Dubai court grants divorce to wife defamed of adultery by husband in front of their daughter
Woman in Dubai secures divorce using a Lebanese personal status law after legal battle
Dubai: A woman in Dubai has won her legal battle for securing a divorce after her husband accused her of adultery in front of their daughter and other members of her family.
Her demand for a divorce was at first turned down by a Dubai court, as the husband had refused to grant a divorce. However, she appealed, requesting the court to apply a personal status law used by her religious denomination in family matters in her home country of Lebanon.
The court agreed and she ended up wining the case, securing the divorce for herself as well as alimony from the man.
Dubai Court of Appeal ordered the divorce of the non-Muslim couple from Lebanon and also granted custody of the 13-year-old daughter to the mother.
What had happened?
According to official records, the couple had married in 2005 in their home country before they moved to the UAE.
Records showed that life between the couple had become impossible after the 37-year-old husband defamed his wife in front of her family.
Lawyer Mohammad Al Najar, representing the woman, said that the family guidance section at Dubai Courts couldn’t settle the dispute between the couple and referred the matter to Dubai Courts for a divorce.
The Dubai Court of First Instance ordered the wife to return to her husband and rejected the divorce plea.
However, Al Najar appealed the order and asked the Appeal Court to apply the Lebanese personal status law of the Greek Orthodox sect as per the wife’s request.
‘He defamed her without a reason’
Al Najar said: “He accused her of adultery in front of her parents and daughter. He used to ask her friends at work to abandon her. He defamed my client’s reputation without a reason.”
The lawyer presented a copy of the personal status law of the Greek Orthodox sect in Lebanon when asking the court to issue a divorce order based on the law.
The husband, who is from the Maronite sect, refused to divorce his wife and told the family guidance section at Dubai Courts that they didn’t agree on the financial matters.
Money problems
“He didn’t care about the marriage; his concern was the financial matters. He compromised on her money to grant her the divorce,” Al Najar said.
The wife presented evidence including WhatsApp voice messages from her husband to her parents.
She said that her husband stopped supporting the family financially in the last 30 months and she paid the daughter’s school fees as well as payments on their house, bills and the maid’s salary.
“My client was paying the fees and instalments on the house. Even she was paying his car instalments. He made the daughter involved in their dispute until she had to leave and live in another rented house,” the lawyer said.
Court ruling
Dubai Court of Appeal overturned the first instance verdict and ordered to the man to divorce his wife and pay Dh5,000 per month alimony for the daughter, in addition to paying the bills.
Box: Did you know?
Dubai marriage law follows the principles of Islamic law, called Sharia. All residents are bound to follow the principles of Sharia, unless they opt for using the laws of their own country in family matters.