Law reforms in the UAE : The Government has just announced a huge raft of legal reforms in the United Arab Emirates.

The biggest takeaways (a thread):

- Alcohol decriminalised
- Suicide decriminalised
- Male relatives no longer get a lighter sentence for assaulting females

- Drinking, possessing or selling alcohol in authorised areas without an alcohol licence is no longer illegal
- Unmarried couples can now live together
- Tougher punishments for men who harass women
- BIG changes to divorce/ separation & divisions of assets & wills & inheritance

I can't overstate how huge these changes are - will now break each down below:

Alcohol has been decriminalised in the UAE

This means:
- You no longer need an alcohol licence to buy or drink booze in the UAE - all emirates
- Before now, if you bought or drank alcohol without a license you could be charged (it was rare though)
- Legal drinking age is 21

Suicide/ attempted suicide has been decriminalised in the UAE

This means:
- before now, suicide was illegal - people who attempted to kill themselves could be imprisoned/ fined
- also, people who tried to give CPR or first aid etc could be blamed for someone's injury or death

Legal reforms for the protection of women in the UAE:

This means:
- ‘honour crimes’ are abolished - used to be a category of crime where a male relative got a lighter sentence for assaulting a female relative
- these will now be treated like any other assault

1/2

- There will now be harsher punishments for men who harass women, no matter how mild or severe
- The punishment for the rape of a minor or someone with "limited mental capacity" is to be execution

2/2

Divorce/ separation/ wills and inheritance reforms in the UAE

This means:
- the laws from a person's country of origin can now be used for divorces and the division of assets
- previously, Islamic law, or sharia, was used for family law cases involving expats

1/2

- Changes also cover wills/ inheritance
- Before, if someone died - assets could be divided under sharia law
- Now, laws from a person's country or origin applies for how assets are divided among next of kin, unless there's a will (UAE property an exception-falls under UAE law)

Unmarried couples/ mixed gender flatmates can now live together in the UAE

This means:
- Before now, it was illegal for an unmarried couple (including flatmates of the opposite sex) to share a house
- Those who did could have been penalised, though it was pretty rare

Most of these changes have kind of been the unofficial norm for years. Yes, unmarried couples aren't supposed to live together - but they do. You're not supposed to drink alcohol in a bar without a licence - but people do.

But this is good progress, nonetheless

Here's the news in article form: https://apnews.com/article/dubai-united-arab-emirates-honor-killings-travel-islam-bce74c423897dc77c7beb72e4f51a23a

Important detail in UAE law reforms around sex before marriage (previously illegal) now that it’s legal for unmarried couples to live together

Law doesn’t explicitly permit sex outside of marriage - but says consensual sex will no longer be punished by law

Huge.