Is a marriage legal if there is no written contract?

QI had a traditional marriage with my husband in our home country but we did not sign a marriage contract. When we came to the UAE my husband began to deny the existence of our marriage, although our unwritten marriage ceremony was made in public before our families and community. Now I need to get a divorce from him but he says that he does not want to. I also need my financial rights and alimony to be duly provided but he refuses, saying that I am not entitled to get that. What can I do?

AAlthough the UAE Family Law requires a marriage contract to be signed officially, article 27/1 of UAE Family Law 28 of 2005 provides you with the right to request that the court acknowledge or approve the marriage through a witness statement.

It is expected that if the court accepts and authorises you to bring the witnesses to prove the marriage, the statements of two male witnesses will be required. A judge may ask them if the guardian of the wife attended the ceremony or not, if there was a dowry or not, and if there were two male witnesses to the marriage or not.

Per article 12 of the UAE Civil Law, if the marriage ceremony is valid under the laws where it took place, it might be considered valid in the UAE.

I have a marriage contract in my home country that I would like to bring to the UAE. What are the required attestation procedures to have my marriage contract recognised by the UAE authorities?

Official certificates issued by foreign countries shall be recognised in the event of them being attested by the official body that issued them. Because the document is issued by a foreign country it has to be attested by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the UAE embassy in the country of origin.

When you decide to bring the document to the UAE, you have to be prepared to get it translated into Arabic, if it was not in Arabic initially. Such translation has to be made by an authorised legal translation agency in the UAE.

If you have a question for our legal consultant, email media@professionallawyer.me with the subject line “Family Matters”.