In the UAE, laws governing marriage, divorce, child custody, inheritance etc. are known as personal status laws. Until April 2025, these laws were regulated by Federal Decree Law No. 28 of 2005 (“Old Law”). However, the country has issued a new set of laws namely Federal Decree Law No. 41 of 2024 on Personal Status (“New Law”) that has brought in several changes to the old laws regarding personal status.
Changes in provisions relating to divorce
The new law has made changes in the requirements of certain grounds for divorce, as well as provides a new ground to obtain divorce.
Article 80 of the New Law has added addiction to intoxicants as a valid ground for divorce. The article states that either parties have the right to seek divorce if they find that their spouse is addicted to alcohol, drugs or other psychotropic substances.
The UAE personal status laws allow individuals to divorce their spouse if the latter suffers from an illness that prevents them from fulfilling their marital relations. However, the New Law has made changes to the provisions wherein, under Article 69, the court now has the authority to appoint an expert who will evaluate the medical condition and grant one year grace period for medical treatment to the spouse who requires it, before granting the divorce.
The personal status laws also allow women to divorce their husband in case of abandonment. As per Article 79, if a husband abandons his wife for more than six months and his whereabouts are known, the wife can request for a divorce, provided that she first warns him to return to the marital house or move her to his new place of residence and grants him 6 months’ time to do the same.
Article 79 also states that a woman can request for a divorce from her husband if the husband is imprisoned for three years or more and has already served one year of his prison sentence. However, divorce will not be granted if the husband is released from prison during the course of the legal procedures, or if the remaining jail sentence is six months or less.
Divorce under Article 79 will be granted even if the husband has assets from which the wife is able to maintain herself financially.
Wife’s right to alimony
Alimony is the right of a person to receive maintenance for basic needs such as food, clothing, shelter, medical care and education as per customary practice. As per Article 96 of the New Law, alimony may be provided in the form of cash, kind or benefits, as ordered by the court of law. Earlier, alimony was given as monetary payments, either as a lump sum amount or a periodic payment to be paid along a specific period of time.
Increase or Decrease in Alimony
Alimony is allowed to be increased or decreased as per the changing circumstances. As per Article 97, an order for an increase in alimony can have a retroactive effect of up to six months. Article 98 states that any maintenance provided to the wife, children or parents, referred to as continuous alimony, will be given the status of a privileged debt. Consequently, under circumstances where a person is in a financial crisis or in debt, the commitment of continuous alimony will be given preference over other debts that are to be discharged. The Article also states that payment of backdated expenses will not be categorized as a privileged debt.
The New Law has decreased the period of time that can cover the request for backdated expenses. Earlier, a wife could request the payment of backdated expenses for the previous three years. However, under Article 99 of the New Law, backdated expenses can only be requested for the previous two years.
Forfeiture of the right to Alimony
As per the Old Law, a woman will lose her right to alimony from her husband if she refuses intercourse with him, or if she refuses to move to the marital house and stay overnight in it without a valid reason. This provision is retained under Article 103 of the New Law. However, the new law had added an additional disqualification for alimony, stating that a woman may also lose this right if she refuses to travel with her husband without a valid reason.
Maintenance of Daughter
The UAE laws provide that it is the responsibility of the father to provide maintenance for his daughter until the marriage of the daughter. If the daughter is divorced, the obligation for maintenance returns to the father.
However, as per Article 106 of the New Law, the obligation of the father to maintain his daughter will cease not only with her marriage, but also if the daughter starts working. Additionally, the father is not obliged to maintain his daughter after a divorce, if the daughter is working, or has a source of income.
Maintenance of Parents
Under article 107, it is the duty of every person who is financially capable, to provide for their parents if they are unable to maintain themselves. As per Article 254 of the New Law, refraining from financially supporting one’s parents when such support is legally required by a court order will make a person liable to be imprisoned and/or fined between AED 5000 and AED 100,000. The above penalty may also be applied if a person is found to be mistreating, abusing, neglecting, or refusing to care for his parents either personally or through someone else.
Conclusion
The New Law has brought in several changes to keep up with the changing times. These laws secure the interests of several vulnerable groups and will have a wide impact on the family set up in the UAE.
Disclaimer:
The above information might not apply if both parties are non-Muslim. Starting from the 1st of February 2023, UAE issued specific family law to be applied between non-Muslim expat residents in case none of them wanted to apply his/her home country's law in the UAE. To know more information about this law, please feel free to click this linkCopyright © of this article is retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. We explicitly grant you permission to download a copy, without any alteration, of this article for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or any charge. This article can be utilized on your website or for marketing, however, we grant you permission to host this article on your website and no other rights. This content should not be altered in any way or sold commercially in any format without prior permission of the copyright holder. During reference of this article, full biographic details entailing the name of the author, his designation, the institute and the publishing date of the article shall be provided.
