UAE makes moves to relax Islamic laws on personal freedoms
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — The United Arab Emirates announced Saturday a major overhaul of the country’s Islamic personal laws, allowing unmarried couples to cohabitate, loosening alcohol restrictions and criminalizing so-called honor killings.
The broadening of personal freedoms reflects the changing profile of a country that has sought to bill itself as a Westernized destination for tourists, fortune- seekers and businesses despite its Islamic legal code that has previously triggered court cases against foreigners and outrage in their home countries.
The reforms aim to boost the country’s economic and social standing and “consolidate the UAE’s principles of tolerance,” said state-run WAM news agency, which offered only minimal details in the weekend announcement. The government decrees behind the changes were outlined in statelinked newspaper The National, which did not cite its source.
The move follows a U.S.brokered deal to normalize relations between the UAE and Israel, which is expected to bring an influx of Israeli tourists and investment. It also comes as skyscraper-studded Dubai gets ready to host theWorld Expo. The high- stakes event, expected to bring a flurry of commercial activity and some 25 million visitors to the country, was set for October but pushed back a year because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Changes include scrapping penalties for alcohol consumption, sales andpossession for those 21 and over.
Another amendment allows for “cohabitation of unmarried couples,” which has long been a crime in the UAE. Attempted suicide, forbidden in Islamic law, would also be decriminalized, The National reported.
In a move to better “protect women’s rights,” the government said it would get rid of laws defending “honor crimes,” a widely criticized tribal custom in which a male relative may evade prosecution for assaulting a woman seen as dishonoring a family.
Ethiopian conflict: Ethiopia moved Saturday to replace the leadership of the country’s defiant northern Tigray region, where deadly clashes between regional and federal government forces are fueling fears the major African power is sliding into civil war. Tigray’s leader told the African Union that the federal government was planning a “full-fledged military offensive.”
Neither side appeared ready for the dialogue that experts say is needed to avert disaster in one of the world’s most strategic yet vulnerable regions, the Horn of Africa.
The upper house of parliament, the House of Federation, voted to set up an interim administration, giving Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed the power to carry out measures against a Tigray leadership his government regards as illegal. They include appointing officials and facilitating elections.
The prime minister, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year, asserted that “criminal elements cannot escape the rule of lawunder the guise of seeking reconciliation and a call for dialogue.”
Experts and diplomats are watching in dismay as the two heavily armed forces clash. Observers warn that a civil war in Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country with 110 million people, could suck in or destabilize neighbors such as Sudan, Eritrea and Somalia.
Explosion in Kabul: A bomb attached to the vehicle of a former presenter on Afghanistan’s TOLOTV exploded early Saturday, killing the journalist and two other civilians, Kabul police said.
The death of Yama Siawash is being investigated, said police spokesman Ferdaws Faramarz.
Siawash had recently begun working with Afghanistan’s Central Bank and was in a bank vehicle along with another senior employee, Ahmadullah Anas and the driver, Mohammad Amin. All died in the explosion, said Faramarz.
Violence and chaos have increased in Afghanistan in recent months even as government negotiators and the Taliban are meeting in Qatar to find an end to decades of relentless war in Afghanistan.
The two sides have made little progress.
Protests in Kyiv: Police in the capital of Belarus detained dozens of demonstrators Saturday as medical workers and women held separate marches to denounce violence against anti-government protesters and to call on the country’s authoritarian president to step down.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko reiterated that he would not give in to the three-monthlong wave of daily protests spurred by his disputed election to a sixth term.
Official results of the country’s Aug. 9 presidential election gave Lukashenko 80% of the vote. office; the opposition and some poll workers say the results were manipulated.
About 50 doctors and medical workers marched through Minsk on Saturday holding photographs of people injured by police rubber bullets, stun grenades and water cannon during previous demonstrations. Hundreds of people also took part in a separate women’s protest march that has become a regular Saturday event.
Belarusian human rights organization Viasna said at least 47 people were detained by police at the actions.
Egypt election: Egyptians began voting Saturday in the second and final stage of the country’s parliamentary elections, after a relatively low turnout in the first round that embarrassed the government of President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi.
El-Sissi cast his ballot early Saturday in Cairo’s Heliopolis district, according to his office. More than 31 million people are eligible to vote in this stage.
Critics say the 596-seat legislature will largely resemble the previous one, whichwas littlemore than a rubber stamp for the president’s policies, leaving the former military general with almost unchecked powers.
The government deployed thousands of police and troops to safeguard the two-day vote.
A total of 568 seats in the lower chamber are up for grabs in the election, with half the seats reserved for candidates running as individuals. The other 50% of seats in theHouse ofRepresentatives are for over 1,100 candidates running on four party lists.
The president will name 28 seats, or 5%, bringing the total number of seats in the lower chamber to 596.
Alaska quakes: Three earthquakes early Saturday shook Anchorage, but there were no immediate reports of damage.
The Alaska Earthquake Center said the quakes — the strongest of the three, at magnitude 5.0— were felt in the greater Anchorage area and in Wasilla, about 45 miles north of Anchorage.