Dubai: Are you a victim of domestic abuse?
Call DFWAC (800111 hotline) or go to the nearest police station or call 999.
Any woman who has been abused, thrown out or threatened by her husband can seek help from Dubai Police round the clock.
Dubai Police’s Women and Children Protection Department at the Human Right’s Department has helped women over the years, and even provided them with temporary shelter, with the help of Dubai Foundation for Women and Children.
Brigadier Mohammad Al Murr, Director of the Human Rights Department, said in 2013, the Social Support unit at the Women and Children’s department had handled 44 cases of violence against women, out of the 113 cases the department had received.
In 2014, there were 65 violence against women cases out of the total 105 and 35 out of 75 in 2015.
In the first quarter of this year, the department received 18 cases in total. The breakdown of how many cases involved women was not available.
Major Shaheen Al Maazmi, Director of the Women and Children Protection Department, said they have received women at odd hours.
“We had cases where the man and wife fought, he threw his wife and sometimes even their children out of the house. This is against the law,” he said.
Sometimes, the husband does not throw the wife out, but threatens to hit or kill her, and sometimes he beats and abuses her.
“She can seek our help if she feels threatened or is scared of being a victim of violence,” he said.
The only criterion needed for them to help women is that she has been subject to any form of abuse or violence, whether physical, verbal or psychological.
He said in these cases, if the woman has family here in the UAE, she would stay with them. “But in many cases, even if they have family, they seek our or the foundation’s help.”
“Whenever any of Dubai Police’s stations or the operations room receives such a case, they call us immediately at any time — even on weekends — and we work with the foundation to provide the necessary help,” Maj Al Maazmi explained.
“We look into the woman’s case, and sometimes we provide temporary shelter until her case is looked into,” Maj Al Maazmi explained.
Fatima Al Kindi, Head of the Social Support unit, said, “Cases of violence against women, whether verbal or physical, are ... recurring cases ... every year.”
Many of the cases are legitimate, while in some cases, the woman misunderstands the situation, she said.
Most cases the department receives involve physical violence.
“Sometimes some women seek our help to put pressure on their husbands to comply with their demands, but there is not actual violence. This is not right, as the foundation is not a hotel, it is a shelter for abused women,” Al Kindi explained.
The majority of women who seek help are expatriates, as they do not have families here to help them out.
“If a doctor suspects that a woman was abused, he can immediately notify the police office in the hospital — which all hospitals have — and the police officer can open a case and start investigating the matter,” she said.
Some violence cases stay unknown, because women do not report them, and tolerate the abuse for the sake of their children.
Violence against women
2013
44 cases
2014
65 cases
2015
35 cases
1st quarter of 2016
18 cases