Most of Arab countries, including the UAE still practice the 'blood money' or diyyah. I have been reading the reports on this diyyah esp when a mum was sentenced to pay diyyah for her unborn baby due to her careless driving recently.
A woman has been ordered to pay diyyah, or blood money, for the death of her unborn child in what prosecutors say may be the first case of its kind. The Dubai Traffic Court yesterday fined a bereaved mother Dh1,000 (US$270) for causing the road accident in which her near-term baby died. It also ordered her to pay Dh20,000 as legal diyyah for the dead child. The judge, Ahmad Hassan al Mutawaa, issued his ruling according to Sharia, which sets diyyah for an unborn child at a 10th of that for the mother. In Dubai, diyyah for a woman is Dh200,000. According to Wikipedia <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diyya>, *Diyya*(plural: *Diyyat*; Arabic <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arabic_language>: *دية*) is compensation paid to the heirs of a victim. In Arabic the word means both blood money <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_money_%28term%29> and ransom<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ransom>. Diyyah comes into effect when the death of one person has been caused by another such as committing an act of murder or a driver being held responsible for ones who died in an auto accident with him. Under Shari’a or Islamic law which follows the “eye for an eye” precept, the surviving family members of the deceased will hold the fate of the one who is responsible for deaths on whether that individual will live or die. If the family wishes to avenge the death of their loved one through death then the responsible individual will be put to death through public execution. However the family of the person held responsible for a death may also try to appeal to the deceased family by offering up ‘diyyah’ in order to save the life. Naturally Islam prefers that a family seek diyyah rather than retribution. *HERE*<http://1426.blogspot.com/2009/06/diyyah-abd-value-of-value-of-human-life.html>
