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28 November, 2006

Father from hell

Here's a man and woman who have been married for five years and have a daughter. Only now they're no longer married, because the woman's brother filed a lawsuit on behalf of the their illiterate father to have the marriage dissolved:

"Dubai — The Dubai Court of Cassation has upheld a verdict issued by the Shariah Court ordering the termination of a five-year marriage between a national woman and an Egyptian man after the wife’s guardian filed a lawsuit against it saying it was solemnised without his consent."

A guardian is someone who protects the interests of their ward. It is not someone who five years down the track rips their own daughter's family apart, and renders their granddaughter illegitimate. Even if the woman wanted her marriage dissolved, this is hardly the way to proceed when a young child is involved, in a culture where illegitimacy still carries stigma.

Righteous behaviour is about more than the letter of the law. It is about intent and about acting out of love and compassion, not hatred and spite.

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16 Comments:

Blogger Woke said...

Will the couple spend the rest of their lives in jail for pursuing an illicit relationship now that the marriage is declared invalid?

28 November, 2006 08:42  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Correct me if I am wrong but according to the law, if the woman is divorced, she could re-marry without any conset from her family. Threfore, I assume she could re-marry her husband now and her father can do nothing about it.

I swear someone this morning told me this crap and thought what a "waste of time" for the couple...if it's true

Can anyone confirm?

28 November, 2006 10:07  
Blogger al-republican said...

It is true that a marriage contract is void if the approval of the guardian of the woman is missing.

As per Islamic law, the guardian of the woman is her father (and then the brothers and so on). The illiteracy of the man does not qualify as a valid reason to waive his guardianship to his sons!

I have a feeling this woman ran away with the Egyptian man and got married against her parents' wishes. When she did get married, her family would have decided to bury the hatchet and accept them both. Five years down the road, some complication must have crept up and now the girl and her family are using loopholes in the law to break the marriage, but not making it sound like a "Khula" (divorce instigated from the woman) as she will not be entitled to a share of the Egyptian's man wealth and mahr.

28 November, 2006 10:16  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I cant get past the guardian approval. Does this apply to women of any age?

28 November, 2006 12:38  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i think it does apply to any age. but i think that there is a clause where if there is no immediate family present (or willing) then the qazi performing the nikah can act as the guardian.

but this rarely happens as the qazi doesnt want to get involved because of the chance of physical damage to himself courtsey the woman's family

28 November, 2006 15:50  
Blogger The Ego said...

But did she even want the marriage to be dissolved? Or can the guardian ask for the marriage to be dissolved without the womans' consent??

28 November, 2006 17:02  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There is a lot more to this story than whats mentioned in the KT report... For example, the report doesn't mention that if a UAE national woman gets married to non-national without government permission, her passport will be revoked and she will be stripped out of her UAE nationality.

28 November, 2006 17:27  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

http://seveninchesofsense.mu.nu/archives/205794.php

28 November, 2006 19:12  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

SD, I think there are always two sides to a divorce story. Perhaps there could have been physical abuse involved, and since UAE is a conservative society (and given the limited freedom of press) we may not know the entire chain of events.

From personal experience, an Emirati woman (whom I've know for the past 20 plus years) married to a Jordanian businessman, was subsequently divorced after 3 years of marriage. There was spousal abuse involved, he physically abused this young woman. She didn't speak of it to her family for various personal reasons.

My mom, a gynecologist, managed the delivery of their first born and couldn't help notice the black & blue "palm prints" and "men's belt prints" on the woman's face & all over her body. It took quite an amount of persuasion, to bring up the issue with the her folks.

Needless to say, the marriage was nullified, similar to the story on your post.

28 November, 2006 20:41  
Blogger Harsha said...

I'm so damn sure I've come across this before

28 November, 2006 23:35  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hey,

women are the weaker race and need to be covered up and protected from the world.

So it is perfectly logical that us men make their decisions for them.

29 November, 2006 11:02  
Blogger fire alarm said...

as sad as it is its very common in this region

29 November, 2006 15:12  
Blogger Jassim said...

Yeah...women are naturally weaker. Thats why SD chickened out in allowing comments on the next post.


and Twix all women from the other regions are treated equally and it is totally unthinkable to think a lady will be raped abused or anything anywhere else. It is far from common everywhere else.

Some sarcasm in this reply (i hav to say that now coz people who blog and/or leave comments have a low IQ and will be offended as usual).

30 November, 2006 14:45  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Jassim you are too touchy, just because someone says something about this region doesn't mean they are saying it can't happen everywhere else. In this "conversation" we are not talking about everywhere else, we are talking about HERE. Why is that so hard for you to comprehend?

30 November, 2006 15:24  
Blogger Jassim said...

Blah blah blah. Why is that so hard for you to comprehend?


And you say I'm touchy?

30 November, 2006 16:28  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

>>Blah blah blah. Why is that so hard for you to comprehend?<<

Because I don't speak drivel, while clearly it is your native tongue lol

01 December, 2006 11:00  

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