• Middle East Emirates wants less sharia and more tolerance

They have been married for 25 years and will continue to do so, despite the desire to divorce her.

The Sharia court of the emirate of

Sharjah

has rejected the request for separation made by a citizen of the

United Arab Emirates

in a case that calls into question the tolerance and modernity that the country tries to display.

The court in charge of issuing the ruling under Islamic law has rejected the request of the woman in her 40s who, according to the local press,

had decided to end 25 years of marriage

to a man in his fifties.

The judge has not only denied the Emirati the right to divorce.

She has also urged her to return "obediently" to her husband's home

and show respect to him and his family.

The ruling also stipulates a drastic reduction in the money that the spouse gave him monthly as expenses, from the previous 25,000 Emirati dirham (about 5,600 euros) to the current 6,000 (1,345 euros).

According to published details, the divorce request came from the woman.

The lawyer hired by the husband

then alleged that the man professed "great love"

for his spouse and that he was taking charge of the family home.

As a supposed proof of that love, he assured that he gave her a significant amount of money per month and that "he had bought her a luxury vehicle."

The applicant's response before the judge was emphatic.

"I cannot continue living with him. I want a divorce," she claimed after explaining that, among other reasons, she

wanted to have the freedom to travel

.

The husband, for his part, insisted that he had no intention of divorcing and that he had never objected to his wife

going out with friends despite "showing him no respect."

The final verdict forces the applicant to return to the family home with her husband in a twist that shows

the lack of equality

and respect for the rights of women that are still registered in Sharjah, one of the seven emirates that make up United Arab Emirates.

"It is complete madness due to a discriminatory personal status law that prevents women from exercising their rights.

Meanwhile, men can divorce them in a minute,"

Suad Abu Dayyeh, researcher at Equality Now, tells EL MUNDO.

Organizations such as

Human Rights Watch

(HRW) have been denouncing for years that men can divorce unilaterally while women need to apply for it in court.

The police, they add, do

not investigate as they should the complaints of domestic violence

in the Emirates, a matter that - as in many other countries in the area - is a complete taboo that even lacks official statistics.

The penal code allows "the husband to punish his wife and minor children" as

long as the assault does not exceed the limits of Islamic law and does not leave a physical mark.

"There is a need to amend and eliminate discriminatory provisions in the personal status law," argues Abu Dayyeh.

"We need to have

a civil law that treats women equally with men," she

adds.

At the end of last year the federation of seven emirates, ruled without concessions by their six royal families, announced the end of some of the restrictions on personal freedoms imposed for decades in the name of sharia.

The country, with a population of around 10 million and of which 90% is foreign,

decriminalized alcohol consumption then

;

eliminated the defenses that had lowered the punishment for so-called "honor crimes";

It allowed extramarital coexistence

and the application for its foreign residents of the divorce and inheritance laws of their countries of origin.

Even then, the reform raised doubts about its application to the local population.

The country, led by the emirates of Abu Dhabi and Dubai, continues to grapple with inequality.

According to the latest HRW annual report, a woman can lose her right to alimony if she refuses to have sex with her husband without "a legal excuse".

Furthermore, a female must "obey" her husband and

could be considered disobedient if she decides to seek employment without the consent

of the spouse.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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