Dubai to offer Las Vegas-style express weddings
Dubai is set to become the Middle East’s answer to Las Vegas, as it prepares to offer express marriages.
Under new reforms, couples of mixed faith will be able to get a civil wedding licence in just 24 hours. Last year the United Arab Emirates became the first country in the Arab world to offer express mixed-faith weddings in its capital, Abu Dhabi, drawing in 6,000 couples so far.
Now the reforms will be introduced nationwide, meaning that Dubai, one of the world’s most visited cities and a popular holiday destination, will offer quickie weddings too.
Hesham El-Refai, a UAE legal expert, said the demand had been high and would continue to rise as Dubai opens up. “When it comes to progressive laws, the UAE is a leading reformist in the region as it reshapes the relationship between the law and a 1,000-year-old religious opinion which was hijacked by extremists,” he said.
Until now, under Islamic Sharia law, a woman has needed her father or male guardian’s approval for marriage.
Tourists and residents alike will be able to wed in Dubai, which, according to Skyscanner, was the number one destination for Britons in 2022 and is home to about 250,000 British residents.
Laura Richards, from London, is one of the first to be signing up in Dubai. She is marrying Ahmed Dallal, her Muslim partner from Lebanon, whom she met in Dubai five years ago. The pair, both bankers, were planning to marry in Cyprus, but when they heard of the legal changes, they decided to marry in the city where they met.
“This makes life so much easier for us as a mixed-faith couple,” she said. “We were really struggling to know where to go but Dubai is the obvious destination as we met here and our families love to visit. We made a lot of memories here already. Even our friends are excited at the idea of maybe coming here to get married too.”
Couples from countries as diverse as Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon and Israel have made the trip to the Abu Dhabi Civil Family Court in the past year, due to the speed at which they can get married.
El-Refai said the recent secular UAE laws, which have also included decriminalising unmarried pregnancy and cohabitation, are not merely a piece of legislation but a “declaratory political statement of modernity, acceptance, inclusion, respect and tolerance”.
With about 30 weddings a day, Abu Dhabi attracts couples from roughly 180 nationalities. Dmitri Sedov, 26, and his wife, Elena Gladovsky, 41, are among a growing number of mixed-faith couples coming from Israel to marry in Abu Dhabi. This has been possible only since the 2020 Abraham Accords normalised relations between the two countries, allowing free travel. About half a million Israeli tourists have since been to the UAE.
Israel bans marriages that are not conducted under Jewish law, leaving those who wish to marry outside the faith with no choice but to marry abroad. “In Abu Dhabi this process is very fast and there is little bureaucracy,” said Sedov.
The new reforms also cover issues such as making civil inheritance equal, allowing for “no fault” divorce and bringing women into the courts as judges.
The reforms also help the Gulf state to attract foreign investment and bolster its nine million expats, who make up almost 90 per cent of the population, including about 250,000 Britons.
“The mandatory application of Sharia law on expats was a problem and continues to be in the rest of the region. You can’t attract the best talent and foreign investment without first having a secular family law,” El-Refai explained.