Marnie Pearce - latest from Amnesty

[BizzieLizzie1]

www.amnesty.org.uk/news_details.asp?NewsID=18171

I hope that's good news and not just a stunt by the authorities to avoid bad publicity.

something's definitely afoot.
Here in Dubai, one of her closest supporters has suddenly cut all ties.
It's all as clear as mud over here, you can't get the truth out of anyone, media laws and all that, so the gossip is just stifling.

oh dear, that doesn't sound good.

www.getbracknell.co.uk/news/s/2049511_marnie_pearce_latest_london_march_halted_after_case_review_pro mise

Steve Ballinger (great guy!) Amnesty:

blogs.amnesty.org.uk/blogs_entry.asp?eid=3087

something seems not right about this.

Sandy norman is Marnie's main supporter out there isn't she? and she's cut all ties? why would that be?

I cannot understand how this woman's plight has not attracted so much more publicity here in the U.K. Other than mumsnet, where the response has been lukewarm I have barely heard or seen anything about this terrible case in the British media. Where is the sisterhood? Why the silence in the face of the worse thing that could happen to an innocent mother?

there was an article about it in new magazine, sadly she contradicted herself in it.
perhaps people just assume that this is the price you pay for marrying someone and living in another country, you have to abide by their laws.

Numal, the case is quite ambiguous for me because a lot of things come to my mind which have not been properly addressed and I don't want to write things that others will find understandably offensive eventhough they are relatively ignorant of UAE culture and laws and enter a flame war. I don;t have time for that.

For me, as some one who has spent time in the UAE, I have questions to ask and I know about some of the UAE laws regarding women, and instances of how unfairly (to us)some of their own women have been treated.

One question that comes to mind for me is that if Marnie was married to a Muslim, did she convert? I believe most if not all western women who marry Muslims convert. At least in my experience.

Living such a long time in the Gulf States, I wonder how or why she didn't feel like the cultural restrictions on women did not apply to her. As unfair as they seem to westerners, those were the laws she was obliged to respect as the penalty for breaking them as she'd know were pretty draconian. Again whether or not we like it that was the nature of the beast she lived under.

I mean, if I were married to a Muslim, and I am not, and seeking a divorce from one, in a state with restrictive laws like the UAE, my behaviour would be have to be beyond question until I got a decree nisi or whatever they may have out there.

What I am saying is that surely Marnie knew that she could not be in the presence of a man she was not related to without another related man around. Yes, it was in her own home but for that culture, that is even more incriminating.

When I flew back from the UAE, a Muslim women traveling on her own was given seat between two men on the BA flight. She refused to sit there and stated she would rather get off the plane if she could not be accommodated somewhere else. To her, her reputation had to remain unquestionable even in plain view and i found that admirable that she didn't assume she could just get away with it because she was among anonymous strangers. Marnie unfortunately came under the same laws as this woman whether or not she or we liked it.

2shoes I think that to an extent that is true.

Also, while we don't agree with the laws in Dubai, the fact is, that if you go and live in a country you need to abide by their laws, and Marnie had lived there long enough to know that.

And even if she hadn't committed a crime (in dubai law) I thin that any woman marrying a man from a country where women are not equals, should do so in the knowledge that if things go wrong, there's a better than average chance they will lose the kids.

wannaBe you put that better than I did

agree with foxy and wannabe.

the more I think about this, the more it doesn't add up.

For the past few weeks Marnie's supporters have been rallying, have started a petition and have arranged a march. Partly to do with Marnie's release but partly to do with the deportation order and the unfairness of it. And then on the day of the march there is apparently news from Marnie's main supporter in Dubai that the authorities are going to look into her case again and that she may now not be deported, so the march is called off. I find that strange.

Afaik Marnie is due to be released in the first week in May (so either end of this week/beginning of next week.) Who's to say that once she is released she won't be driven straight to the airport and put on a plane?

I really find it strange that the supporters have backed off so quickly, and that her main supporter has apparently cut all ties with the campaign.

What is going on

www.express.co.uk/posts/view/96736/Hope-for-Dubai-adultery-case-woman

sorry that makes no sense to me.
so they are now not hnding in the petion?

The handing in of the petition was put on hold. See Steve Ballinger's blog (Amnesty)

"A glimmer of hope for Marnie Pearce
23 April 2009 at 17:12 by Steve B
Tags: Children Dubai
I had one of those strange Amnesty moments today when you?re a bit fed up for all the wrong reasons. I was meant to be accompanying our Campaigns Director down to the embassy of the United Arab Emirates to hand in a petition for Marnie Pearce, a British woman jailed in Dubai for adultery who?s facing deportation and the prospect of never seeing her kids again. There was going to be loads of media there as it?s become quite a high-profile case, and all week I?d been talking to Marnie?s supporters, who organised the petition.

But at the last minute the petition hand-in was put on hold. ?Team Marnie? had been contacted by the authorities in Dubai and promised that they would review her case, including the issues of custody and deportation. Given the delicate nature of these discussions, they?d decided that it was best to postpone the hand-in of the petition. I?d been on the phone to Dubai for half the morning talking to her supporters about this, so it was hardly a shock, but all the same my first reaction was one if frustration that we couldn?t really ramp up the pressure on the authorities.

I?m over it now, of course ? if it edges Marnie a bit closer to being released and being able to stay in Dubai to fight for custody of her kids, then this is a fantastic development. I really hope it is. And I hope that the pressure that we?ve been able to exert has made a difference.

If it turns out to be a dead end, I?ll get my trip down to the UAE embassy with Marnie?s supporters another time. We won?t be letting this one go."

BizzieLizzie1 your opioin please not a c&p of someone elses

Oh, I totally agree with Steve!

If you go to live in another country and culture then you have to abide by their rules, I presume she knew that it was wrong to do what she did, or was she really that naive.

BizzieLizzie1 just seems odd to me that you don't post your opinion only that of others, imo it is a bit impersonal

Saint2shoes, my feelings are that I find it extremely tragic and unjust what has been happening here to Marnie Pearce and her children and I am crossing all of my fingers for a positive outcome.

But Bizzie we expect people to abide by our laws in this country isn't it right that people should abide by the laws in countries that they have moved to however unfair or obsolete or sexist they seem.

But why has her main supporter out there cut all ties? That seems very odd.

I have to agree with Five, you abide by the laws of the country you live in.

unfortunately for Marnie I think she will be taken straight from prison to a waiting aircraft. that is the way of the UAE. people have been summarily deported for less.