Evaluating Social Policy to Combat Violence Against Women in the UAE: A Field Analytical Study from the Perspective of Service Providers
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.35516/Hum.2026.11777Keywords:
woman protection, violence against women, social policy, domestic violence, rehabilitation of battered womenAbstract
Objectives: The study aimed to analyze and evaluate the social policy to combat violence against women in UAE society, by identifying the current policy’s dimensions, strengthes and weaknesses.
Methods: To achieve the objectives, qualitative methodology was used, relying on focus groups conducted with a sample of (68) service providers and officials who work with victims across different sectors.
Results:. The results revealed the existence of five main dimensions of social policy to combat violence against women in UAE society, which are protection, care and rehabilitation, prevention, availability and quality of information, and participatory and complementary work. The features of each of these dimensions appeared through a set of services, procedures, programs and legislation associated with them. The results also showed the most prominent strengths revolved around the dimensions of protection, care and rehabilitation as a result of the availability and accessibility of free hotlines, shelters, consultations and support services to all victims and with high efficiency and quality. As for aspects of improvement, the study showed the need to build a national database for monitoring cases of violence, establish a national referral system to link service providers, and expand the conduct of quantitative and qualitative research relevant to policy.
Conclusions: The study showed the existence of pioneering services and programs to support, care for and rehabilitate abused women in the UAE society, although these programs vary in their degree of maturity and strength across different policy’s dimensions. The study came up with a number of recommendations, most notably the need for updating the current policy to focus more on issuing legislation to protect women from violence, adopting national indicators to measure the extent of violence practiced, and evaluating the effectiveness of the policy.
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