Multiple Beatings only please.
No wonder those who have been here only a fews months/years seem to think the place is "mecca". Welcome to the hidden underbelly that is Dubai:
'Hidden Misery'
Wednesday, 01 March 2006
Domestic violence in Dubai is much higher than newly released police statistics suggest, the head of a women’s shelter said.
Figures released yesterday by the human rights section of Dubai police said they dealt with 45 cases of family problems in the city last year – only four of which were violence against women.
The rest of the cases involved child abuse, verbal abuse of wives and children, and child abandonment. But Sharla Musabih who runs ‘City of Hope,’ a shelter for abused women in Dubai, last night said police figures did not reflect the reality.
“Last month alone, I received five cases and to suggest that only four women were beaten up all last year is simply hard to believe,” she added. Victims came from a wide variety of nationalities.
The problem lies within the system, Mrs Musabih said. “Abused women who go to the police are always sent back home after police summons the husband and ask him to sign a form promising not to beat up his wife again.
The humiliated husband then goes back home and beats his wife even harder for putting him through this,” she added. This often happened several times before City of Hope took the victim in.
“Police usually call me to tell me this woman has suffered enough after she’s gone to them countless times bearing bruises, scars and other injuries,” she said. Often, for cultural reasons, abuse was never even reported to the police.
The shelter, set up in 2001, currently houses 30 women and ten children, “and we had to rent another villa to deal with pending cases many of which are high risk,” Mrs Musabih said.
Major Aref Baqer, head of the human rights department said he was “very happy with the humane and social work” it was doing. He said the department was able to resolve 80 per cent of the complaints brought to its attention.