RESPONDING TO THE lifting of the travel ban placed on Irish citizen Tori Towey in the United Arab Emirates, Mary Lou McDonald said the case shows that the Irish state will not accept such treatment of its women.

McDonald said this afternoon that she hopes Towey’s return home marks the end of her ordeal but added: 

“It raises fundamental questions around the treatment of women in Dubai. I have found this whole episode to be grotesque and medieval, in what it says around how women are treated as objects, as possessions.

“And I find it really distressing that a woman who had suffered such vicious domestic violence wasn’t protected, wasn’t supported, but instead was actually charged with offences herself.”

McDonald said most people would struggle to get their heads around the details of Towey’s ordeal in Dubai. 

Earlier, she told the Dáil of how Towey was “subjected to sustained and brutal domestic violence” before being charged with attempted suicide and alcohol abuse.

“This case of Tori, who we will welcome home, highlights the need for Ireland, not alone to get our act together domestically, but also to raise concerns and issues and standards around women’s human rights internationally as well,” McDonald told reporters this afternoon.

When asked if Towey’s case raises questions for other Irish citizens in Dubai and the UAE, McDonald said there is an obligation on the Irish state to protect Irish citizens. 

She said no woman should suffer what Towey did and said she believes it has been made “very clear from Ireland” that “an Irish citizen, an Irish woman won’t be treated like that, not anywhere”.

“And if that happens, that it will be called out very loudly and very, very clearly,” McDonald said.

She added: “Of course, people are going to travel and travel to Dubai, for recreation, and for other purposes. The point in question here is that when a woman suffers a violent attack, that she is supported, that the perpetrator is the criminal, not the woman.

“And that message, I think has to be articulated very clearly. And I hope understood, crystal clear by the authorities in Dubai.”