Sponsoring teenagers

By Bassma Al Jandaly, Staff Reporter 

Dubai: The residency laws of the UAE allows expatriate parents to sponsor their sons as long as they are less than 18 years old.
The laws are different for a daughter and the parents can sponsor her beyond 18 years of age. The parents can sponsor her if she is a divorcee or if she becomes a widow. Her residency visa will be valid for three years.
The situation is different if it is a son and if he reaches 18, the parents cannot sponsor him anymore.
The residency laws give the parents only one option in order to keep their 18-year-old son with them here.
According to the law the parents of the teenager can keep him here if he is studying at a local educational institution, a university or a college in the UAE.
The teenager can be sponsored either by the educational institution or by either one of the parents after submitting a document at the residency department that he is continuing his studies here in the UAE.
A deposit of Dh5,000 must be made at the naturalisation and residency department if he is studying in the UAE at an educational institution which is not an accredited institution or one which is not approved by the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. There is no need for a deposit if the educational institution or the university where the son is studying is an accredited one.
Similarly, if the sponsored son who is less than 18 and is studying abroad, the parents must deposit Dh5,000, which is refundable, to retain the residency visa.

Night shifts for women are matter of priorities

By Mariam M. Al Serkal And Fuad Ali, Staff Reporters
 

Dubai/Fujairah: The Kuwaiti parliament passed a law last week that prohibits women from working at night, between 8pm and 7am, with the exception of doctors.
It also banned women from working in jobs that "contravene public morals and in all-male service places".
In a Gulf News online poll, 44 per cent of respondents agreed that women should be banned from night jobs. But 28 per cent said women should be able to work at night, while another 28 per cent felt that women should be given a choice. Gulf News asked Dubai and Fujairah residents what they thought about the issue.

Egyptian manager Ashraf Gadou, 39, said women with children should not be allowed to work at night because it is essential that they stay at home with their children. "It is very important for women to be at home and take care of their family, and it would be a better alternative if mothers could work from 8am to 4pm. Women might also get advances from men if they are out late," he said.

Ebrahim Shaik, 35, an Indian sales executive, said: "Working women today should have the choice to work when they want to, but ... children need their mother's support. So it is important for the mothers to stay at home." He added that if women are single and confident they should have the opportunity to work at night.

Cosmetics consultant Abby Abendan, 36, from the Philippines, said the working hours depend on the job. "It depends on the nature of the job because it might require you to work late at night. But if you work night shifts you can get paid over time, so it does help financially," she said. "If I had children I wouldn't work at night."

Nabeel Faraj Shaieb, a 44-year-old Palestinian engineer, said women should be given special dispensation to work a continuous shift and not be subjected to working late."We want women to play their full part in society but that also includes looking after her children and family. We can't stop women from working late because the difficult living conditions for many forces them out to work and we shouldn't limit that," he said.

Gladys Mary, 24, an administrator from India, said the rate of employment would ultimately get affected. "It is not right to exempt women and it would cause more unemployment because women would lose their jobs. With regard to family obligations, the only ones who will benefit are the husbands because they would want their wives to stay at home."

Angelene Armada, 24, a Filipina nanny, said it is up to the women to decide whether they want to work late. "Women are liberated these days and they don't want to stay at home. If you have to work and it is necessary to work at night then there is no other option but to do so."

Elizabeth Baltazar, 31, a saleswoman from the Philippines, said she works at night and does not mind not being with her children in the evenings. "I came to Dubai to work and it is not a problem for me to work at the night, even though I have children. I am getting the [salary] and that is what matters the most," she said.

Ayman Salama Hajaj, a 27-year-old Palestinian accountant, said he supports women working late in the evenings, although in the Arab world it goes against traditional values. "If a woman is in need to work and she has confidence and self respect then she should be allowed to earn a living. There are high levels of unemployment in the Arab world, so if there is no one supporting a woman then she should be allowed to work," he said.

Bahaauddin Jamal Mohammad, 30, a Jordanian operations coordinator, said women should be exempt from working nights. "In evenings, a woman should be at home taking care of her children and husband and not be away."

"Police drive pests away from beaches

By Alia Al Theeb, Staff Reporter

Dubai: Dubai Police's beach security teams have caught more than 1,400 people in May and June for harassing beachgoers.
Offences committed by the pesters include taking pictures secretly, harassing and disturbing beachgoers, swimming in unsuitable clothes, said Major Abdullah Al Mazyood, Deputy Director of Ports Police Station.
According to statistics from Dubai Police's Criminal Investigation Department (CID), a total of 1,461 pesters were caught on beaches from May 13 to June 16.

Flirting
Around 1,268 among them were caught for wearing transparent clothes, 53 for taking pictures of women and 43 for harassing beachgoers or roaming unnecessarily around the beach. 96 people were caught for moving around in underwear and one person was caught for harassing and flirting with women."

Doctors' teenage son stirs ethics debate

Published: June 22, 2007, 00:04

New Delhi: The 15-year-old son of two doctors performed a filmed Caesarean section birth under his parents' watch in an apparent bid to gain a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest surgeon.Instead, the boy's father could be stripped of his licences and may face criminal charges, officials said yesterday.
Dr K. Murugesan showed a recording of his son, Dhileepan Raj, performing a Caesarean section to an Indian Medical Association (IMA) chapter in the southern state of Tamil Nadu last month, said Dr Venkatesh Prasad, secretary of the association. The video showed Murugesan anaesthetising the patient.
Murugesan owns and runs a maternity hospital in Manaparai town, Prasad said in a phone interview.
Murugesan, who could possibly be prevented from practising and face criminal charges, expressed no regret and even accused the Manaparai Medical Association of being "jealous" of his son's achievements, Prasad added.
"He said this was not the first surgery performed by his son and that he had been training him for the last three years," said Prasad.
State Health Secretary V.K. Subburaj told reporters yesterday that the government would investigate. "We'll get the report and then we'll see whether there are any violations ... prima facie it looks like there is a big violation."