Last Updated: Dec 27, 2010
DUBAI // A woman who gave birth in an airport toilet killed her baby and fled the country, police believe.
Officers are searching for an Ethiopian woman in her 30s whom they identified on closed circuit television footage after a cleaner discovered the baby's body in a waste bin last Thursday. They are also seeking an Interpol Red Notice regarding the woman. It is unclear whether the woman was a UAE resident, tourist or passenger in transit.
"Most likely the woman wanted to get rid of the baby as it was a child outside wedlock," said the source. "It seems that the woman had intended to leave the UAE before the delivery but was faced with a different reality in the airport."
Having a sexual relationship or a child outside wedlock are criminal offences in the UAE that carry sentences of up to three years in prison.
Fearing social stigma and possible prosecution, many unmarried women who become pregnant choose either to leave the country or abandon their offspring.
Seventeen infants were abandoned in the first eight months of 2008, according to the most recent statistics available from the Ministry of Social Affairs. It is not known how many newborns are killed or die after being abandoned.
According to the ministry the stigma of being born outside wedlock is one of the main causes of parents abandoning their children, along with the stigma of having a child with disabilities.
Earlier this year the police victim continuity programme publicised the case of a 10-year-old boy born outside wedlock who was forced to live in isolation from the world. He was not legally registered and his mother lived in fear of her family, society and a charge of unlawful sex.
For nine years the boy was forced to live in isolation at an old town house. His situation changed this year due to the police programme. He now has a legal birth certificate and is enrolled in school.
1 comment:
This should be a wake-up call as to the sickening, horrific consequences of governments attempting to restrict sexuality, or curtail it to a particular religious doctrine, whether it be Islamic, Christian, Hindu...whatever. People panic in situations where they are unexpectedly pregnant and without support--even in places where it isn't illegal--and do things they otherwise would never dream of. When countries impose draconian laws against unwed sex (unwed sex being something that has happened since humanity's inception), safe hygienic practices and contraception take a back seat. Coupled with the panic of unexpected pregnancies, and the fact that they can land a woman in jail (or worse), people are driven to do things like this.
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