With her passport back in hand, a Norwegian woman at the center of a Dubai rape claim dispute on Monday said officials dropped her 16-month sentence for having sex outside marriage in the latest clash between the city’s Islamic-based legal codes and its branding as a Western-friendly haven.
Dubai authorities hope the pardon of the 24-year-old woman will allow them to sidestep another potentially embarrassing blow to the city’s heavily promoted image as a forward-looking model of luxury, excess and cross-cultural understanding.
“I am very, very happy,” Marte Deborah Dalelv said after she was cleared by order of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
However, the case points to wider issues embedded in the rapid rise of Gulf centers such as Dubai and Qatar’s capital, Doha, the host of the 2022 soccer World Cup.
These cities’ cosmopolitan ambitions often find themselves at odds with the tug of traditional views on sex and alcohol.
Both alcohol consumption without a proper license and sex outside marriage are outlawed, but the rules are difficult to enforce and generally only become an issue if authorities are alerted. Nowhere in the region are the two sides more in potential conflict than Dubai, where the expatriate workforce outnumbers locals five to one and millions of tourists arrive each year with high-end fun on their minds.
Dalelv, in Dubai for a business meeting, said she told police in March that she was raped by a co-worker after a night that included cocktails. She was held in custody for four days and sentenced last week for illicit sex outside marriage and alcohol consumption.
The alleged attacker, identified as a 33-year-old Sudanese man, was charged with the same offenses and received a 13-month sentence. He was also cleared by a pardon, Dalelv said.
Rape prosecutions are complicated in the United Arab Emirates because — as in some other countries influenced by Islamic law — conviction requires either a confession or the testimony of adult male witnesses.
“I have my passport back. I am pardoned,” said Dalelv, who worked for an interior design firm in Qatar. “I am free, I have my life back. This is a great day.”
Her mother, Evelyn Dalelv, told reporters from Norway she is “incredibly happy” at the outcome, but thinks her daughter would consider returning to the Middle East after pursuing further studies.
“Luckily, she is going back to study in Oslo in the autumn,” she said.
In Norway, Norwegian Minister of Foreign Affairs Espen Barth Eide posted a Twitter message that read: “Marte is released! Thanks to everyone who signed up to help.”
Eide told Norwegian news agency NTB that media attention and Norway’s diplomatic measures helped Dalelv, who had been free on appeal, with her next court hearing scheduled for early September.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the