Women in Kuwait
A Pictorial Essay
_______________________
Geoff Dougherty
Professor of Applied Physics and Medical Imaging
California State University Channel Islands
Quick lesson in Arabic
Kuwait and its neighbors
Kuwait
● One of the richest little countries in the world.
● With a population of only one million, Kuwait
sits on 10% of the world's oil reserves.
Kuwait City
Relief of liberation
Damage
Abandoned Iraqi tank
The people
1. The Bedu
2. The Hathar
The Souk
The Friday Souk
The Fish Souk
Women: Clothes …
Modern shopping malls …
New houses…..
The Society
• Live music is generally prohibited.
• In 2005, the minister of information had to resign
when he was accused of failing to protect the
country's morals by permitting a pop music
concert.
• High-profile Arab singers, such as Lebanon's
Nancy Ajram and Egypt's Ruby, are banned in
Kuwait … but are very popular on the music TV
channels …
Car crazy
• For many young Kuwaiti men, the main outlet for their
pent-up energy is their cars.
• The level of car ownership in Kuwait has passed two per
driver.
• Young Kuwaiti men cruise around town for hours every
evening, often at hair-raising speed.
• Tail-gating is a national sport.
• Every day there are fresh mangled carcasses of cars that
have been completely written off.
Cars …
Car wrecks
Eating ……
Mosques
Dark side …..
Suppression of other religions …and
extreme anti-semetism
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Although abuse was prevalent before the Iraqi occupation,25 the treatment of
Asian maids took a turn for the worse following liberation,26 a trend now
acknowledged by Kuwaiti officials.27 Every year since liberation, over 2,000
Asian maids have sought shelter in their embassies. Most who fled their
employers complained of rape, physical abuse, mistreatment or non-payment
of wages, according to information we obtained from foreign embassies in
Kuwait, Kuwaiti government officials, journalists, U.S. State Department
officials and others.
In April 1995 over 200 maids were sheltered at the Philippines embassy, 150 at
the Sri Lankan embassy and smaller numbers at other embassies. Without
offering alternative shelters, the Kuwaiti government repeatedly asked
embassies not to offer refuge to runaway maids.
Prompted by reports of abuse in Kuwait, the Philippines government banned
Filipinas from going to work in Kuwait as maids. Nonetheless, many Filipinas
still travel to Kuwait to work as housemaids, although some are lured by false
promises of other kinds of jobs.
Kuwait
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - 2005
Released by the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor
March 8, 2006
The government improved its human rights record by granting women the right to
vote; however, serious problems remained. The following human rights
problems were reported:
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no right to change the government
abuse of and alleged torture of detainees
official impunity
poor prison conditions in certain facilities
restricted civil liberties--freedoms of speech, press, assembly and association
limited freedom of religion and of movement
corruption
violence and discrimination against women, especially noncitizens
abuse of noncitizen domestic workers
unresolved legal status of bidoon Arabs
restricted worker rights
Women: the Qu’ran
• Qur'an 2:228
And it is for the women to act
as they (the husbands) act by
them, in all fairness; but the
men are a step above them.
• Qur'an 4:34
Men are in charge of women,
because Allah hath made the
one of them to excel the other,
and because they spend of their
property (for the support of
women). So good women are
the obedient, guarding in secret
that which Allah hath guarded.
As for those from whom ye fear
rebellion, admonish them and
banish them to beds apart, and
scourge them. Then if they
obey you, seek not a way
against them. Lo! Allah is ever
High, Exalted, Great.
Women: The Qu’ran
Sura (24:31) - Women are to lower their gaze around
men, so they do not look them in the eye.
Sura (2:223) - "Your wives are as a tilth unto you; so
approach your tilth when or how ye will..." A man has
dominion over his wives' bodies as he does his
land. This verse is overtly sexual; there is some dispute
as to whether it is referring to the practice of anal
intercourse, which it has been used historically to
justify.
Sura (4:3) "Marry women of your choice, Two or three or
four"
Women: the Hadith
• Bukhari (6:301) - "[Muhammad] said, 'Is not the
evidence of two women equal to the witness of one
man?' They replied in the affirmative. He said, 'This is
the deficiency in her intelligence.'"
• Bukhari (4, 54: 464). The Prophet said, "I looked at Paradise
and found poor people forming the majority of its inhabitants;
and I looked at Hell and saw that the majority of its inhabitants
were women.“
• (A weak Hadith, Kanz al-`ummal, 22:10, suggests that 99% of
women go to Hell).
Kuwaiti Women
• Kuwaiti women are legally disadvantaged
in matters of marriage, divorce, and
inheritance,
• must have the permission of a male relative
to obtain a passport
• and cannot confer citizenship on their
children.
Voting Rights for Women
• In 1999, the emir issued an emergency decree, while
parliament was dissolved, granting women the right to vote.
However, such decrees eventually must be approved by a
majority vote when the national assembly reconvenes; when
it did, it rejected the measure by a vote of 32 to 30.
• The Islamist and tribal groups strongly opposed giving
women the vote –arguing that Islam prohibits the participation
of women in politics
The revered Islamic scholar, al-Ghazali (1917-96), wrote that the role of a
Muslim woman is to "stay at home and get on with her sewing. She should
not go out often, she must not be well-informed, nor must she be
communicative with her neighbors and only visit them when absolutely
necessary; she should take care of her husband... and seek to satisfy him in
everything... Her sole worry should be her virtue... She should be clean and
ready to satisfy her husband's sexual needs at any moment."
The Right to Vote
March 2005
• Women finally get the
vote in May 2005
• June 2006: Kuwait's
first parliamentary
elections in which
women could vote there were 27 women
running in the elections,
but none of them won a
seat.
Polling stations
Book – Women in Kuwait: The
Politics of Gender
• The author, a Kuwaiti sociologist,
presents a disturbing analysis of the
situation of women in contemporary
Kuwait.
• Examining the various factors that affect
women's lives--class, family, state,
Islamic revival, and Western feminism-she concludes that Kuwaiti women are
partly responsible for their own
second-class status.
• Class-based women's organizations have
no desire to change the roles of women,
she argues, but have perpetuated the
belief that women are biologically
different from men, with their own
specific needs and duties.
Tolerance for others?
Not for Jews, Christians, polytheists, aetheists …
If anyone desires a religion other than Islam, never will he
be accepted of God; and in the next life, he will be in the
ranks of those who have lost themselves and will burn in
hell. (Qur'an 3:85)
● The Jews call Ezra a son of Allah, and the Christians call
Christ the son of Allah. That is a saying from their mouth;
(in this) they but imitate what the unbelievers of old used to
say. Allah's curse be on them: how they are deluded away
from the Truth! ( Qur’an 9:30)
● Those who resist Allah and His Messenger will be among
those most humiliated. (58:20 )
● And unto Allah falleth prostrate whosoever is in the heavens
and the earth, willingly or unwillingly (13:15)
More …
Bukhari (59:727) - Allah's Apostle [said]... "Allah's curse
be on the Jews and the Christians"
This was spoken on Muhammad's death bed, and was
one of the last things that he ever said.
Listen not to the unbelievers, but strive (Jihad) against
them with the utmost strenuousness. (25:52)
Bukhari (52:269) - "The Prophet said, “War is deceit”.
Bukhari (49:857) - "He who makes peace between the people
by inventing good information or saying good things, is not a
liar." Lying is permitted when the end justifies the means.
Persecution of Ex-Muslims
• Islam is the only
religion in the World
which does not give
freedom to its
followers to change
their faith. According
to Shariah Law,
Muslims who leave
Islam must be
sentenced to death.
• But if they turn renegades, seize
them and slay them wherever
ye find them (Quran 4:89)
• ….for the Prophet said, If
somebody (a Muslim) discards
his religion, kill him . (Hadith –
alBukhari 4:52:260))
• …according to the statement of
Allah's Apostle, 'Whoever
changed his Islamic religion,
then kill him.' (Hadith –
AlBukhari 9:84:57)
Kuwait: Persecuted Convert
Flees to America
• October 7, 1996
• After six months in the limelight of unprecedented
international advocacy, Hussein Qambar Ali, a Muslim
convert to Christianity, fled his native Kuwait in mid-August
to an undisclosed location in the United States.
• Christian Solidarity International (CSI), an
interdenominational human-rights group that helps persecuted
Christians, flew the 44-year-old former Muslim out of
Kuwait.
• Hussein, who has changed his first name to Robert, was ruled
an apostate by an Islamic court on May 29. Under Islamic
law, any Muslim who deserts Islam is forcibly divorced,
divested of parental and inheritance rights, and subject to
execution if unrepentant.
Summary
• Most Kuwaitis do not explicitly support Islamic
fundamentalists …. but there is little tolerance for
other religions … and a strong animosity towards
Judaism.
• Kuwaiti women struggle to assume a greater role
outside the home … encumbered by religion and tribal
traditions.
Find out more …
• http://memritv.org/ (Middle East Media Research
Institute; TV Monitor Project)
• http://thereligionofpeace.com/
• http://www.carm.org/islam.htm
• http://www.amazon.com/Women-Kuwait-PoliticsHaya-al-Mughni/dp/0863563589
• Video … Islam: What the West Needs to Know
Architectural styles
Us …
The ruling family – the Al Sabahs
The ruling family – the Al Sabahs (up to
2006)
Kuwait University – Shuwaikh campus
Students and faculty
• Kuwait is a constitutional monarchy ruled
by the al-Sabah family. The ruler, or emir,
chooses the prime minister and the
members of the Council of Ministers.
• It was the first Arab country in the Gulf to
have an elected parliament.
• Political parties are illegal in Kuwait.
Kuwaiti society
• There is a bizarre dichotomy within Kuwaiti
society, between modernisers and
traditionalists, with the latter well
represented in parliament