The United Arab Emirates on November 7, 2020 announced a major relaxation in the country's Islamic personal laws allowing various activities that were prohibited earlier like loosening alcohol restrictions and allowing cohabitation of unmarried couples and criminalising honour killings.
This major relaxation in the personal laws reflects the changing outlook of the country as it aims to project itself as the perfect destination for western tourists, businesses and western tourists, despite its strict legal system based on a hard-line interpretation of Islamic law.
The changes also reflect the efforts on the part of UAE's rulers to keep up with the rapidly changing society.
What are the new relaxations?
•UAE has rolled-back major restrictions over alcohol consumption by removing penalties for alcohol consumption, sales and possession for those aged 21 and above.
•Previously, individuals required a liquor license to purchase, transport or store alcohol in their homes. The new rule will now allow Muslims barred from obtaining licenses to drink alcoholic beverages freely.
•Similarly, cohabitation of unmarried couples has long been a crime in the United Arab Emirates. The government has now made an amendment in its strict Islamic personal laws to allow cohabitation of unmarried couples.
•Though till now, authorities in some of the cities such as Dubai had generally been relaxed with the law when it came to foreigners, however, there was always a threat of punishment.
•The UAE government has also scrapped laws that protected honour crimes and have criminalised them. The honour crimes are a widely criticised tribal custom where a male relative may evade prosecution for assaulting a woman seen as dishonoring a family.
•Now, with the change in the laws, the punishment for a crime committed to eradicate a woman's shame," for promiscuity or disobeying religious and cultural strictures, will now be the same for any other kind of assault.
Significance |
| The new amendments will allow foreigners to avoid Islamic Shariah courts on issues including inheritance, marriage and divorce. This is significant as expatriates in the nation outnumber citizens by nearly nine to one. |
Background
The United Arab Emirates has announced the new reforms as it gets ready to host the World Expo in Dubai from October 2021-March 2022. The six-month global mega-event was earlier supposed to be held in October 2020 but has been pushed back a year because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The World Expo is planned to bring in a flurry of commercial activity into the nation with almost 25 million visitors to the country during the period.
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