DUBAI: An official has advised female expats in a relationship with other nationalities to know the law and other related statutes about getting married before tying the knot to ensure they don’t end up stuck in a fake marriage.
Ghanima Al Bahri, Care and Rehabilitation Director, Dubai Foundation for Women and Children
“Take your time,” Ghanima Al Bahri, care and rehabilitation director at Dubai Foundation for Women and Children (DFWAC), said during a recent press conference announcing the agency’s annual report.
“Before taking a decision of getting married, you need to, first of all, study him very well. Don’t get emotional about what you see. Ask about him. Get to know him,” she told The Filipino Times.
“The most important thing,” she said, “is to understand the country that you are in.
“Make sure that that you go check the laws…marriage law… custody law. Be aware. Don’t let someone manipulate and put you in an unhealthy relationship because the consequences will not only be on you but as well on your children.”
Al Bahri said DFWAC has a “good number” of cases about violence against women that involved mixed marriages.
She said oftentimes, the woman’s lack of awareness about the system and how it works is “the biggest problem.”
“They need to be made aware. Does this marriage have the right stamp? right signature? Is it an official paper or not? This kind of issues, we are seeing on the marriage cases,” Al Bahri said.
“We have good number of cases of domestic violence in mixed marriages. It happens when a couple decide to get married and they come from different backgrounds, religious community, culture and they don’t discuss that before getting married.
“It becomes bigger in some mixed marriage case, the lady discovers a few months after getting married that her marriage is not legal,” said Al Bahri.
She said all relationships start in the honeymoon stage where the male or spouse is “very nice to the lady, showing her his good side, giving her flowers and diamonds or gold … all of the nice things.”
“But then later, there will be tension in the relationship. Verbal abuse and neglect escalate to physical abuse,” she added.
The number of cases of domestic violence and abuse against women that DFWAC has received has been increasing in the past years with 553 documented in 2018; 494 in 2017; 455 in 2016; and 435 in 2015.
The DFWAC was formed in 2007 by virtue of a decree signed by HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, and Ruler of Dubai.
