limited by the condition that harm should not be done to others was the heart of the libertarian view as it developed during the 1800s, when many thinkers sought to redefine how individuals should fit into society.

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Protect children at all costs

Tuesday, April 7th, 2009

7/4/09

The problem of child abuse in UAE society should not just be condemned, but tackled with measures that offer practical solutions and alternatives. Such a problem can only be eradicated through a joint effort that involves all members of society. The nine-year-old girl lying in a critical condition at Al Mafraq Hospital after allegedly being abused by her stepmother is a case in point. On a visit to the hospital, General Shaikh Mohammad Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the UAE Armed Forces, observed: “This case is tragic in terms of its catastrophic impact on the victim.”

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Kingdom narrows gender gap

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Taylor Luck; 13/11/08; (3 Items)

Jordan has improved efforts to address the country’s gender gap, according to an international report released on Wednesday. The World Economic Forum’s annual Global Gender Gap Index, which measures economic, legal, social and health gender discrepancies, ranked the Kingdom 104 out of 130 nations included in the 2008 report. In comparison to the region, Jordan made “some of the largest gains across the board”, due to what the report cites as improvements in labour force participation, estimated earned income, literacy rates and an increased number of women in Parliament and in ministerial-level positions.
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UAE releases first anti-human trafficking report

Tuesday, May 20th, 2008

19/5/08

The UAE is committed to doing everything in its power to help stop human trafficking wherever it occurs and to aggressively interdict those who are responsible for it with the toughest possible penalties, according to the first annual report released by the UAE National Committee to Combat Human Trafficking. The annual report, ‘Combating Human Trafficking in the UAE 2007′, released a year after the committee was formed, highlights the country’s stand on the crime, the efforts to counter it, the obstacles and challenges it has encountered, as well as plans for the future.

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