Q: Both my husband and I are Indian - Keralite Roman Catholic staying in Dubai. I have been a victim of emotional and financial domestic abuse from my husband and my in-laws over dowry. Where do I stand legally in this matter? A year ago, my husband abandoned me and my child in my parents' place and went to Australia. He does not want to communicate with me despite my efforts of trying to contact him and remains hostile towards me. Where do I stand legally? Mine and my child’s maintenance has always been provided for by my parents and self-finance (I am working too) because of my husband’s bank loans and job loss in Dubai. Now he found employment in Australia but he does not want to provide maintenance for me and my child. Additionally, he demands that I pay for his business class tickets if I want him to come to Dubai to keep my UAE visa. Can I claim for maintenance from my husband without a divorce In this regard?

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: Hello, My sister is married to an Indian who is working in Dubai for the last 6-7 years. He has been completely cut off from his wife and 1-year-old kid for the last 3 months. He writes in emails that he doesn’t want to continue and that he is going to cancel my sister's residence visa. What options do we have in this case? My sister wants that he should continue the marriage but his activities do not suggest so. Is he not liable for anything? What rights do we have to pressurize him or in the future should we apply for abandonment/divorce in India or Dubai?

There are rights and obligations for both parties of the marriage contract arise as a result of divorce, which often disputed by the spouses. Here we will explain the due alimony and its types for the wife (divorced - widow) and children after divorce in accordance with the UAE Personal Status Law, Federal Law No. 28 of 2005 and its explanatory memorandum.

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.