Myrna, a young expat in Dubai, worked as an assistant in a shop for men’s garments, and Shakir came one day as a customer. Following this meeting at the shop, Shakir drew Myrna into a love affair. She fell into his trap, thinking that he’d marry her because he deluded her into believing so. Never could she imagine that he’d lure her and dump her bones one day.
Just a month after they met, he persuaded her to have a relationship with him. This happened in his friend’s flat. All this took place with her consent, and with a verbal agreement on her part that if she got pregnant, she’d immediately go for an abortion.
They continued with their affair, which is forbidden in the UAE. What made it really ugly was that Shakir, with no respect for Myrna’s privacy or reputation, bragged about their affair to his peers giving them all the details. What was a special relationship for her meant nothing to him.
Meanwhile, Myrna lied to her parents who are also working here, telling them that she’d spend the night at a friend’s house because she didn’t want to commute home at night. What she really did, of course, was to spend those nights with Shakir.
Eventually, Shakir did marry Myrna, but it wasn’t the happy occasion that a woman deserves. It was done in secret, and the marriage contract itself was fake. This sham marriage was not out of any desire to protect Myrna’s dignity, but to make it easier for Shakir to push her into prostitution.
But Myrna rejected the idea that she should work in prostitution, with Shakir as her pimp, and the money from this sordid profession divided between them. Since she loved him, she agreed to remain his mistress only.
Some years after their illicit affair began, Myrna left Shakir, seeing how hopeless their relationship was, and if it could be called a relationship at all. As Shakir went out of her life, Myrna was able to focus on her family again – she settled with her parents, and left the job at the garment shop.
Shortly, a cousin named Ghazi asked for her hand in marriage, and Myrna accepted. This was a very happy time for her, as Ghazi was a good man with steady employment. He had a nine-to-six job, and she was a housewife. They had an almost perfect life. But like the plague, Shakir reappeared.
One day, Myrna accidentally met him at a shopping mall when she was buying grocery. Shakir told Myrna that he had just returned to the country two days ago, and that he really needed her and missed their earlier intimacy.
She rebuffed him and told him directly that she was married to her cousin Ghazi and would never cheat on her husband. She also said that she had a baby, named Tahir, with her husband. Shakir should forget about their affair, said Myrna, because there was no way she was going to start that again.
She came home from the mall, and after a few minutes, the doorbell rang…
Myrna opened the door to see – to her surprise and dismay – that it was Shakir at her doorstep. He must have followed her from the mall. This insistent man immediately forced his way into the house. When Myrna shouted for help, Shakir muzzled her with a thick piece of cloth. He threatened to strangle her baby if she resisted him.
He said that he’d kill both her and the baby, and then escape before any neighbor could see him. Completely overcome with fear for her baby’s life, Myrna didn’t know what to do. Shakir didn’t wait for her to decide on anything. He did what he came for – he raped Myrna right there. After that, as he dressed again and was about to leave, he told her brazenly, “I’ll come here whenever there’s a chance. I’ll monitor the movements of your husband and I’ll come and go before he returns. Do not panic.”
When she was alone again, Myrna collapsed in tears. What happened to her was terrible – how dare a criminal enter her house and assault her? Not waiting for Ghazi to return from work, Myrna went to the police station and filed a complaint, giving them a detailed description of Shakir.
Her husband came home in the evening to find her in a miserable state. When he asked what happened, there was nothing she could do but cry. When she finally calmed down, she told Ghazi about the assault.
Ghazi trusted Myrna’s account and promised to stand by her through the investigation into this crime, which had violated the sanctity of his home and
dishonoured his wife.
Two days later, officers from the Criminal Investigation Department phoned Myrna to say that they had managed to trace and arrest the accused, but that he alleged that everything took place with her consent and that they had sex out of wedlock before her marriage to Ghazi.
Myrna tried to deny this at first, but then she confessed before the police that she did, indeed, have a sexual affair with Shakir for years. However, she reiterated that he had raped her in her husband’s house.
Shocked by her confession of a premarital affair, Ghazi divorced her and then filed a custody claim for their baby. Shakir was produced in court and sentenced to jail for some years. Myrna got justice, but because of the forbidden affair she once entered, she also lost the family she had created for herself. She was immediately deported.
LEGAL POINTS TO REMEMBER:
In the UAE, all sex outside marriage is a serious crime. It can land an unwed couple in jail up to three years, followed by deportation.
Prostitution in the United Arab Emirates is illegal both under federal law and Sharia. Punishments can be severe. People who engage in this act are deported after serving their sentences.
DISCLAIMER: The names and details mentioned in this article have been changed to protect the privacy of individuals.
