Women’s Rights?

More like a woman wronged

It’s sometimes easy to lose sight of how good we have it. As Americans, we tend to take the many freedoms and privileges we enjoy for granted and consider them rights. Things like clean air, a safe water supply and relative equality for women.

Here in Dubai, with all of it’s glitz and glamour, one would assume that if they can build the world’s tallest building and brag of the world’s only seven-star hotel, that clean air and water would be a given. Well, that’s another topic. With regard to women’s rights, many of you are likely conjuring up images of subjugated women clad head-to-toe in black. Unfortunately, that is sometimes not so far off the mark.

As a Western woman living here as an expat, I enjoy most of the freedoms and rights I would at home. Unlike what I’d experience in more restrictive countries in the region such as Saudi Arabia, I can work, drive and wear a bikini on the beach. I can even buy a bottle of wine, with my husband’s permission, of course. But do women living in the U.A.E have equal rights?

Take the case of Marnie Pearce, a British mother of two, married to an Egyptian. I don’t know if her husband is a Muslim or not, and in this case it doesn’t matter. Depending on her domestic arrangement, she’s likely able to work, drive and even wear a bikini on the beach. But I’m sure those trivial matters are the least of her worries now because she may never again see her two sons, aged seven and four. She’s currently in prison serving a three-month sentence for adultery, which is a criminal offense in this country. Upon her release from jail she will promptly be deported to the UK and likely never allowed back into the U.A.E. The young boys will stay here, with their father.

Pearce had been separated from her husband for four months when police raided her Dubai home in March and found a British man in her bedroom. Her estranged husband had the Public Prosecutor file charges against her for “having consensual sex out of wedlock with another man.” (Imagine if she had been with “another woman!” Double whammy - homosexuality is illegal here as well.) Pearce testified at her trial that she was in the kitchen downstairs making a cup of tea when the officers arrived, and a male acquaintance was upstairs in the bedroom fixing her computer. She denies having any kind of inappropriate relationship with the man.

As it turns out the police didn’t raid her home on a random spot check. According to Pearce, her husband framed her. She claims HE was the one having an affair. His motivation for maliciously having her arrested is alleged to have been an attempt to assure himself custody of their two boys after their divorce. A mother convicted of an "honor crime" usually forfeits her right to apply for custody.

And there's more drama to the story. After losing her case on appeal, Pearce went on the run with her two children for a few weeks before finally turning herself in and handing the boys over to their father. Can you blame her? She knew she’d be deported following her sentence. What mother wouldn't risk further punishment for a few stolen weeks with her children? Shame she didn't make a run for the Omani border with them; she might have been able to flee to the UK from there. But in the meantime, while on the lam in the U.A.E. she’d have been stuck without any way to support herself and her family once her visa expired or was cancelled by her husband. Most women here (including myself) are in this country by the grace of their husband's sponsorship.

I learned from a local lawyer, Counselor P, that under U.A.E. law it is just as illegal for a man to commit adultery as it is for a woman. However, according to Counselor P, if a man is caught with say his Filipina maid (apparently this is not uncommon among local men), he merely claims that the woman is his third or fourth wife. "But wouldn't he have to prove that with documentation?" I naively ask. "Of course," says Counselor P, "but a marriage certificate is easily fabricated and back-dated. I've done it many times myself for clients." Nice.

So.....you be the judge. I am in no way suggesting that adultery is permissible or justified. Without a doubt it is morally wrong. But illegal? Come on. I wish I had access to the statistics of men vs. woman convicted of this crime. But what’s really frightening here is the peril of women and mothers. Ms. Pearce is the mother of that man's children, whether she boinked the Brit or not! There has been no suggestion that she's an unfit mother, or a drug addict, or that she is abusive. It appears that he’s being vindictive. And all of this in a country where men can have up to four wives AT THE SAME TIME and then even take a fifth, as long as he gives one of the first four the boot. Women's rights? This is dead wrong.