Dubai-based activist wins recognition

Dubai: This week human rights activist Sharla Musabih is coming in from the cold. She is being officially honoured by Dubai Police.

After four years running the City of Hope Women's Shelter, Musabih is confident her voice will be heard as constructive criticism.

"I work directly with the human rights department," she says. "I take cases from them. We've developed a good relationship."

The City of Hope Women's Shelter, one of the Middle East's few shelters for battered wives, is currently home to 30 women and seven children. It is financed through corporate sponsorship and work of "a few hundred volunteers from all over the world" and it provides temporary accommodation for victims.

She hopes the official recognition by the police will herald increasingly close co-operation.