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Saudi women granted licenses to practice law

October 7, 2013

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Jeddah, Oct 7: Four Saudi women were granted licenses on Sunday by the Ministry of Justice to practice law in the Kingdom’s courts.

Up until the implementation of this decision, Saudi women who graduated from law school were previously employed as legal consultants, but were banned from practicing law in the courtroom and were not given attorney status. They also could not own and operate law firms.

Female lawyers have often complained about their inability to use their law degrees despite years of studying and, in some cases, earning a doctorate in law.

The ministry’s move could have a wide-ranging impact on Saudi Arabia’s domestic court system. Women in divorce and custody cases have long battled a system that favors fathers and husbands.

Saudi female clients will now have an opportunity to be represented by women who can empathize with their plight.

“The ministry’s decision to grant Saudi female lawyers licenses to open their own law offices will help female lawyers work without facing obstacles, especially since there are many women who prefer to deal with female lawyers,” Feriyal Al-Kinj, a female Saudi lawyer, told Arab News.

The ministry awarded a license to Arwa Al-Hujaili, a King Abdulaziz University graduate from Jeddah, to become a legal trainee in April. Al-Hujaili can practice law once she completes her three-year internship.

What remains to be determined is whether these female lawyers will be protected against discrimination in the courtroom and whether they will be allowed to travel freely to perform their jobs.

Al-Kinj said the ministry should establish special halls for women in courts, adding that there are 2,500 Saudi women who work as legal consultants in the Kingdom.

“Around 50 percent of my clients are male,”she said.

Bayan Zahran, a female Saudi lawyer, said: “This license will be granted to female lawyers after they fulfill the requirements to practice law in the country’s courts. Such a step represents the full support of Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah to Saudi women.

“This license can contribute to helping female lawyers to work within this profession. Female lawyers will be able to work independently from male lawyers.”

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Agencies
May 26,2020

Dubai, May 26: An Indian expat, who recently recovered from COVID-19, fell to his death from a building in Dubai, police said.

The 26-year-old Indian national identified as Neelath Muhammed Firdous from Kerala, fell from the seventh floor balcony of his building where he stayed with six others including his uncle, Naushad Ali, 33.

A Dubai Police official confirmed the incident to Gulf News on Monday and said it had been a suicide.

"He was suffering from a mental disorder and there is no criminal suspicions behind his death," said the official.

"The incident happened on Sunday," the official confirmed.

The victim's relative said: "(He) awoke early to perform prayers and everyone was getting on with their daily morning chores when he walked to the balcony and jumped.

"He was suffering from a mental disorder and had been disturbed for some time. He thought everyone was out to attack him and had stopped eating his food as he thought people were feeding him poison. He was refusing to even take water from us."

The victim had tested positive for COVID-19 on April 10. On May 7, he was discharged from a Dubai hospital after clearing all tests.

The relative told Gulf News that he had registered the victim in the Department of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA) last month in order to repatriate him, however he was unsuccessful in procuring a ticket.

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coastaldigest.com news network
August 3,2020

Sharjah, Aug 3: A 24-year-old Indian engineer has fallen to death from the sixth floor of a residential building on Eid al-Adha in the UAE's Sharjah, a media report said on Monday. 

The electrical engineer, identified with his single name Sumesh, hailed from the south Indian state of Kerala.

He lived in a building in Al Dhaid in Sharjah, from where he fell to death on Friday, the report said, adding that he was apparently talking over the phone and threw it down minutes before the incident.

Sumesh, who came to the UAE a year ago, worked as a designer in Sharjah's Muwaileh area. His roommates said that he had some "personal issues" that had been "bothering him for some time", according to the report.

"It was Eid al-Adha and our cook had made biryani for us. We were all cracking jokes and having a good time. In fact, even Cuckoo (Sumesh) was also laughing with us. He seemed happy. Nobody had anticipated this. I did sense a few times that something was troubling him and I even asked him about it, but he brushed it off," the report quoted his roommate Dileep Kumar as saying.

Shans KF, another roommate, said Sumesh was to travel to India for his annual leave but could not because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The police have launched an investigation and moved the body to the forensic lab for an autopsy.

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Agencies
January 4,2020

Baghdad, Jan 4: At least five people were killed on Saturday by an airstrike on a vehicle convoy of Iraq's Shia Popular Mobilization Forces in northern Baghdad, a source in security forces told Sputnik.

Earlier in the day, the source told Sputnik about a powerful explosion in Baghdad's northern district of Taji.

"A vehicle convoy of the Popular Mobilization Forces has been attacked. According to preliminary data, five people have died. Their names have not been clarified so far," the source said.

On Friday, several senior members of the Popular Mobilization Forces, as well as commander of the elite Quds Force of Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps Qasem Soleimani, were killed by a US drone attack near the Baghdad International Airport.

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