Many expatriates opt for burial in UAE

Dr Maliha Sabeti, 82, and her husband, Rohoola, 85, are an elderly that have lived for sixty years in the UAE. The couple is afraid to travel because they are worried that if they die, they won’t be bShow more

ABU DHABI // Almost 800 expatriates were buried in the emirate last year, according to official records, an increase from 2013.

To some extent, many are afraid to travel while ill out of fear they will not be buried in UAE soil.

Dr Maliha Sabeti Mehr and her husband, Dr Sabeti Mohammed, came to the UAE from Iran in the 1950s. They were the first physicians in Abu Dhabi and Dr Mohammed was the personal doctor of the late President, Sheikh Zayed.

“We gave our whole life to this country and my children were born and raised here and my grandchildren and recently my great-grandchildren,” Dr Mehr said.

Dr Mohammed is 85 and has recently encountered medical problems due to his advanced age.

“We travel every year to Canada but this year he told me he wanted to remain because he is tired.”

The couple are Baha’i and according to their faith must be buried within an hour’s journey of where they die. Dr Mohammed is worried he will die overseas.

“We want to be buried here and nowhere else, even though we have the Canadian citizenship and a house back in Canada. The UAE is our home. We came here when there was nothing and watched it grow,” Dr Mehr said.

The father of Naghmeh Hosseini, an Iranian, is buried at the Baha’i cemetery in Mahawi. He died in 2011 at the age of 77.

“There was no question where he would be buried,” Mrs Hosseini said. “My father came to the UAE in 1957 and met my mother here.”

She said her father’s dream was to be buried in the UAE, as with many Baha’i.

“This is home to us and where our entire family is here and it is where we spent our entire lives,” she said. “Where else would we be buried?”

Mrs Hosseini’s son, who died just nine days after his birth, was buried at the Mahawi cemetery in 1991.

“First our graveyard was near Al Mafraq but then it closed and then they gave us a section at Mahawi cementary and later on a third in Banyas,” Mrs Hosseini said.

The Mahawi Baha’i cemetery has eight graves and unlike Muslim cemeteries, it is covered with flowers and greenery. It is maintained by people of the Baha’i faith.

Maya Gokuldas, 46, is Indian and cremated her husband in Dubai, which was his wish. He died of lung cancer in 2010.

“We went to India for treatment when we first found out but he requested that he come back to Dubai to die here,” she said. Her husband died 25 days after they returned.

“He could have stayed in India with his mother but he wanted to come back here. He lived here for 24 years and in his last days he was begging us not to take him back to India. He said he lived here during his prime and spend his best years so he wanted to die here.”

He was cremated at the Jebel Ali crematorium.

“I want to be buried here too,” Ms Gokuldas said. “As a single mother I couldn’t have imagined a better life for me and my children.”

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Read more on our ‘Burial in the UAE’ series:

■ The costs of repatriating bodies from the UAE

■ Abu Dhabi expat fulfils friend's wishes of being buried in Philippines