Princess of Asturias Award for dad who secured equal custody in Arab nation
Friday, June 28, 2019 @ 7:04 PM
A SPANISH dad who successfully gained shared custody of his children in his home city of Dubai – the first case ever in an Arab country – will be granted the Princess of Asturias Award for Concordance this November.
Borja Brañanova has lived in the United Arab Emirates for 15 years and his children, Sebastián and Olaya, were born there five and three years ago respectively.
Their mother, who is South African, wanted sole custody once their divorce was finalised, but Borja wanted them to share the children's upbringing equally.
This has never yet been agreed in an Arab country, where custody always goes 100% to one parent or the other, meaning the verdict is a pioneer in the Northern and Southern Africa and Middle Eastern region, home to two billion people of whom the majority are practising Muslims – in fact, a quarter of the world's population follow the Islamic religion.
Women in the Arab world still take a back seat, so 'it had to be a man' who changed things concerning the rights of children to grow up equally with both parents after a divorce, said the Confederation for Children's Best Interests (CEMIN), which put forward Borja's name for the award.
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