[Music] good morning um today our guest speaker is uh Clotilde Iaia uh the managing partner of Yungo legal good morning good morning thank you very much for coming it's pleasure to have one of the most famous Italian lawyers in the UAE and uh public figure I know you've been speaking and invited into many uh many conferences to address some of the most important issues uh in in the legal sphere and uh recently I I read a lot of articles for you as well uh and and whenever I go to your website I I I see a lot of text that is intriguing and is actually uh there's a lot of guidance and in terms of the law in the UAE which is very nice but before we go into legal topics I would like that uh you introduce yourself to us and tell me uh when did you start uh your journey with the law and where how long you've been in the UAE please thank you Amed uh it's very nice first of all to be here with you uh with regards to uh thank you so much for I mean I'm not famous I'm sure I'm I mean I'm known in my community of course because I've been here for I've been in the UAE for 20 years on and off uh my legal Journey started when I decided to study um law at University that was in very a long time ago let's just say uh there was two a long time ago about 20 4 25 years ago uh um both my parents are lawyers and so for me was a little bit of uh initially a default Choice as many students you know when they're very young they don't really know what to do and since um I seem not to have at that time um a realization what my passion was I decided to go into law because I thought oh well worst case scenario if I don't if I'm not great at it if I don't not Excel I I would still have a job I can still go and do my family you know followup into my family food steps and um take over from my parents at some point but actually when I went to to law school I found out that that was my passion and I really enjoyed studying law it was an amazing experience I had um bologna where I study uh in Italy is an amazing liberal city um uh even at that time it was full of students coming from also different parts of the world joh John Hopkins University had been having um uh a university um there for a very long time for students exchanging uh programs with the US um there were and then Erasmus had just started which is this program within Europe where um you know students within the community could exchange program with between University in the European Community was an exciting time I have to say to study law or to study anything uh in the 90s yeah I graduated and law in 19 at the end of uh at the in the early 2000 and qualified as as a lawyer in Italy avocato that's what it's called um very quickly in 2003 uh so I was very young lawyer I remember at the time going to court I was at the time I worked for a very famous uh professor in procedural law and so often I had to go to hearings on his behalf and everybody would ask would ask me oh where is the professor and I would say no it's not coming today also where is the lawyer and I was like well I am the lawyer and then nobody could believe me because I was quite young and I looked also young cuz I had a bit of a baby face um it was quite I had a successful career in Italy in Bologna I was happy I had a good job but at some point I felt I needed a new experience and I wanted to really expl Explore More um have the opportunity to work abroad um so while I was going to a court session I saw this advertisement for a master degree in uh commercial law in uh Arab law country in Arab countries sorry Arab speaking countries okay um This was um master degree that had been sponsored by Saudi Arabia and the University of bologa together and it had run for only two years and there were only uh 30 candidates per year and I was selected to attend this master's degree which I loved because it gave me the opportunity to do an internship at the Italian Trade Commission which is part of the Italian consulate uh at the time now it's a kind of privatized organization but at the time it was as a commercial atach of the Italian consulate uh so I did this internship here in Dubai at their office and fell in love with the city because in 2004 when I first moved here I just qualified as a lawyer uh the opportunities were amazing the the city the country where is was in full swing uh the real estate market had just started it was absolutely happening you know when I said that I had uh um an elevator pitch it actually meant that I could do pitches in the elevator and actually get clients our our office was at the time in alusa Tower at the I think it was the 18th floor and between the first first floor and the 18th floor I often get clients off the door the elevator into into into our office very nice yeah so it was exciting exciting really at the time uh I worked at the time with a small Law Firm which was a German uh British uh join Venture um which then was acquired a few years later by or enter into a joint venture and then became fully fledged eversheds uhhuh wow yes and uh so it was really really exciting times I had two partners one from British Jordanian uh background and another uh Syrian Canadian um we were three very young lawyers um and I think only in a city like Dubai very three very young lawyers could set up a law firm and be successful uh it was a different times and he felt absolutely uh amazing I've not had the same experience afterwards uh because it was so uh new and exciting and we were young and we were being very successful we had amazing clients at some point of course I joined the Westing afterwards because I had a young baby and I wanted to re reduce working hours as you know our our law our our sorry our job requires long hours long hours long hours so I wanted to to have a bit more flexibility after having you know invested so much of my time into bringing a law firm from three people to joining a massive uh big Law Firm yeah I wanted to have the time to join a bigger Law Firm where I could just work as consultant for projects that I was willing to work yeah for um so that's what I did but then in 2014 again that life um put me in the position of choosing between living in the continue living in the UAE and staying in the job ahead at the time or moving to London and maybe find other opportunities I decided to move to London for several reason that are personal um but at the time of course nobody thought that I could work remotely and for me it was very important I had built a practice and in corporate law in real estate law and intellectual property law and I didn't want to leave that practice uh unattended I had in any case like a huge project that I couldn't I couldn't just delegate because it would have been too costly to the client um and so I decided I was just going to set up a small offer uh while I finish at least this project and while I am living in London yeah and then what happened is that this project that was supposed to be just a temporary solution actually became my life project and I moved so I continued to commute between London and B for about SE for about six seven years um the law firm became quite successful I didn't do much marketing at the time because honestly I had so much work and I had to develop a team and train them and it was too much already to to handle and then Co of course happened and Co changed lives of many people and then commuting was no longer possible and with my husband we decided it doesn't matter where he works really cuz he works mostly he can work from anywhere um I can for me was more important the connection with the territory because you still need to meet clients and you need to do networking and it was starting to affect me not to be able to come to the UAE as much as I wanted to so in 2020 we return to the UAE uh I had to First reduce my team because Co brought lots of issue my main clients at the time were in events management because I do lots of intellectual property art related um uh work uh legal work of course and so it became very difficult to uh to receive payments I had lots of work but no payments uh so we had to reduce the team and now um because of that I had to find new ways and new new income streams uh that did not come traditionally only from corporate commercial law which I think it was a market that had been in the UA saturated by a number of you know different law firms compared to of course when I was I I first moved here in 2004 um and so I had to find different um different streams of revenues and one of the streams that I found uh you know a lack in the market of diversity in the offerings was family law and uh private clients M uh of course there are CL there are law firms that are dedicated to private clients but still they only or mostly do maybe white color crime or uh corporate commercial law but none of those firm except few except exception have a proper Family Law Department or um there are of course some firms that are um dedicated to Wilson Testament and inheritance and estate law but none of these firms seem to have like a full Department that covers all these areas at the level that I would have expected as right coming from corporate commercial law and from Big law my clients have very high standards of legal care that they have used to and very often you don't find the same standards in those sector of the law and this is why yango La is now open this new family law Department which from a corporate commercial law perspective I found very interesting and refreshing for all to delve into something new to get to know a new um uh market and trying to understand what are the requirements on the on the market where are the opportunities cuz that's the like just how I work um and then of course trying to fill that to to fulfill those requirements th those markets demands with an offering that meets with their uh expectation and we are trying to do that we really engaged into that process and I think our family law department has really grown in the past year uh it's been really exciting to to to to do something new this is great to know I mean you find your niche in the market and uh but what what sort of clients you focus on because in in in in the UAE with one of the most diverse countries is have lived in um we have Muslims and we have non-muslims we have Muslims who are Arabs and Muslims from everywhere in the world living here local amires we have everything so on the family law uh I I guess there are a lot of challenges when it comes to the application and which law would be applied what do you see is is more your focus on like or most of your clients are coming from the local immoralities or the Islamic background this is a very good question uh well initially when we very recently we actually went through um what it's called an emotional intelligence Executive coaching course uh part of uh the course is about understanding how the team Works making sure we communicate equally with each other making sure we are always up to date with what each others is doing so that we can support each other but another part of uh the discussion was about who is our Target clients who is our Avatar client um we have individuated this a avatar clients both a female and male um Avatar client I have to say religion is not one of the aspect that would define that Avatar clients is mostly has to do with age uh with economic um um with the economic availability um that they have to spend on a divorce divorce are expensive yes but we also focused on um providing Pro bonus services to especially to women that are unable to afford um representation in divorce cases as you may know um a lot of of Works workers or employers or executive employees sorry not employers executive employees that come to the region come for a job and their wives and family often follow because they go with the husband that has a job this also means that women often lose their job in the country of origin and because of you know maybe education background inability of speaking English uh or simply the the inability of securing a job they suddenly find themselves in a much weaker position from an economic standpoint because they have come with somebody that provides financially and not always they are able to provide the same or to have the same Financial um uh chances or possibilities and because of that when they come to a divorce it's really hard on women because they're finally they find themselves here without family support uh without friends support and they still have children that they have to feed they need to send to school uh so we find that as a com uh you know as a public service provider uh we can't just look at the services that we provide as profit generators we also feel that it is our duty to give back to the community to the community and so it's a program that we have we cannot help every woman that are certain as certain requirements ments that we ensure are there for us to be able to support them in a divorce case cuz divorce is hard and it's not always the right solution and it's not always at the right time that they come to us so we need to make sure that before they engage into some kind this sort of procedure um we have to ensure that they're ready yeah both psychologically that they have a system that supports them uh that they have Community around them and sometimes we have to become part of that Community this of course is very passionate I'm very passionate about this type of work but as I said we can only do it limit in a limited amount of um number of women per year because it's really time consuming of course of course and uh so we can only take maximum two cases a year because every case lasts about at least 5 six months if we if we are lucky and we are able to go to Abu Dhabi judicial Department court but it's a lot longer if we go before the Dubai courts and so it you see this this difference between Abu Dhabi and Dubai in this case yes so Abu Dhabi judicial Department perhaps because they started a bit earlier with the personal status yes court sorry the family civil court for non-muslim for instance um their system is very efficient their system works uh when they give you a time for a hearing is a little bit like the DFC Court that's the time and at that time you have to be there and you have to be present and because of that uh it's absolutely uh their work is brilliant it's absolutely amazing and outstanding the job that Abu Dam judicial department has done in terms of providing experts that are non-muslim speakers and that are sorry just going back to the nonim aspect non Arab speaker sorry non-arabic speaker and also non-muslim because sometimes um ahed just to be a little bit candid about it um the cultural aspect of a divorce and the um way women or men are judged within that procedure can be very diff different between an somebody with a background relig back religious background as can be a Muslim and somebody that does not have that religious background therefore that also means that judges even though they're applying a law they might not they might still have be biased by their own beliefs uh I find that because Abu Dhabi judicial Department has a mixed bag of case managers um and is inclusive and is more diverse um I think Dubai personal status course just started a few months back yeah and um at the moment um I think he's overwhelmed with a number of cases and it's a little so it takes longer and there is also maybe because um of this being overwhelmed with the number of cases there is a less attention to the human side of um going through something that is so much like it's a huge event in someone's life it's life changing yes and so we we do appreciate that some in these cases you need to have some empathy yeah what what are the most common conflicts in divorce that you see happening here especially they've been um having this speciality as a niche and you must have seen a pattern of uh of of a certain problem that when it comes to divorce that most couples have a problem uh about what's the pattern here usually the pattern is that I guess because lots of men come here and have these amazing jobs and opportunities and they suddenly making maybe twice what they were making in their country of Orion I think they become a bit too embolden by um having so much money at their disposal but having lost any connection with their Community right I mean I think you come from Egypt Orin right Egypt Egypt and I come from Italy um one that one thing that I think is very important when you come from a small town right is that connection that you have with everyone in your community because that connection is what makes you also be responsible and be accountable for what you do then suddenly you go in a country where nobody knows you that connection with your community the fact that people might judge you because you're not behaving properly suddenly maybe stops being there I don't know I am not clearly a psychologist but what we see is that Chavi in the behavior that suddenly becomes more abusive and more controlling because also the weakest part in the in the relationship who usually the wife because economically is absolutely the the person that is less the least protected economically because they have no family they have no support their mother's father they're no longer here so they are completely dependent on this one person and this one person sometimes depending on the personality of course of each each one of us has a different personality tend to take advantage of that position of power which is you know it's normal it's human it's being human it's being human you are just if you have power you have to be really you have to have a very strong personality to put that power in check I think that's what happens and so these are the cases uh most of the cases complex you in in the contol in side and you said Financial as well that is some there is a lot of economic violence uh related cases okay do you know what economic violence understand the term yeah maybe we can explain it because sometimes people don't even understand that they are exercising economic violence so right when you are the person that has economic power that has economic control of someone's life economic violence is starting to say I'm not going to pay your credit card this month I e you do what I want or I'm not giving you food or I'm not I'm letting you uh I'm not taking you on vacation or I will decide where we go on vacation but you have no voice into that or we start say oh well I'll take the kids out of school or I will decide to go and have ballet classes rather than not having any extra curricular activity so it's taking away any control or any uh any a possibility for the other person in the relationship I'm not saying this only happens of course uh between when when the man has the economic power it can also happen when the woman might have more economic Powers it's just that traditionally and also statistically it happens less because there are less women worldwide that earn more money than compared to theand I've also noticed that this economic power can like the abuse of this e economic power can occur not just between uh the husband and wife or vice versa it can happen with the children as well or with the with with the let's say the young adults like I I've seen cases where 21 20 or 20 years old young lady is is calling me and says that I cannot do this and that unless I obey my parents who are basically my economics and and they use this is this something that is regulated here in the UA have you seen any of minors um or or between spouses well between spouses for sure yes uh between spouses absolutely this is one of the one of the most common causes for for divorce that we see yeah with regards to miners um you know there are criminal laws in the UAE that protect minors from harm yeah um I am not an expert of criminal law but I do that I KN I I do know that there are laws that can be used um to protect minors in such cases but I don't have enough experience on on the E on the economical part yes because you can you are not allowed actually to cut off your children of their you know food or educational um support uh that would be again would be against the law and there are criminal consequences if parents do that that the law doesn't specify that this only happens uh until the children are 12 no this happens throughout their life um there is also another uh another point to consider is that okay what happens when the children you know are no longer uh 21 they are older but they're still not married or they don't have their own Financial Independence are parents still obliged to provide you know uh support economic support this is something that happens as well you know in front of divorce in divorce cases where children are still at University is the father still responsible to pay University's fees until when the children are you know finished with their studies or found their first job um my opinion is that yes they are still um uh responsible to provide uh you know economic support because um until when who who otherwise who but I it's what is unclear but this is unclear I think um in any country is for how long parents will be uh responsible because we have cases in Italy unfortunately where children that are in their 40s there still leaving with their parents who are 70s and demanding that the parents clean for them cook for them there was a recent case in Italy wow uh related to this and actually in the end the children had become the abusers of the mother and leing offer pension so what what is how do we regulate that right how do we so iess I guess each case is different right and you have to look at in a different P from a different perspective because of course those are the children of this 76 year old woman but are they still entitled to request for this woman to continue to clean and cook every day and and they all live out of a pension and nobody none of these two sons had thought oh let me go and seek some job occupation anything you know to help so yeah it's I think something that you know family law will see it's interesting to see because as you Pro as Society changes and progresses then also new laws become of course uh required we have seen this in the UA there's a lot of rewrite of of many legislations and and introduction to new ones like what you just highlighted about the adjd in in ababi and introducing a new personal status law and and recently here in Dubai as well um you've been practicing for some time here and you have a 20 years experience which is amazing how do you see the transition of the Court mind like the system when when it comes to divorces or because this is quite recent and have you seen any divorce cases happening based on the new regulations uh and and how does the court deal with it we have we have plenty of cases related to this uh both in Dubai and Abu Dhabi uh the amazing thing thing again of Abu Dhabi judicial Department court is that foreign lawyers are allowed to represent their clients although they have to the clients must also be present to the hearing with the foreign lawyer yeah which again it just guarantees a better protection of the rule of law for these clients that might not feel really understood by um UAE Mr lawyers not again not because um just because the cultural differences are sometimes great and um a woman or a man might feel embarrassed or not comfortable to discuss certain issues um and an amirati lawyer might also not feel comfortable to listen to certain issues um therefore I do um absolutely welcome the fact that the court the Abu dhab judicial Department has given foreign lawyers that opportunity it's just amazing I think it's amazing I also as as a foreign lawyer here I missed going to court uh which I enjoyed when I was in Italy so it's nice sometimes to just discuss uh you know a case in person and having the opportunity to explain um one's point of view I have to say again courts manner in Abu judici Department are amazing and there is a very very respect ful way of addressing everyone in the court U we really loved working with them um as I said Dubai personal status court is still very early days uh we haven't finished a full case yet so I don't want to express myself because I don't have the full experience still yet to see how that go because it just it just started it just started a few months ago so I'm very curious to see how they will how the personal status scor for non-muslim Muslim for because the one for Muslim of course has been there for a while for a while um and we have several cases Now new cases that we are um addressing is um very new this is a very new case uh with regards to uh tourists that married uh in Abu with a civil marriage in Abu Dhabi Judiciary Department new law allows tourists to get married here exactly and they can also divorce here even though they're no longer living here here okay and so I hope to we've just we're just now at the stage of uh giving some advice on the procedure so we haven't again finished or started this divorce yet but it will be interesting to see how is that going to work out because right you know the portal for instance everything works with the UA pass but of course if you're a tourist you didn't have that so that was my the first question I asked myself okay how do we make the application cuz you can do the application for sure it's written on the portal so there are still like practicalities yes or that I may might not know yet because I haven't done one because you know what the law is 2021 um issued in 2021 so the 14 of 2021 that allow this the Civil marriage so we very curious to see how that goes interesting you know I have I have something that one thought that came to my mind I've been involved many many times in in mediation in divorces so especially for non-muslims and and and they were the few cases that I handled were were all European Nationals I got the feeling that because of the lack of knowledge about how the court will handle the personal status of non-muslims even if they get the legal advice proper way there there was this kind of level of uncertainity of really what would the Sharia influence Court in the personal status uh with the personal status law applied to them and we found that many divorces happen in in in in settlement that they don't go to court do you think with the application of the new laws and starting up the new personal status uh Courts for non-muslims who give more confidence will surge the number of cases that we will see in the UAE I think it will because um see if especially at the moment there is also really uh um for shopping uh because at at the moment because of law 14 2021 in Abu Dhabi uh we found and we always recommend to our clients whenever possible let's establish jurisdiction in Abu Dhabi because law 41 14 sorry of 2021 one uh for divorce of Abu Dhabi residence or domiciled is a lot more protected women that's true uh and because of that it's also clearer in what we can ask yes while uh regulation 122 of 2023 which is the implementation regulation of law 41 of 2022 is actually not as clear in what is supposed to be what are the rights of a woman of woman in divorce in divorce cases from an economic standpoint law 14 of 2021 is very specific this helps us because it gives us a better understanding and the ability of making a prediction that is closer to what the judgment will yes also because it puts the woman in a stronger position we have found that when we start proceedings of divorce in Abu Dhabi we have a higher chance to reach an agreement economically economic agreement with between the spouses uh if they continue to divorce and sometimes if they decide to stay together it helps us to force the husband to recognize the economic rights of the wife cuz you know when you've been married for 26 27 years and the wife has never worked and she's now in her 50s it's a very vulnerable position to be in if your wife decides to you know uh look for other pastures or um stay away from the family yeah um and the woman with most most of the women here and this is why you know um I'm very involved into um teaching women Financial Independence um most of the women here but not only here even in Italy I think 40% of Italian women don't have their own bank account no Financial Independence this is a huge thing they don't have a bank account so anytime they need to buy anything they need to ask please and can I or and it's right it's just amazing that that still happens because the fact that they are homem the fact that they work at home for 12 hours cleaning and cooking and taking the children from school and so forth and so on that's a job it's just that it's not paid but it's still a job yes so we need to teach women first and perhaps their parents why is important to teach them to how to gain that Financial Independence even if they want to be housemakers of course or even know their rights exactly even if they want to stay Housewives and even if their husband wishes for them to do that that can be right for some people and some couples but women Financial Protection must be there and I think maybe actually Muslim um background individuals and couples are better prepared to protect women in such circumstances compared to couples coming coming from the West because in the west they've been selling Financial Independence to women meaning uh you have to work you have to be the perfect housewife you have to be the perfect mother and you need to make as money much money as possible which you will never make enough money to or the same amount of money of your husband but you still have to pay 50% of the cost yes where is the fairness of that it's not fair and so we need to make sure that we kind of find something that works that balances out things and that allows women to have some certain Financial safety and saf and security and I think what Abu Dhabi law did was giving women that I think they realized that there was an issue in uh uh experts coming here yes and there realized they had to step in by you know setting out some boundaries and some some laws to protect those but to protect women in those situations I totally agree with you but you know I will add on that that I had the experience that sitting with a lot of um clients not not just experts even Muslim uh Muslim women who are married and they get shocked when they know what are their rights even as per the Sharia law because many um misconceptions around the Sharia regulations or around the personal status law that the women don't know the problem is is is really knowledge it's not just the regulations exactly and sometimes I get the questions like why why why no one told me and then I look at my client and I tell it like I'm sorry you have to open a book or read something or or ask or research but also comes from right parents education and parents should be the first one to um teach their children how to protect themselves teach their girls how do you protect yourself when you go into a marriage um to ensure that you know you don't find yourself in a in an abusive situation yes yes and and then the rights and the obligations the the the rights of custody the rights of how to treat your children and have our team we have for instance Muslim and non-muslim lawyers we really coer operate with each other we follow cases that are there can be you know uh Muslim divorces there are lots of cases where you know there are couples that are mixed where the wife might be Christian and the husband might be Muslim in Italy for instance you can do a dual ritual uh marriage where it's both blessed by the church and by the Imam and so it's a uh you know it's an amazing uh you know Wonderful experience for them but when it comes to divorce many women they don't realize that then when you come to a Muslim country then Sharia law will apply to your divorce yes because your children will be Muslim of course and so this often happens and then we have to work together to undo their preconception and and then work with them to kind of say okay let's see what let's let let explain to you what what your rights are what you can how we can work with um you know this the law um of 2005 um compared to the one of for non-muslim and how we can achieve the same substantially same results it's just we have to do it in another way and we have different of course um strategies depending on um the client sit specific situation yes um but what I find it's really interesting is that between our team uh there is constant um confrontation on um sorry not confrontation in in a negative way but more like an exchange of information on between uh Muslim Muslim living abro living maybe grow up that grw up in the UK and non-muslim and we try to see okay how can we help um this couple how can we at that couple how do we achieve that result for this client and it's not just about the law of course it's also a you need to have empathy and emotional part and the support um we also do try mediation however I'm also feel feel that some not all but some mediator just take advantage of the situation and let the situation drag for years and years as much as they can to increase their going exactly and it's like you know and then couples come to us or you know one of the the partners come the spouses come to us and they are completely drained of money drained of energy uh they can't focus anymore yes and and so we try to close it in the shortest period of time that we can because we understand that our clients value and focus must be into positive action into things that they can and you know control and so we give them the control back yes divorce is a very distressed situation and I can understand very well the emotional part and uh I believe there is an ethical obligation on the legal consultant and the whoever lawyer handling the case is not just to give pure legal advice and just do do your work you must also advise the parties your client mainly would this action benefit them on the long run because economical value on on on the claim is one thing but there's other distress situations that can drag into um the the children or the the social uh yes of course image of of both parties that has to be taken into play um recently we know that the cohabitation between unmarried couples is not anymore more an illegal situation and um we would like that you highlight and and give us a little bit of a example what is this change in the law yeah so well there's not really a big change in the law in the sense that law I think it's sorry I WR it down is law 31 of 2021 which made some amendments to federal law 3987 which is the UA penal codes uh has abrogated article 356 which was the art article used to punish cohabitation um however um it is Al still a kind of a subject that is not to me completely clear because while on the one side article 356 has been abrogated uh on the other side article 409 which is traditionally the article that cover adultery and consent intercourse um outside of wedlock uh is not been abrogated uh although uh this art the application of article 409 can only be action can only be actioned by um the spouse or the guardian uh and again we go back to your question that you asked me before right what if parents use Financial um blackmailing or financial VI to not to allow their children to live life the way they want so article 409 is something that you know parents can use to counteract against any uh of the children maybe using other articles of the penal code to protect their economic rights um so because of the still existence of this article although cohabitation per se is not crime crime anymore but cohabitation and then having intercourse it is a crime right uh or it can be a crime actionables only if someone yeah if somebody makes a claim but this makes the rights between this Partners in this kind of unregulated very risk relationship nonregulated and also the other thing that I find is a little in a gray area is what happens to the children of these C absolutely uh because while we know that in a case of a divorce children's custody is 50 50% basis um it is unclear what what happens if let's suppose a couple that are Co couples that are cohabiting have a child here the child is born here so the law says okay they can get a marriage certificate and each you know um municipality each Emirate will decide how to get the the the birth certificate uh however what happens if then this couple decouple themselves and decide okay we don't want to live together anymore there still can be uh dispute arising on how to raise the children how to you know support them how to pay for their education um Foods their housing accommodation everything travel where do they go where do they they go to leave where do they do they can they go back to their country can they not there is no real regulation or what happened so this is yet to be amended already to be amended we've had several inquiries on cases like this we've not had instruction yet to try to get the father to start paying um you know alimony for the for the children of the unmarried couple uh we think we're going to have a case soon and we're going to try to go to Abu Dhabi Court um we're going to try to use the laws that protect children uh in a way that is like um you know that because it's a similar it's although the law does not provide directly however the law it is issued in the best interest of the child the best interest of the child is to have both parents the fact that one of the parents decided to not be no longer be in the presence in the or being responsible of the guardianship of the child does not doesn't mean that the is no longer responsible of a maintaining economically that child yes and so we're going to try to use the same laws to see if um by similarities uh the the application of the law can be extended to children coming from unmarried couples we don't know if we're going to get um what the response of the Court would be very interesting to see that would be very interesting to see I personally would like to try it because I'd like to know that children that can be protected in this sense in the situation cuz at the end of the day the the people that pay the highest price in any divorce in any decoupling are the children and so for me as an operator in within the justice system and in order to abide by my public function my number one priority is to protect the interest of the children 100% that is my number one priority and that is always how I look at cases that I Undertake and this is what I try to do for me having parents that are still in the same house for years and years uh without a resolution for the children is not the right thing and so we do all all we can to avoid for that to to to happen and let's see I don't know maybe we can do another interview where we absolutely if we have some more about um you know children's custody that coming from uh out of wedlock relationship thank you very much for being with us would be interesting to see how this case folds up and we will invite you back to give us a brief about it it it be my pleasure to be here again I hope that was interesting and if you know if anybody has any other question they can follow up with me um our um sorry our website is yo. so it's easy to find me there thank you so much thank you very much and uh this is your do from M legal see you next week