Women in abusive relationships is a very emotive subject. Those who finally ‘make the break’ generally have a very difficult transition. Where to live? How to survive? Where are the kids?? How will she cope? Whoever she is, and all like her, she has our heartfelt sympathy and, where possible, support.

And then there’s the tale of Princess Haya. Mrs Dubai. Well, one of them. She ‘is’ married to the Sheikh of Dubai. Sheikh Mohammed, if you couldn’t guess. And she is one of 2 ‘official’ wives and 4 ‘unofficial’ ones. Hmmmm. 23 children. Between all the wives. Official and non. Not sure how that all works, but it is definitely working.

The Princess fled her home and came here. And unlike most poor housewives, as luck would have it, she has an 85 million pound house in Kensington. Which she bought ‘without her husband’s knowledge’ a few years ago. Well, you wouldn’t miss small amounts going from the joint account would you? Probably scraped it together from the housekeeping change.

The first thing our Princess (in the literal sense) is doing is trying to get the courts to stop any forced marriages on their children. Not all 23, I presume, just ‘hers’. Because others of the Sheik’s children have previously run away to avoid just such a thing. He’s obviously a man into all sorts of marriage stuff. Loves a wedding. Don’t care who else joins in, long as he’s involved. She wants custody of her kids too, over here.

In fact the man is so distraught that he’s lost over 17 percent of his stock of wives, he’s been writing heart-felt poetry. Which is certainly better than sending out tweets. But not a lot better. But we shouldn’t blame him.

His is a world of total autocratic domination. Everyone does what he says, when he says it, without delay or the need for repetition. And as he makes the rules, such as they are, he gets to say who marries whom (including himself, obviously, in fact especially himself), And if he wants 6 wives, who’s gonna stop him? And if he wants to betroth his 10 year old daughter in marriage, that’s what he’ll do. (I don’t even know if he has a daughter, nor how old if he does). He makes the rules, though they’re pretty much as they have been since… since before Dubai even had just one 6-star hotel with its own submarine.

What strikes me as odd is why they are having the court processes here. He doesn’t live here. We have no jurisdiction over Dubai (far as I know) and its no more right for us to impose our laws and judicial instructions to the Sheikh, over there, than it would be for him to impose his laws over here. I know London is ‘divorce central’ for billionaire’s wives but really.

Cos you can’t dictate how other countries are ruled. Not North Korea, not Russia, not Dubai. Just don’t go there. Except Russia. Which is lovely.

Happy Wednesday

A xxxx