URGENT!! PLEASE SIGN THIS PETITION TODAY!!! And help reunite Marnie Pearce with her children!

[BizzieLizzie1]

Please everyone, sign the following petition to the UAE Embassy in London, calling for the immediate release of Marnie Pearce from prison in Dubai and for a deportation order to be lifted so that Marnie can be near her children.

www.thepetitionsite.com/14/freedom-for-marnie-pearce

Please also forward this link to your friends.

Thanks!

Marnie Pearce is currently imprisoned unfairly in Dubai on charges of adultery after she insists she was framed by her Egyptian ex-husband so that he could gain sole custody of their children, ages 4 and 7. This week the father was awarded full custody, as under Shariah law a woman automatically loses custody of her children if she is found guilty of adultery, as she is deemed to be an unfit mother... Marnie is set to be deported from Dubai to the UK without her children after completing her sentence in just over a month's time and faces not seeing her boys again until they are legally able to find her at the age of 18. Please help Marnie and her children be together by signing this petition. Please also see the following link to her campaign website:

[www.costapages.com/savemarniesbabies]].

Thank you.

Elizabeth

Done. What a dreadful thing; poor woman. Seconding those wondering why this hasn't featured more in the UK press. Sounds exactly the sort of thing Woman's Hour would go for....I don't know how these things work, mind you. Could you ask some of MN's journo-types for advice?

Good luck bizzie.

beetroot - one of the first things Labour did in 1997 was reduce VAT on sanitary products to the minimum allowed by the EU, 5%. They ended up not mentioning it in the Queen's Speech as it was felt too embarrassing to make the Queen say 'tampon'...

There's so many depressing cases of rights abuses in Dubai atm that I suspect this isn't making the news.

citrus - really.
blimey maybe my signature did count for something

I have signed btw - but alwasy wonder if it is useful

ok I see from the papers that she has a father and a brother. Neither have been quoted anywhere though and none of her supporters on her campaign site seem to have been named anywhere - why is this? Why do people seem to be reluctant to put their names to this?

Some of these questions would perhaps be better answered on Marnie's official campaign site - there is a forum you can join in which you put forward your suggestions and questions, though I can certainly put any suggestions to them that are mentioned here. I also suggested myself a slot on woman's hour, and I'm sure ideas like this are in the pipeline. I can't speak for Marnie's famly, I am sure the situation if a very sensitive one for them, though I have certainly seen her brother and father quoted in their local press. Marnie does have her official spokespeople, in particular Sandy Norman, who is often quoted in the national press, along with representatives of Amnesty.

Thanks Chequersmate!

The following article is in the Mirror today:

www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/03/28/adultery-in-dubai-mum-s-husband-is-the-real-love-cheat- 115875-21235002/

See also..

www.uaelawdirectory.com/html/blog_3.html

www.mirror.co.uk/sunday-mirror/2009/03/29/voice-of-the-sunday-mirror-save-marnie-from-this-evil-puni shment-115875-21235726

IMO there is far too much emphasis on the adultery rather than what will happen after iyswim.

Yes it is terrible that a woman can bee jailed for adultery, and it shouldn't happen. But reality is that Marnie will be free in six weeks or so, and then she will have the deportation and the loss of custody of her children to deal with. It is this that should be the focus of the campaign IMO.

It is understandable to call for Marnie's immediate release, however time spent doing that could be spent fighting for the deportation order to be lifted and applying pressure for the children's interests to be considered. In six weeks or so she is going to be released anyway. So surely it would be advisable to have something in place to ensure she is not deported when that happens, given these things take time to happen...

Marnie is due to be released in 3 1/2 weeks, and certainly a large emphasis of the campaign is to have the deportation lifted and the children's rights considered (please see the full text of the letter of petition to the UAE Embassy in London).

"We the undersigned are calling for the immediate and unconditional release of Marnie Pearce from Dubai Central Jail in Al-Awir, considering her to be a prisoner of conscience. We also ask that in the best interests of the children that the deportation order be lifted, to enable the children to have continued contact with their mother.

The custody hearing concerning her two children, Laith and Ziad, has now been heard, and custody given to their father, but the rights of her two young sons were ignored. The decision on their custody should have been based on the children's best interests. Their future should not have been decided on the basis of this adultery conviction. The only thing that matters in a child custody case is what is best for the children.

The children had the right to be consulted and express an opinion on what happens to them, according to the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. An advocate should be have been appointed to give them a fair opportunity to express themselves.and there should have been a fair custody hearing which has at its centre the rights of these two boys.

Thank you for your time."

The petition now has 811 signtures! Please continue to draw attention to the petition and encourage everyone you know to sign!

Yes very!

I have signed, as other people have said, it only took a minute and who knows, hopefully it will help.

As I understand it the poor woman is considered - in Dubai - as being an unfit mother due to the adultery charges. Nothing else has been taken into consideration - certainly not what is best for her boys, the video is just heartbreaking.

Wannabe - you are right, I hope it does make women think twice before moving to a country where they have no rights but lets face it, who would think their dp that they are in love with would ever do this to them?

Completelyabsolutely I really believe that your signature along with everyone elses will help to boost Marnie's campaign, which despite what some may quite understandably think, is really beginning to gain some momentum now and the more we continue to keep it going and spread the word, the quicker we will see justice for Marnie and her children.

All, thank you for signing the petition. If you would like to help further please contact the Foreign Secretary David Miliband, and start putting some pressure on him to do the right thing and to intervene in this situation and sort this out!! His email address is: [email protected]. Thank you!

Article in yesterday's Mirror:

www.mirror.co.uk/news/top-stories/2009/04/05/plea-to-free-dubai-adultery-mum-marnie-framed-by-cheati ng-ex-115875-21254569/

The petition now has 1689 signatures - a few more signatures would be great! Thanks.

Whats happened to Marnie is a crime , but this sort of underhand manipulation of the law to gain custody of children is to be found right here in the UK as well. From experience I can assure you that UK family itself law offers no protection to mothers that have been similarly been 'framed ' by their partners for e.g by the misuse of ex-parte injunctions.
Mothers do not have any particular or special rights in the UK as regards child custody. Maybe they did briefly some time ago when the Infant custody bill was passed 1839 by the courageous efforts of Caroline Norton. However motherhood has been seriously devalued in society in these modern times .On the other hand it has become fashionable to promote the rights of fathers . Infact the nonsensical concept of "gender neutrality" came to be applied to child custody law and it is used by loony judges to show that they are not being biased to mothers.(let alone what is right for the child).The fact that it is women that become mothers( and not men)when they conceive cannot surely be coincedental . This failure to recognise that gender differences exist in parental roles for a reason is most harmful to children.
As far as "Shariah" law is concerned -it is as far removed from true Islamic law as you can get. It has been contaminated by a concoction of chauvinistic tribal traditions that have nothing to do with Koranic law.
If the truth be told, in Islam mothers have the highest status .It recognises that the mother -child bond needs be maintained & sustained because it is precisely that which has a stabilising and civilising effect on the human family and thereby human society.