Update on Dubai Uncle-Niece Case

There’s been an update to a case out of Dubai that is either consensual consanguineous sex or rape, depending on whose account you believe. Earlier, the uncle in the case denied not only rape, but physical contact with his adult niece. The niece claimed she was raped. They were both charged with incest.

Dubai's highest court Monday upheld a lower court's ruling that a 23-year-old Emirati woman had consensual sex with her uncle, causing her to become pregnant.

The Dubai Cassation Court confirmed a three-month sentence imposed on the woman, A.A., after her appeal was rejected.

She should not have been charged with a crime at all, unless there was proof she filed a false rape claim. If this was consensual sex, it should not be a crime.

The Dubai Appeal Court in June sentenced the woman's 26-year-old Emirati uncle, a policeman, to one year in prison for having consensual sex with A.A.

If it was not rape, then he shouldn’t have been prosecuted.

The judge said the Cassation Court only looks into the legalities of the appellate verdict and not the crime itself.

Here’s how another news source covered this case…

Court records said that in February 2010, KS took his niece from her work place at the Burj Khalifa, drove to a remote area in Al Warqaa, then had unprotected sex with her in the car.

AA, who said she was threatened by her uncle, discovered she was pregnant the month after the incident and called KS for help. She told prosecutors he promised to help her abort the pregnancy, but stopped answering her calls.

AA said she told her aunt, the suspect’s sister, who informed AA’s separated parents, records show.

Her father, AS, insisted on reporting the incident and took his daughter to Al Qusais police station in September 2010, when AA was seven months pregnant.

AA told prosecutors her uncle used to pick her up from work and take her to the deserted area to teach her how to drive.

I’m not too clear on what the official law is in regards to gender equality and rape in Dubai, nor the reality of how the culture actually functions, law or not. So I don’t have any idea if this was a consensual sexual relationship and she felt pressure to claim rape, or if this really was a rape, or what. Part of the problem with criminalizing consensual incest as a "sex crime" is that it trivializes the severity of real crimes such as assault, rape, and child molestation. It also gives someone facing criminal prosecution an incentive to claim they were forced into the "crime." Rape and assault are very serious violations of another person, and those who perpetrate such crimes should be dealt with severely. It is an insult to in any way equate consensual sex with rape. Part of the solution is dropping laws against consensual incest. This would help those who have been raped by close relatives from falling under suspicion of having violated the law themselves.