SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates —

SHARJAH, United Arab Emirates (AP) — About a dozen single women were crammed into a cell south of Dubai last year, convicted of the crime of giving birth, when a guard entered and told them they were free.

The episode, described by one of the women, was one of the first concrete signs that the United Arab Emirates had decriminalized premarital sex in a reform of its Islamic penal code.

But a year later, these single women are still stuck in limbo, struggling to obtain birth certificates for babies born in the shadows.

A new law that takes effect in two weeks still does not offer single women a clear path to obtain birth certificates for their children. At the same time, the law penalizes women who do not have these documents.

Although single mothers no longer face prison sentences in the United Arab Emirates after the November 2020 reform, a bureaucratic labyrinth now awaits them.

Obtaining birth certificates for their babies is an expensive process that the country's poorest - foreign workers who clean offices, serve food and care for other women's children - cannot afford. Expats outnumber locals nearly nine to one in the country.

“We were so hopeful,” said Star, one of the women released from Sharjah Central Jail in December 2020, with her three-month-old daughter. "Then problems came that I didn't think I had the strength to overcome."

Star did not give her last name for fear of retaliation. She and six other unmarried women, most from the Philippines, described their legal battles to The Associated Press.

Before last year's legal reform, several had given birth in hospitals, where health authorities denied birth certificates and called the police. Others took refuge in their shared apartments, scared and alone, to have their babies.

In the Emirates, hospitals only give birth certificates to married parents. Without the certificates, children cannot receive medical care, attend school or travel. Their mothers, who under the previous law lost their jobs and residence permits, were left stranded. It is unknown how many undocumented children there are in the United Arab Emirates.

Lawyers point out that the obstacles stem from the government's persistent conservative mentality and lack of coordination.

Some women long for the previous punishments, which were usually a year in detention and deportation. Although terrifying, the system at least guaranteed a flight home and documents for her children.

"Since the law changed it's only gotten harder," said Sitte Honey, 25. "They don't take you to jail and they don't want you to give birth," she added, noting that abortion is also prohibited. "We are stuck."

Dirar Belhoul Al Falasi, a member of the Federal National Council, an advisory body in the United Arab Emirates, argued that last year's decriminalization had had an impact.

“Before this, there was nothing in my hand to legalize what they have,” he told the AP. "But now there is a law ... with which we can help them."

Under a new law that went into effect Jan. 2, parents who fail to register their children face a minimum of two years in prison. The text does not indicate that health authorities give birth certificates to single mothers. The law requires parents to marry or acquire travel documents and other paperwork to prove their children's identity, without indicating how.

That has caused panic among single mothers, who fear further punishment.

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Last year, as lawyers tried to understand the opaque penal code, women like Star were released from prison in different parts of the country. Prison conditions varied and in some, mothers were separated from their children.

Star said that she had her daughter taken from her during detention. Fifteen women shared a bathroom, she pointed out, subsisting only on rice and bread and barely getting 30 minutes a day outdoors. Other women described police interrogations about their sexual history as deeply humiliating.

But after these women were released, they were still unable to get what they wanted most: identity documents.

Maya, a 36-year-old mother, turned herself in to authorities in November 2020 when she heard that she would help get a birth certificate for her one-year-old daughter. After several tortuous weeks at the Al Qusais police station in Dubai, the authorities were informed of the law change and released her. But they never legalized the situation of her daughter, which forced him to go from one government office to another in search of her target.

“These huge fundamental changes are very welcome, but there is still a lot to do to catch up,” said Ludmila Yamalova, managing partner of LYLAW, a firm that takes cases for single mothers.

“On an emotional and mental level, people are not ready to accept the law as a reality,” she added, referring to the country's health and safety agencies.

Women continue to secretly raise their children without documentation. Noraida Gamama, desperate to search her three-year-old daughter, has covered the door of her apartment in Sharjah with signs warning her half-dozen flatmates to check the peephole before opening to make sure an official doesn't call. of the government.

Many of the mothers, living on expired visas and struggling to raise their babies on a meager income, cannot afford the legal costs and attorney bills. Opening a birth certificate petition case in Dubai Family Court costs about $350.

Ann, 36, works several part-time jobs and barely sleeps a couple of hours a night to feed her two-year-old daughter. She remembers the agony of giving birth on the floor of a rented room in Dubai. "All I want is to give her a name after her, to take her back to the Philippines where she could live a better life," Ann said.

Still, more and more women are taking their cases to court, with mixed results. A court official in Dubai said the system handled about 50 "baby cases" a day.

When Honey learned that her boyfriend had gotten her pregnant two years ago, she asked the Philippine Consulate to take her home. But while she waited for help that never came, little Naya was born in her tiny apartment.

Honey, left without papers after fleeing abusive employers who confiscated her passport, was desperate to get out of Dubai. But the authorities can't repatriate her until Naya gets her papers.

"This is a nightmare. No money, no visa, no plan,” Honey said.

To hasten her return, Honey's 47-year-old mother moved to Qatar as a domestic worker and raised enough money to open a case in Dubai last month. She is still waiting for her first sight and to receive a written admission of paternity from her ex-boyfriend.

The process requires a single mother to present a long list of personal documents, take a DNA test and testify before a judge. If the judge gives her approval, the mother can request the birth certificate of her child.

Some, like Star, have persevered and achieved their goal.

"That kind of joy is overwhelming, knowing that your daughter is no longer illegal," Star said from her family's home in Davao City, Philippines. "It's like breathing for the first time."