A Spaniard causes the United Arab Emirates to approve a family law for non -Muslims with shared custody
His name is Borja Brañanova, he is 48 years old, he is Asturian, training mines engineer and a senior business management executive of a German multinational who 17 years ago displaced him to Dubai, a state city that is part of the federal monarchy that they make upThe Seven United Arab Emirates (EAU) of the Persian Gulf.
Brañanova is the father of two children, Sebastián, 7, and Olaya, 5, born in Dubai, with whom he has been able to travel to Spain for the first time, since 2015, being aware.From his previous trip, being the very young boy and the baby girl, none has memories.This is a very special trip, in the heat of a new law that has its origin in its personal case.
It is the Family Law for Non Muslims, which entered into force last November, as announced by the Deputy Secretary of the Department of Justice, Youssef Saeed to Abri.
The total population of the EAU is 10.066.791 inhabitants.Only 11.5 % are emiritis, local;1.157.681 people.The remaining 88.5 %, 8.909.110 people are foreign workers.Mostly Surasian, which total 59.4 %(Indians, 38.2 %; Blangladesí, 9.5 %; Pakistani, 9.4 %; and others, 2.3 %);Egyptians, 10.2 %;Filipinos, 6.1 %;And others, 12.8 %.
Among the latter others are the Spanish Borja Brañanova and his ex -wife, the South African of Origin Afrikaner Claudia, 36, who requested the divorce of her then husband in 2016.
Until that time, in the EAU when cases like these arrived, both to the premises and to the foreigners, the Islamic Sharia or Law was applied that, translated into reality, the woman stays with everything: the children, the house and the themaintenance.The man with nothing and without being able to see his children because the guard and custody is from the mother.
«Normal in Dubai and the United Arab Emirates in these cases was for man to pay what he had to pay, make another family and spend the page, without having a relationship with his children.Because men always lose and women always win.There the lawyers do not charge women because they take a percentage of what they get for their customers, ”explains Brañanova.
«Yes, when the male son turns 10 or 11, that guard and custody goes to the father.The daughter stays with the mother until she marries.Islamic law applied to all.Both the Emiratis, who are all millionaires, and can be allowed to have one, two and three families - the polygamy is less and less - and to foreigners, who are not, ”he adds.
There began his crusade.
His son was 2 years old and his daughter months."My soul broke when I thought I would not see them again," Brañanova recalls.
Claudia, whom she had met in 2004, shortly after arriving in Dubai, when she worked in the local hospitality, with which she had lived as a de facto couple for seven years, and with which she married in 2013, she hired a lawyerof the elite, married to a billionaire, who demanded for its client the equivalent of 10 million dollars.A figure that emerged after quantifying the pension requested, housing, trips to South Africa ...
As if it were a billionaire or an elite footballer.It did not make sense.
The Spanish Civil Code, Legal Base of the dispute
Brañanova, however, was lucky.A renowned Dubai family lawyer, Mukhtar al Gharib, who assumed his case, clarified that, in accordance with article 1 of Federal Law number 28 of 2005 of Personal Affairs of the EAU, in case of conflicts between foreigners the law toApply is that of the father.
«And I chose the Spanish Civil Code.This means that the judges of the Islamic Court of Justice had to leave the Sharía aside, study our Civil Code and apply it, ”says Brañanova.
For that I had to have a Spanish lawyers solvent.
"It was not easy.I valued up to five different laws.
"Without it, without its unconditional support during these five years, everything we achieved later would not have been possible," he emphasizes.
Because what happened next was far from being a rose road or a military ride.«We had to translate the entire part of the Civil Code into Arabic, legally validate it in Spain and the United Arab Emirates Embassy.There was also a setback.Because our Civil Code, today, is not yet updated.Does not contemplate the jurisprudence of the Civil Chamber of the Supreme Court that, since 2013, said that shared custody should be considered normal and desirable, ”says Winkels, social director of Winkels Lawyers lawyers.
Just at that time, the magistrate of the Civil Chamber of the SupremeAll Spanish courts.
"Flora Calvo - firm's consulisor - prepared an applicable report," says Winkels.«We notarially legalize the Civil Code, the applicable articles of the Constitution and the magazine.We made a very large deployment of legalizations to show the Judges of Dubai that in that year 2016 the Spanish Supreme said that shared custody was normal and desirable and that, in the case of Borja, all the requirements required for their recognition were met".
In parallel, Brañanova hired another lawyer in South Africa, Ferdinand Hartzenberg, who did the same with the law and the South African jurisprudence who, in the matter of the guard and custody of the children said the same thing as the Spanish.
"The problem is that we fight against judges who knew anything else, litigating in Arabic," recalls Brañanova.
To start, a setback, but then well
The judgment of the first instance, which came out in April 2017, had few traces of the Spanish Civil Code, as it had to have been.
«They issued a sentence under the prism of‘ guilt ’and gave absolute custody to my ex -wife.It was a classic verdict of the Sharía.Without visits, without shared custody, considering that the best interest of the child was with the mother, "says Brañanova.
To all this, the Spanish never stopped having contact with his children, which is still exceptional.He never left his home, his property.
«Because of the difficulty of agreeing who I was, they didn't force me to get out of it.I did not separate from my children or a single day.During all these years I have been living with them uninterruptedly and neither children have lost their mother nor their father nor do they contact them ».It was installed in a section section.
«It was hard and not pleasant.In the house those who had been my in -laws were installed.But I was very clear that I was not going to give up my children.So until 2019, when relations were relaxed, ”he emphasizes.
With what the Judicial Emirati establishment did not count was with the international media pressure generated by the Spanish."No, without my children," could have been titled.All this caught the attention of the high government instances.
"The judges themselves publicly stated that there was a problem with foreigners but that they applied the law that there was," he recalls.
He acknowledges that, from the highest levels, indirectly- through intermediaries- they were interested in their case and wanted to know their point of view
«The appeal was fine.O'Callaghan, who had retired, prepared an opinion on the interest of the child and shared custody along with the also magistrate of the same Supreme Chamber, José Almagro, and Professor Flora Calvo.With this opinion we achieve that, in appeal, the hearing agreed to custody shared with an attribution of responsibilities ”, highlights.
It was in November 2018.The first time in the history of the United Arab Emirates that took the judgment of these characteristics.
The milestone achieved by Brañanova had no precedents.
Proposed as Princess of Asturias Award for Concordia
What caught the attention of the Confederation for the best interest of the Childhood in Spain (CEMIN), which proposed the candidacy of Borja Brañanova and the entire lawyer team that advised him until he got the first shared custody of children in Dubai (Eau), to the Princess of Asturias Award of Concordia.
A candidacy that personally prepared its president, Gerardo Rodríguez Acosta, contributing, as a central axis, the text of the historic sentence.
For the United Arab Emirates the concession of the Princess of Asturias, the Grand Prix of Spain, a country that they consider brother for their last history, supposed the international recognition of their cultural diversity, but, above all, of their desire for openness, of change, of modernity.
Brañanova did not get the princess of Asturias, but Eau's media exhibition was a consolation prize.
The cassation ratified the guard and shared custody.
Children now live a week at Father's house, who has not left their home, in which their mother also lives, her great support - Dubai went to live since the beginning of the conflict - and her new partner, a Thai teacherof father of Malaysia and mother of Chinese ancest.
And a week at the mother's house.Brañanova supports 60 percent of its rent, 60 % of all the expenses that are considered of the children plus a pension for it.
The relations with his ex -wife Claudia, whom he supported in his studies of BBA and professional career, and who is now a regional director of Human Resources of a large company, are "normal".
The judicial conflict, which accumulated a hundred views before the Dubaitis court.
«The news of that candidacy - he says referring to the Princess of Asturias - had a lot of impact on Dubai and the United Arab Emirates.So much that, from the direction of the Family Courts, I was invited to a ‘workshop’ (a workshop) with all those responsible for the jurisdiction.They told me, you are right.Our respect and admiration for having facing the system for your children.Our new generations want to be like that, not as formerly, ”he highlights.
Brañanova is reasonably happy today.He has been able to bring his two children to Spain, whose language they speak perfectly, to see his paternal grandfather.Promises to be the event of their lives.
Since the entry into force of the new legislation on shared custody for foreigners, caused by their case, just a few days have passed.
«My goal is to continue fighting to achieve more legal reforms in the best interest of the child.I collaborate with contemporary family and the parental Alienation Study Group, both from the United States, to support that laws evolve helping families evolve.Also in Spain.In our country, here, we have the opportunity to make a new family law that is a universal reference.Because as things are, when invoked outside, it is a real struggle to demonstrate its real functioning, ”he says.
«What if from the highest instances have been put in touch with me?Yes, two weeks ago.They asked me: how are you?.
He is very aware that he finally won: "For my children and why all children have regular contacts with their families without legal impediments that carry irreparable emotional damage," he concludes.
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