On Emirati Women’s Day, violation exposes inequality

The Emirati regime promotes its celebration of Emirati Women’s Day on August 28 of each year to present false propaganda about the reality of women in the country and to try to cover up its grave violations of their rights in light of the reality of inequality.

The reality in the UAE is different from the regime’s propaganda about women’s rights, but it represents a stark contradiction to the propaganda taking place.

The UAE authorities continue their official propaganda about empowering women in the country through cosmetic decisions that are not essential and are being marketed in the media.

Media campaigns and initiatives do not stop talking about achieving equality between men and women in the UAE.

The Emirati regime goes a long way in its propaganda for women and its celebration of this year’s day under the slogan “Women are the symbol of tolerance.”

Here, observers wonder about the truth of this alleged tolerance when the prisoner of conscience, Alia Abdel Nour, died more than a year ago to torture and neglect in the regime’s prisons.

The official media of the UAE regime publishes several reports on Emirati Women’s Day, which are limited to listing dozens of numbers that confirm that Emirati women are.

This shows that the propaganda aspect dominates the fact that the Emirati authorities deal with women. On the one hand, women face social injustice, political marginalization and economic decline.

On the other hand, the authorities highlight the appointment of women as deputy, minister or director of an institution in the context of job-sharing between men and women and nothing more than that and market it to the world as “empowering women”.

Emirati women were not far from the security persecution campaigns, and political arrests were carried out without supervision or deterrence, which stopped all this security incursion and its disregard for the rights of citizens and residents until it reached the women of the Emirates.

There are stark examples in the Emirates of the enormous suffering of women and the extent of the violation of their rights, revealing the falsehood of the slogans being promoted by the ruling regime claiming equality and tolerance.

Whether she is an opinion activist calling for reform, an activist who tried to help the stricken people of Syria with financial support, or even a princess in the ruler’s palace, the abuse and robbery of rights is a major feature of women in the Emirates.

The case of the Emirati prisoner of conscience, Alia Abdel Nour, was a blatant example of the abuse of women’s rights and depriving them of their most basic rights.

Alia died on May 4, 2019, from torture and neglect in the UAE prisons, after years of illness during which the UAE authorities refused to treat her.

Alia was arbitrarily arrested on charges of “supporting terrorism” on the grounds of providing aid to families in need of Syrian refugees inside the UAE.

The Emirati authorities have dismissed all appeals by local and international human rights organizations to release Alia.

She died after suffering from illness while she was tied to a hospital bed under heavy guard, which shows the impaired “tolerance” that Abu Dhabi offers to the world.

During her detention from 2015 until the day of her death, Alia Abdel Nour was deprived of the most fundamental rights of prisoners. Her torture continued for months before the political ruling on her 10 years in prison.