In the eyes of the law, 40-year-old Stephanie* is a divorced mother-of-two.
"But in the eyes of God, I am still married," she said.
Stephanie, from Eastern Europe, met her American husband five years ago and was married at a church in Abu Dhabi. She has two sons from a previous marriage.
"I was in love and my sons loved him - he was a father to them."
When her ex-husband suddenly left and moved in with another woman after three years of marriage, she said her life fell apart. "It wasn't just me who was distraught but my kids as well."
After sharing household expenses equally, suddenly Stephanie found herself alone supporting two teenage boys.
Divorce in the UAE
New legal rights: Non-Muslim couples to be able to marry and divorce through their churches in the UAE
Explainer: Divorces in Abu Dhabi
She went to the court's family guidance department for support.
"From there, it went fast. My ex-husband insisted on a divorce and I was basically divorced on the same day. It wasn't messy, there were no lawyers. But I got nothing. He was asked to pay me a three-month settlement, which was Dh30,000, and that was all. He just took off."
She also couldn't afford a lawyer. "I heard that a lawyers fee starts at Dh25,000 and could go as high up as Dh100,000."
Stephanie said that she wasn't entitled to further support because she did not have any children from her ex-husband, despite his considerable wealth.
"The loss isn't just financial - it is also emotional. I didn't get anything and it's not that I wanted money out of him but at least some consideration from the judges.
"Women's lives should be treated with more respect and men who just suddenly decide to leave a marriage and move in with another woman, should be held accountable. Here, all they cared about was the financial settlement. Financial settlements don't heal our scars. In a Christian Church, divorce does not happen so fast like the Sharia court."
Stephanie believes that if a priest was overseeing her case, the outcome may have been different. "Emotionally it would have been easier on us - at least to make the other person understand the gravity of the situation and to draw them back from doing further damage to other people. I never got my chance to say my piece to him," she said.
* The subject's name was changed at her request
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EA Sports FC 26
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: PC, PlayStation 4/5, Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3/5
It's up to you to go green
Nils El Accad, chief executive and owner of Organic Foods and Café, says going green is about “lifestyle and attitude” rather than a “money change”; people need to plan ahead to fill water bottles in advance and take their own bags to the supermarket, he says.
“People always want someone else to do the work; it doesn’t work like that,” he adds. “The first step: you have to consciously make that decision and change.”
When he gets a takeaway, says Mr El Accad, he takes his own glass jars instead of accepting disposable aluminium containers, paper napkins and plastic tubs, cutlery and bags from restaurants.
He also plants his own crops and herbs at home and at the Sheikh Zayed store, from basil and rosemary to beans, squashes and papayas. “If you’re going to water anything, better it be tomatoes and cucumbers, something edible, than grass,” he says.
“All this throwaway plastic - cups, bottles, forks - has to go first,” says Mr El Accad, who has banned all disposable straws, whether plastic or even paper, from the café chain.
One of the latest changes he has implemented at his stores is to offer refills of liquid laundry detergent, to save plastic. The two brands Organic Foods stocks, Organic Larder and Sonnett, are both “triple-certified - you could eat the product”.
The Organic Larder detergent will soon be delivered in 200-litre metal oil drums before being decanted into 20-litre containers in-store.
Customers can refill their bottles at least 30 times before they start to degrade, he says. Organic Larder costs Dh35.75 for one litre and Dh62 for 2.75 litres and refills will cost 15 to 20 per cent less, Mr El Accad says.
But while there are savings to be had, going green tends to come with upfront costs and extra work and planning. Are we ready to refill bottles rather than throw them away? “You have to change,” says Mr El Accad. “I can only make it available.”
Karwaan
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Director: Akarsh Khurana
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
Rating: 4/5
Fanney Khan
Producer: T-Series, Anil Kapoor Productions, ROMP, Prerna Arora
Director: Atul Manjrekar
Cast: Anil Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai, Rajkummar Rao, Pihu Sand
Rating: 2/5
Red Joan
Director: Trevor Nunn
Starring: Judi Dench, Sophie Cookson, Tereza Srbova
Rating: 3/5 stars
F1 line ups in 2018
Mercedes-GP Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas; Ferrari Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen; Red Bull Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen; Force India Esteban Ocon and Sergio Perez; Renault Nico Hülkenberg and Carlos Sainz Jr; Williams Lance Stroll and Felipe Massa / Robert Kubica / Paul di Resta; McLaren Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne; Toro Rosso TBA; Haas F1 Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen; Sauber TBA
The specs
AT4 Ultimate, as tested
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 420hp
Torque: 623Nm
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Price: From Dh330,800 (Elevation: Dh236,400; AT4: Dh286,800; Denali: Dh345,800)
On sale: Now
