DUBAI // Thuraya Al Zarouni is used to chasing her dreams. Even as a little girl she knew what she wanted to be.
“I had a dream, to become a prosecutor,” she says, “and at school my late mother always encouraged me to chase my dreams.
“She was an amazing woman, I live and work to this day following her insightful advice. She was wise, although she was not educated. She always insisted on giving to her kids that which she had been deprived of – education.
“She was determined that each and every one of her six daughters – in addition to her two sons – should get a proper education. She used to tell us that a woman without education was worth nothing to her family, husband or community.”
Her father also helped her form her dreams and often sought her help when making business deals, asking her to read contracts and check them for him.
So great was his need that Ms Al Zarouni had to read commercial law while she was still in school. “It was then that my love for law was born, I even read the criminal law, just out of love for law.”
She graduated from the Emirates University in 2002 with a degree in sharia and law, after which she worked as a lawyer for seven years.
“For my first defence argument my mother, despite being old, sick, and in a wheelchair, came to watch. I was stunned, so happy and proud to see her.”
When registration for the Public Prosecution was opened to women in 2008 Ms Al Zarouni was one of the first 10 to sign up. After two years of training she was assigned to the Family and Juvenile Section, where she remains to this day.
“When I moved here, my love for law grew even more,” she said. The work required her to take courses in psychology, body language, sociology and communication skills to help her in her dealings with family members.
“At the family and juvenile section, I don’t just investigate, I work with a team, and we go beyond interrogations and legal procedures. We work towards settling and creating a state of peace among the one family, that’s why when I moved here I began to love my work even more,” she says.
She is particularly proud of the section’s project, Nibras.
“The project targets school students through lectures and has succeeded in reducing negative behaviour – such as fighting or stealing classmates’ things as a prank – that often lead to criminal acts without the juvenile even being aware he has committed a crime,” she says.
Family disputes can also leave their mark on a child’s personality, which is why one section is responsible for both family disputes and juvenile cases, says Ms Al Zarouni.
“When a family is at the prosecution in a dispute case, we look into the conditions of their children and see if they need help– we will offer them this help which can save the children from becoming delinquent.”
She says that most cases she deals with are the result of a lack of healthy conversation between family members.
But not all fit this picture. One of the cases that most affected her was that of an uncle who molested his niece over a four-year period beginning when she was four. She said that he showed no remorse for his “hideous actions”.
“It was shocking and unexpected because the man was from a reputable family, with a decent job and no criminal record. You would have expected the man to have an alcohol or drug problem, but there was none.”
Despite the things she has seen in court, Ms Al Zarouni still believes that human beings are born good. But she believes mothers are often to blame for the delinquencies of their children.
“A mother has to listen to her children and always keep them away from her problems with the father,” she says.
“A woman with an abusive or ill mannered husband should leave him to save her children from the effects of an unhealthy relationship.”
Working mothers who cannot balance work and home life and thereby fail to provide their children with the attention they need, should quit their jobs and tend to their children instead, she says.
Ms Al Zarouni is careful to take her own advice. At home with her husband and three sons, she becomes a wife and a mother, leaving her work behind. This way, following her mother’s lead, she can invest time in encouraging her own children to follow their dreams.
“I separate my personal life and my work. I was brought up in a healthy family and I’m giving that to my own family now.”
salamir@thenational.ae
