Domestic workers also suffer from debt bondage and wage exploitation in addition to sexual abuse. In April the Gulf News reported that Dubai residents were advised to "choose their maids carefully and treat them humanely if they want to ensure they don't turn on them", following an attempt by an Ethiopian maid to kill the three children in her care.
"I think a lot of people don't get this," said Afsana. "Dubai is based on a slave labour system where there is a racial hierarchy. Everybody's got a Filipino nanny. It's £200 a month and for that you get a full-time nanny, and they will do your cooking, cleaning and looking after you. Basically they're your slave."
But, she said, even the relatively rich expats such as herself were vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by men because the sharia system treats them as chattels. "They don't care about women in danger. Who are we? We're the lowest of the low."
In February Afsana was convicted of kidnapping the son she has not seen since October 2013 and given a one-month suspended jail sentence. After her passport was returned she took a gamble and booked a ticket to the UK to see her older sons, while fearing that she may never see Louis again. "The FCO tell me that there is little they can do for me because they respect the laws of the UAE. But this is not justice, this is sharia."
Rabbhi Yahiya, Afsana's older son, is campaigning for his mother to be reunited with her child. "This four-year long nightmare has ruined all of our lives. All my mother did was flee her marriage and yet she is the one who has been punished by a system that has continually failed to protect her basic rights and freedoms and is clearly open to abuse and gender bias.
"In no society, least of all ones which advertise themselves as ‘progressive' and open to the world for tourism and business, should a mother and child endure what my mum and Louis have faced. They were at their most vulnerable, destitute and subjected to sustained violence, yet state institutions failed them at every turn. It is a clear signal that a wealthy expatriate man can abuse the sharia system to punish his victim."
"I think a lot of people don't get this," said Afsana. "Dubai is based on a slave labour system where there is a racial hierarchy. Everybody's got a Filipino nanny. It's £200 a month and for that you get a full-time nanny, and they will do your cooking, cleaning and looking after you. Basically they're your slave."
But, she said, even the relatively rich expats such as herself were vulnerable to abuse and exploitation by men because the sharia system treats them as chattels. "They don't care about women in danger. Who are we? We're the lowest of the low."
In February Afsana was convicted of kidnapping the son she has not seen since October 2013 and given a one-month suspended jail sentence. After her passport was returned she took a gamble and booked a ticket to the UK to see her older sons, while fearing that she may never see Louis again. "The FCO tell me that there is little they can do for me because they respect the laws of the UAE. But this is not justice, this is sharia."
Rabbhi Yahiya, Afsana's older son, is campaigning for his mother to be reunited with her child. "This four-year long nightmare has ruined all of our lives. All my mother did was flee her marriage and yet she is the one who has been punished by a system that has continually failed to protect her basic rights and freedoms and is clearly open to abuse and gender bias.
"In no society, least of all ones which advertise themselves as ‘progressive' and open to the world for tourism and business, should a mother and child endure what my mum and Louis have faced. They were at their most vulnerable, destitute and subjected to sustained violence, yet state institutions failed them at every turn. It is a clear signal that a wealthy expatriate man can abuse the sharia system to punish his victim."
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