Police in Dubai neighbor hunt homes for unmarried couples
By APThursday, April 22, 2010
Emirates police ask: marriage license, please
SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates — Police in the conservative Sharjah emirate are hunting for unmarried couples sharing the same address.
The door-to-door search is the latest effort by Sharjah authorities to enforce Islamic codes in their enclave, which borders far more freewheeling Dubai. The campaign, detailed Thursday in local media, follows a police report that a couple was arrested for living together out of wedlock.
Violators may face jail and deportation. But Shariah, or Islamic law, remains on the books and includes possible sentences of lashings.
The UAE outlaws unmarried couples from living together, but Sharjah enforces the strictest rules. The emirate — one of seven that comprise the UAE — also imposes a blanket ban on alcohol.
