Q: I am a Hindu married in India in Dec 2017. I came immediately to Dubai with my husband who is an NRI born brought up in Dubai. Soon I was pregnant, was sent to India for abortion against my will around Jan 2018. I came back to Dubai but my husband who stays with his parents insisted I go back for a few more days to India and sent me back around mid-February 2018, after which he cancelled my visa since he has abandoned me and wants a divorce. He says he has no money and cannot afford a separate house, his father is wealthy but he is a self-made person. My parents are refusing now to keep me any further at their home in India. How can I stay now, even forcibly, with my husband in Dubai? My inlaws who are hand in glove in the matter with my husband say that it's their house and will permit only their son, not his wife. In such circumstances, what are my available options to legally force myself to stay with my husband? No divorce petition is filed as yet and I will never give a divorce to him.

Q: Can a husband throw his wife and her belongings out of the house? The wife is a nursing mother and the husband and in-laws continually harass her about not eating well enough to produce milk for baby (even though breastfeeding is all going ok). They keep threatening her to go back to her parents if she is not able to breastfeed her baby. Also at the same time, they don't want to allow her to visit her parents. They don't want the 3-month-old baby to visit her parents. Is there anything legal that she can do to put a stop to all this emotional harassment?

Q: I got married on 1 February to a man who works in Dubai for the last 13 years. I came to Dubai with my husband on 17 February and stayed together for 5 months. On 21 July, I came to India to my in-laws' house. My in-laws told me that I should ask for dowry money from my maternal family, otherwise, I will get divorced. When I refused, they started beating and abusing me. They harassed me a lot and got thrown out of the house. My husband is in Dubai but he is not in contact with me for the last 14 months. Now I want to know that if I come to Dubai, and if I want to do a safety case against my husband, will the Dubai Police get me justice?

Q: How long does the appeal in the case of disobedience of the wife go? One more question, the definition of marital home does not even accommodate mom if my father has passed away and I am the only support for my mom?

An interview-format article covering the topic of the legal & psychological effects of COVID-19 on marriage. This is from the legal podcast of lawyer Ludmila Yamalova, the founder of Lawgical with LYLAW.

UAE Personal Status Law (also known as Personal Affairs Law) governs marriage, divorce, inheritance and other personal affairs in the United Arab Emirates. The law equally applies to citizens of the UAE and non-citizens unless one of them asks for the application of his home country law.