Women's Rights in the Middle East and North Africa - Kuwait

Population: 2,400,000
GDP Per Capita (PPP): $16,240
Economy: Capitalist-statist
Ranking on UN HDI: 44 out of 177
Polity: Traditional monarchy and limited parliament
Literacy: Male 84.7% / Female 81.0%
Percent Women Economically Active: 36.4%
Date of Women's Suffrage: 2005
Women's Fertility Rate: 4.0
Percent Urban/Rural: Urban 100% / Rural 0%

COUNTRY RATINGS FOR KUWAIT

Nondiscrimination and Access to Justice: 1.9
Autonomy, Security, and Freedom of the Person: 2.2
Economic Rights and Equal Opportunity: 2.9
Political Rights and Civic Voice: 1.4
Social and Cultural Rights: 2.8

(Scale of 1 to 5: 1 represents the lowest and 5 the highest level of freedom women have to exercise their rights)

INTRODUCTION

Kuwait is a constitutional hereditary monarchy with an appointed Cabinet (Council of Ministers) and a National Assembly (parliament) that is elected every four years. The parliament in Kuwait serves as a legislative body with the power to overturn the decrees issued by the Emir – the head of state. The Al-Sabah family tribe has presided as the ruling authority in Kuwait for over 200 years. The country gained its independence from Britain in 1961 and adopted a new constitution in 1962. In July 2003, Kuwait held its tenth elections since independence for its 50-member National Assembly. While the 1962 constitution provides men and women with equal rights in most areas, only men 21 years and older are allowed to vote or run for office. Women cannot vote in Kuwait.

Kuwait is a small, rich country with a $16,240 per capita income and approximately 98 billion barrels of crude oil reserves. Islam is the state religion; roughly 70 percent of Kuwait's inhabitants are Sunni, while 30 percent are Shi'as. Kuwaiti nationals comprise an estimated 45 percent of the country's population of 2.4 million. The remaining 55 percent, non-nationals, are predominantly foreign workers and their families who originate from surrounding Arab countries and South Asia. An estimated 125,000 bidun (stateless citizens) reside in Kuwait. Foreign communities are able to establish their own schools and practice their religious faiths.

Public gatherings in Kuwait require governmental approval, and the state imposes restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly. Formal political parties are banned. While there is some degree of freedom of expression, the Cabinet retains the authority to suspend Kuwait's press outlets. Kuwaiti NGOs, controlled and funded by the state, do not operate freely. An advisory body to the National Assembly, the Human Rights Defense Committee, works to review and propose amendments to national legislation to ensure conformity with human rights principles. The committee examines individual complaints of human rights abuses, including women's rights cases and those brought by foreign women seeking justice for employment-related grievances.

Kuwaiti women have experienced some advances in recent years. Opportunities for education and employment opened up for women in the early 1960s, and Kuwaiti women now attend universities, participate in the labor force, and have access to affordable and quality health care. The Kuwaiti government ratified the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in 1994, albeit with reservations affecting nationality and political rights for women.

At the same time, women suffer from discrimination and inequality in law, practice, and custom in many areas of life. Women enjoy limited political and civil rights. Among other things, they are prohibited from serving as judges or elected officials and are forbidden to join the military. Women are relegated to an unequal status in marital relations; they are not allowed to pass their nationality on to their foreign-born husbands or children. While advocacy concerning these issues is visible and growing, it has proved largely ineffective due to state-imposed restrictions on the creation, structure, and management of women's organizations.

NONDISCRIMINATION AND ACCESS TO JUSTICE

Article 29 of Kuwait's constitution declares, "All people are equal in human dignity, and in public rights and duties before the law, without distinction to race, origin, language or religion." While the constitution does not explicitly discriminate on the basis of gender, a number of laws adopted under the constitution ensure the unequal treatment of women. There are few protections against gender discrimination. Kuwait's laws and policies, such as the Personal Status Law, Welfare Law 22/1987, and Decree Law 1116 on Housing Care, define Kuwaiti women as dependents of men and not as individuals with equal rights and responsibilities. The Election Law issued in 1962 limits voting rights to Kuwaiti men and denies women the right to vote and to be elected to public office.

Kuwait has three courts: courts of first instance, the high court, and the Supreme Court. Specialized courts exist for administrative, military, and constitutional cases. Personal matters, including marriage, divorce, and inheritance, are governed by Islamic law but handled in the state's court system. In October 2003, the government approved the establishment of the Shi'a Court of Cassation to handle Shi'a personal status and family law cases.

Kuwait's state laws and policies allow for differential gender treatment with respect to citizenship rights. Kuwait's Nationality Law denies Kuwaiti women the legal right to confer their nationality on their foreign-born husbands or the children of these marriages, while Kuwaiti men are permitted to exercise these rights. Foreign-born husbands and children are considered and treated like expatriates; they have no legal rights to remain in the country unless they have valid residency permits, which are only granted to the employed. By contrast, the law does not require Kuwaiti men to pay residency fees for their non-Kuwaiti wives. The wife of a Kuwaiti man is granted immediate residency by virtue of her marriage, and she can become a Kuwaiti national after 10 years of marriage – or less if she is a citizen of the Gulf.

An estimated 12,000 Kuwaiti women are married to non-Kuwaiti men, most of whom originate from Arab countries. In 1991, many families suffered when the government deported all Arabs from countries that supported the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, such as Palestine, Jordan, Yemen, Sudan, and Iraq.

Kuwait's refugee policy and strict naturalization requirements have contributed to the large population of residents who do not hold Kuwaiti citizenship. Between 1992 and 2002, an estimated 6,909 Kuwaiti women married non-Kuwaiti men, of whom 20 percent were bidun. The bidun – or ghayr muhadad al jinsiya (people "of undetermined nationality") – are lawful residents of Kuwait who have not enjoyed the rights of citizenship or nationality since the 1980s. The bidun have lived in Kuwait for many generations; some were Bedouins and people who migrated from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Iran. Kuwait's population of bidun was estimated to be over 125,000 in 2000.

The penal procedures code provides for the right of all residents, regardless of their nationalities, to gain equal access to courts and to have a court-assigned lawyer and/or interpreter if needed. However, most foreign-born domestic workers are not aware of their legal rights and are reluctant to bring charges if they have suffered a serious offense or violence at the hands of their employers.

Adult women are recognized as full persons before the court and are not barred from testifying in the secular courts. However, Shari'a law, which is interpreted in family court, deems the testimony of one man to be equal to that of two women.

In most cases, women are treated equally under Kuwait's penal code and criminal laws. In principle, all perpetrators of murder, rape, or violence against women are subject to severe penalties such as life imprisonment or execution. However, in cases of "honor killings," the penalties are reduced for men. According to Article 153 of the penal code 16/1960, a husband who murders his wife and/or her partner during an adulterous act will be sentenced to a maximum of three years in jail.

While Kuwait practices the death penalty, death sentences are not carried out on pregnant women or mothers of dependent children. Women are housed in a separate prison from men, and those who are pregnant are exempted from prison work and receive special care in terms of food and rest.

Women continue to suffer instances of gender-based and discriminatory arbitrary arrest, detention, and exile. Non-Kuwaiti nationals, men and women, may be expelled from the country if they are unable to renew their work and residence permits. In the late 1990s, following Islamists' (political activists who cite religion as their authority) pressure to increase social control and moral discipline in society, women became victims of harassment and were arrested at checkpoints. Sexual relations outside marriage, in particular prostitution, are considered moral crimes. Those engaging in such activities are susceptible to arrest, and foreign women may face imprisonment and deportation.

In 1994, Kuwait ratified CEDAW but adopted reservations on articles dealing with citizenship and voting rights. Reservations were also adopted on articles that call for equal rights concerning guardianship and the adoption of children.

The Kuwaiti National Assembly's Human Rights Committee can receive individual rights complaints from women, as well as complaints from foreign women seeking justice for employment-related grievances. Yet, in general, women's rights groups and the Human Rights Committee have not effectively dealt with the issues of gender discrimination and women's unequal access to justice.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. The government should amend national laws in order to bring all legislation in conformity with the principles of non-discrimination established in the constitution.
2. The government should amend the Kuwait Nationality Act of 1959 (specifically Article 2) to ensure that Kuwaiti women have the same rights as Kuwaiti men to transfer nationality to foreign-born spouses and children.
3. The government should remove all reservations to CEDAW and take steps to implement it locally by bringing national laws in conformity with CEDAW.

AUTONOMY, SECURITY, AND FREEDOM OF THE PERSON

Women in Kuwait have few restrictions on the right to practice their religion and beliefs. Since the 1980s, religious observance among women has been on the rise. An increasing number of Kuwaiti women are now choosing to wear the hijab, pray in the mosques, and perform the pilgrimage rituals. Non-Muslim women also have the freedom to practice their religions. There are seven churches in Kuwait that serve the needs of the Christian community: Roman Catholic, Anglican, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Coptic Orthodox, Greek Catholic, and National Evangelical. Minority religious groups such as Sikhs, Hindus, Buddhists, and others are free to practice their religion in private homes or on the premises of the recognized churches.

Social norms and official policies remain a major hurdle to women's freedom of movement in Kuwait. By custom, Kuwaiti women must request permission from their male guardians or parents to travel abroad or visit friends at night. However, police generally do not arrest and return a woman to her home if she is found to be traveling alone. Under Article 15 of the Passport Law 11/1962, a married Kuwaiti woman cannot apply for a passport without the written approval of her husband, but an unmarried woman over 21 years of age can directly obtain her passport. However, many large businesses send their female employees abroad for business or conferences, and it is uncommon for women to face problems in their employment due to gender-related travel restrictions.

There are two different sets of active family laws in Kuwait: a Sunni Family Law, which was drawn up in accordance with the Maliki interpretation of Islam, and the Shi'a Family Law (the Jaafari laws). The Sunni Family Law affects the majority of Kuwaiti women, as Sunni Muslims constitute the majority of the population.

The Sunni Family Law, as interpreted in Kuwait, legitimizes male control over women. However, while Sunni Family Law requires husbands to support their wives and children, it does not provide the husband with the absolute right to ta'a (obedience). Article 89 of the Sunni Family Law specifies that a husband should not forbid his wife from working outside the home unless the work negatively affects "family interests." But the law does not clearly define family interests. The phrase can thus be interpreted as referring to the stability of the marriage or the upbringing of the children. The very notion that women have a right to work has been stigmatized by a commonly held view in Kuwait, that women's neglect of domestic duties has led to a rise in divorce rates, juvenile delinquency, and drug addiction among Kuwaiti youth.

A husband is permitted to have more than one wife under both Sunni and Shi'a family laws. A man can marry a second wife without the permission of his first wife, and in some cases, without her knowledge. A wife may not petition for divorce on the grounds that her husband has taken another wife. If a man remarries, his second wife is expected to share the same house with his first wife, unless the husband has the means to provide his second wife with a new home. Under Sunni Family Law, a divorced woman will retain custody of her children until her sons reach 15 years of age and her daughters are married. If the mother remarries, she forfeits the right to custody.

While Sunni Family Law in Kuwait provides husbands with the unconditional right of divorce, women do not have the same rights and are unable to petition for divorce. However, women do have some form of protection against arbitrary divorce and mistreatment. A woman is owed financial compensation equal to one year of maintenance if her husband divorces her without her consent. Women also have the right to seek divorce if they are deserted in the marriage or subjected to darar (violent treatment that leads to physical injury). However, proof of injury is required in such cases. This is often difficult for many women, because they tend not to file complaints with the police and do not report causes of injury to doctors. Unsupportive and untrained police and doctors who examine abuse cases also hinder the gathering of evidence. According to reports, some husbands even try to bribe police to ignore charges of domestic violence.

The most discriminatory aspect of the Sunni Family Law in Kuwait involves the marriage rights of women. The Sunni Family Law deprives a woman of the right to conclude a marriage contract without the presence and consent of her wali (guardian). The wali is usually the woman's father, or in his absence, her brother, uncle, or other close male relative. In other words, a woman cannot marry the partner of her choice without the prior approval of her family. Yet, in cases in which the father of a Kuwaiti woman has refused her choice of husband, the Sunni Family Law grants a woman the right to appeal the decision of her wali in family court.

Some women opt to marry outside Kuwait to circumvent the marriage restrictions. Nevertheless, a marriage contracted outside Kuwait is not legally recognized within the country; the head of the bride's family has the right to ask the court to annul the marriage. The minimum legal age for marriage is 15 for girls and 17 for boys. Within the urban community, it is rare for girls to be married at an early age or forced into marriage. However, arranged marriages between families of similar social standings are still the norm. A woman can refuse to marry altogether and remain single, but the social burden placed on aging single women is so high that most women prefer an unhappy marriage to facing the social stigma of the spinster label.

Kuwait's penal code prohibits the practice of all forms of slavery, torture, cruelty, or degrading punishments against any person regardless of age, gender, religion, or nationality. Slavery-like practices such as forced marriages and forbidding a person to leave the home are rarely reported. There are no forms of protection against these practices.

Kuwait's labor laws specify that a working day should be restricted to eight hours, yet female domestic workers are often underpaid and forced to endure long working hours. Employers have been known to confiscate the passports of domestic workers, making it difficult for them to leave their jobs and/or the country. There are also reports of abuse of domestic workers and foreign women in the workplace.

Domestic workers can take legal recourse against their employers by filing complaints directly with the Dasma police station – the main center for dealing with employer abuse cases, or with Kuwait's administrative courts. Kuwait has been drafting a new labor law to protect the rights of domestic workers. Yet by the end of 2003, the law had not been finalized.

While domestic violence is a concern in Kuwait, the lack of comprehensive data and research on this issue makes it difficult to assess the severity of the problem. No known NGO or government office efficiently works to collect such statistics. The scarcity of analyzed data on domestic violence in Kuwait is partly due to the social belief that this issue is a family affair. Victims of abuse are often reluctant to file complaints with the police due to fear and shame, and little effort has gone into providing assistance or protection to the victims. There are no laws against domestic violence, and there are no shelters, support centers, or free legal services to aid female victims.

Rape and sexual assault outside marriage tend to receive more attention from the police and the press than incidents of domestic violence. There have been reports of the physical abuse of female detainees under police custody, but no monitoring mechanism is in place to record such violations on a regular basis. By law, anyone found guilty of sexual violence and/or rape may receive a jail sentence or the death penalty, depending on the severity of the case.

Women's groups have not been able to work effectively to promote and actualize women's rights surrounding autonomy and personal freedom in Kuwait. In 2003, issues of domestic violence and the exploitation of domestic workers did not feature highly in the campaigns of Kuwaiti women's rights groups and received only sporadic coverage in the press.

Kuwaiti women's groups did advocate for amendments to a number of articles that curtail women's rights within marriage, including the right to choose one's husband and an increase in the minimum age of marriage for girls.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. The government should amend the age of marriage laws to increase the minimum age of marriage to 18 years for both boys and girls.
2. The government should amend the marriage contract laws under the family law to allow Kuwaiti women over 18 the right to marry the partner of their choice.
3. The government should start gender-sensitive, women's rights-oriented training for police and/or hire female police officers to investigate cases of violence so that women will feel more comfortable when reporting incidents of abuse.
4. The government and women's rights organizations should also organize public awareness campaigns on the problems of domestic violence.

ECONOMIC RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Kuwaiti women are entitled to own and have full and independent use of their land, property, income, and assets. A woman's right to inheritance, as defined in the family law and in accordance with Islamic Shari'a, stipulates that a brother should receive double his sister's share.

Kuwaiti women are freely able to enter into business and financial contracts and activities at all levels. Women have the right of ownership and the right to dispose of assets, as well as the legal right to undertake civil and commercial transactions, conclude contracts, and engage in commercial and financial transactions. It is not necessary for a woman to obtain the consent of a husband or father to exercise these rights. By law, any Kuwaiti over 21 years of age may conduct any commercial activity in Kuwait provided that he or she is not affected by a personal legal restriction, such as a criminal record.

All Kuwaiti citizens, men and women, are guaranteed free and equal access to the education system, from primary school through the university level. Students are also provided with equal opportunities to study abroad. However, Kuwaiti women are required to seek the permission of their male authority figures to accept study-abroad scholarships. Kuwaiti women comprise almost two-thirds of university-level students and more than half of the student population of the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training. Women are enrolled in all major subjects and graduate at higher rates than men.

In the mid-1990s, Kuwait University introduced different GPA requirements for the admission of female and male students, with the goal of reducing the percentage of female students in certain academic fields. Female students are now required to have a 3.3 GPA to be admitted to the engineering department, while male students need only a 2.8 GPA. Women must possess a 3.5 GPA to be admitted to the field of medicine, while men need only a 3.3 GPA. A rationale for such policies is the dilemma presented by the right of a woman's male guardian or husband to restrict her right to work outside the home. Because of instances in which women graduates of professional schools have been forbidden to work, some believe that admitting a woman to medical school may ultimately be a waste of that seat, as after graduation she may not be able to pursue the profession. A male student, by contrast, has no such constraints. Thus the odd logic that while a male student may be less qualified than a woman, he will certainly work as a professional after graduation, while the woman may not be able to do so.

Women's access to education began in the 1960s and has since provided Kuwaiti women with opportunities that have enabled them to become financially independent and pursue diverse careers. Women's contributions to the Kuwaiti labor force increased from 20 percent in 1985 to 40 percent in 2003, with the majority of the increased number of female employees filling positions within the public sector. Women can be found in most professional fields including engineering, architecture, medicine, and law. Yet, they do not have full freedom to choose their professions; women are prohibited from working in the police, the army, and the judiciary.

Women in Kuwait generally receive equal pay for equal work in the public and private sectors. According to labor laws, a woman who performs the same work as a man must be paid equal remuneration. If a woman feels that she has been discriminated against, she may file a complaint directly to the administrative court or to the National Assembly's Human Rights Committee.

There are no laws prohibiting sexual harassment in the workplace. Women workers, particularly foreign women and domestic employees, are in urgent need of such laws.

Standard working hours for men apply equally to women, with the exclusion of night work. With the exception of a few professions and places of employment, women in Kuwait are forbidden to work at night, or in some cases after midnight. Employers are obliged to arrange transportation for women who work at night. These labor restrictions apply to both private and government offices, as well as jobs within the informal sector.

All working women are entitled to maternity leave for up to two months at full pay. They may receive an additional four months at half pay, provided they present a medical certificate declaring that their illness was a result of the pregnancy. Day care facilities for children aged three to six years are widely available and affordable in all parts of Kuwait; some are provided by the Kuwaiti government, others are privately run.

Advocacy on such concerns as the right to education, inheritance, and employment is strong. At the same time, groups of conservative Islamists have also been demanding that women "return to the household." Since 1990, in coalition with conservative tribalists, Islamists have successfully opposed all parliamentary initiatives to expand women's rights. They have blocked the passage of a women's suffrage bill and the admission of women to the military. In 1996, Islamists succeeded in passing a bill that obligates Kuwait University and post-secondary colleges to incorporate building changes to ensure gender segregation.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. The government should ensure greater employment opportunities for all women in the labor market and allow Kuwaiti women to work as judges in the courts.
2. The government should set gender-specific hiring targets for government jobs.
3. The government should establish a mechanism to allow Kuwaiti women to file gender-based discrimination complaints against public or private actors and institutions.
4. Women's rights groups should be allowed to advocate on all issues related to women's economic rights and equal opportunity, including protection for domestic workers.

POLITICAL RIGHTS AND CIVIC VOICE

Kuwait is a constitutional monarchy with a Cabinet and a National Assembly that is elected every four years. The parliament serves as a legislative body with the power to overturn the decrees issued by the Emir – the head of state. Males who are 21 and over and have been citizens for at least 20 years and are not members of the military are granted the right to vote and seek election to the National Assembly. This means that suffrage is restricted to 14 percent of the population. There are no formal political parties; instead, there are quasi-political groups of Islamists (extreme conservatives) and liberals, who operate within voluntary organizations (NGOs) and are active in the National Assembly.

According to Kuwaiti Election Law 35/1962, women are not permitted to vote or run for election in the national legislature. Women are also forbidden to run for office or vote in the municipal council elections. In recent years, the Emir of Kuwait and the Cabinet have attempted to integrate women into the political system. In May 1999, during an interregnum between parliaments, the Emir promulgated a decree granting women the right to run for office and to vote in parliamentary and municipal elections. Yet, in November 1999, the parliament voted down the decree. In July 2003, Kuwaiti Prime Minister Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah promised to submit to parliament a new bill to amend electoral laws. In October 2003, the government approved a bill that would grant women the right to vote and run in municipal council elections. However, the bill was rejected during the same year by the parliament.

Since the 1990s, Kuwaiti women have used every opportunity to bring their demands for political rights to the attention of the National Assembly. They have organized and held public demonstrations to protest against gender discrimination and have marched to the polling station to protest their lack of equal political rights during parliamentary elections.

While women's right to assemble is moderately respected by the Kuwaiti government, women's rights groups face structural restrictions on their ability to create and manage their organizations. Requests to establish NGOs must be made directly to the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor. According to Association Law 24/1962, the ministry has full authority to license or terminate associations, as well as dissolve their elected boards. Voluntary associations are required to have an elected board, a written constitution, and a dues-paying membership. In 1993, the government dissolved all unlicensed associations. The Kuwait Human Rights Society, who had been waiting for a license since 1992, was finally officially licensed in August 2004. A license is required before an NGO can open an office or formally discuss rights issues with the government.

Kuwaiti women have limited freedom of expression. The Printing and Publications Law 3/1961 deems it a criminal offense to criticize the Emir, publish materials offensive to Islam, or publish material that may incite violence, hatred, or dissent. Stiff penalties for violations of the press laws have contributed to increased self-censorship and an avoidance of controversial issues. In January 2000, charges were brought against two female authors for writing novels that allegedly contained improper and immoral language.

Women are not represented in Kuwait's judiciary. While they may hold positions as investigative judges, women are not permitted to serve as judges in court. However, Kuwaiti women do hold relatively senior positions within the ministries of Kuwait.

Formal political parties are banned in Kuwait, but political groups often operate informally as political organizations. The most prominent political groupings are the National Democratic Forum (NDF), the Islamic Constitutional Movement (ICM), and the Islamic Popular Alliance (IPA). Kuwaiti women are involved in all major political groups and occasionally serve as founding members or contributing board members. Women are not invited to fill leadership positions in Islamic organizations. They are active, however, in promoting these groups' ideologies and visions of an Islamic order-calling for the implementation of the rules of Shari'a and gender segregation in public places.

Kuwaiti women are involved in civic life issues and participate in mixed-gender professional clubs and societies as both members and board members. Women also have the right to join unions and local cooperative stores, where they can vote and hold office.

While Kuwait does not have a freedom of information act, women do have some freedom to gain access to and use information to empower themselves in both their civil and political lives. Internet usage has increased among young women and is easily accessible for many at home, in offices, and in public cafes. The Internet has provided Kuwaiti women with a forum to air their views and freely communicate with others on a variety of issues.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. The government and the parliament should amend Election Law 35 of 1962 to allow Kuwaiti women to vote and run for office in parliamentary and local elections.
2. The government should guarantee the right of political parties to exist, compete in elections, and conduct their internal affairs independent of the state.
3. The government should amend its Printing and Publications Law to allow greater freedom of expression and withdraw the provisions that allow for the criminal prosecution, imprisonment, and fining of authors and journalists.
4. The government should remove obstacles to the registration of nongovernmental organizations and permit them to work and advocate for democratic reforms and human rights, including women's rights.

SOCIAL AND CULTURAL RIGHTS

Kuwait has an extensive welfare system. The state also offers up-to-date health care services to all residents at minimal cost. Citizens are free to participate in community life and non-Kuwaitis enjoy the right to form their own cultural associations openly.

Women have some freedom to make independent decisions about their health and reproductive rights. While Kuwait does not have a government-sponsored family planning program, research has shown that the contraceptive needs of the majority of married women are adequately met. Contraceptives are easily available and affordable; birth control pills and the IUD are available through government health services, and private pharmacies offer birth control pills without a prescription. Contraceptive use is significantly higher among educated Kuwaiti women. Those who disapprove of contraception in Kuwait tend to believe that family planning is forbidden by Islam.

Abortion is prohibited and constitutes a criminal act. Under the penal code, any person "who supplies, or is instrumental in supplying a pregnant or non-pregnant woman with drugs or other harmful substances, with or without her consent, or who uses force or any other means to induce an abortion shall be liable to a penalty of up to 10 years' imprisonment." Doctors are often reluctant to perform abortions, even in cases in which the pregnancy is a serious threat to a woman's life, due to the strict penalties under Kuwait's penal code. The United Nations Human Rights Committee has recommended that the Kuwaiti government amend this law and make provisions for the protection of the right to life of pregnant women.

Women have full and equal access to health care. Health care services at government-run clinics and hospitals are generally provided free of charge or at a low cost for all residents of Kuwait, including Kuwait's non-citizens and migrant workers. Since the mid-1990s, the government and women's groups have launched campaigns to raise women's awareness about female health issues like breast cancer and osteoporosis.

Although there are no reliable data available, women seem to be protected from harmful practices such as virginity tests and female genital mutilation. Early marriage has grown uncommon and cross-cousin marriages are no longer widely practiced.

Unmarried sons and daughters, regardless of their age, are expected to live with their families. Unlike foreign-born women who reside in Kuwait, a single Kuwaiti woman cannot rent her own dwelling. While such a policy is not enshrined in law, landlords often refuse to rent apartments to Kuwaiti women unless they can provide proof of marriage.

Housing is a serious problem for Kuwaiti women, particularly divorced women from low-income groups. Women are excluded from Kuwait's low-interest loan policy, which is an initiative provided to married men to encourage them to build their own homes. Kuwait's housing law also forbids Kuwaiti women from owning government-supplied or subsidized housing that is available to Kuwaiti men by virtue of their positions as rab al'usra (heads of families). The only exception to this law is for divorced women with children who can claim a rent allowance if they do not intend to remarry and have no one to support them. However, divorced women are expected to share the government-subsidized housing with their former husbands, who often force them to move out.

The government has been reluctant to address the problem of housing for women and has failed to offer satisfactory solutions. The state has constructed special apartment buildings to house divorced women and childless couples, but this has resulted in the isolation and marginalization of female heads of households. Efforts to integrate divorced women into the society remain limited and lack a women's human rights perspective. In 1982, Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaiti men lost the right to own government housing; the National Assembly rejected a proposal that would have overturned this law in October 2003.

In recent years, Kuwait has witnessed an increase in the number of impoverished female heads of households. Many divorced women and Kuwaiti women married to bidun struggle to make ends meet, largely as a result of the discriminatory components of the state's welfare system. Kuwaiti women are entitled to welfare assistance in the form of monthly income support and rent subsidies, but only when they are able to provide evidence that they have no one to support them and are unemployed. The state allocates child support benefits to the husband in divorce cases even when the mother has been granted custody of the children. Many men refuse to give financial support to their former wives even though the law requires it.

The media provide adequate coverage of women's concerns, and many women are employed in both print and electronic media. Growing numbers of Kuwaiti women work in the media as journalists, reporters, and editors. Women in Kuwait use the media as an influential tool to introduce change and to promote new roles for themselves. Liberal newspapers such Al-Qabas, Al-Siyassah, and the weekly political magazine Al-Talia, devote considerable space to the activities of liberal women's groups and their efforts to gain political rights. Islamist women's activities and views are covered more extensively in Al-Watan and Al-Anba'. Despite the increasing presence of both liberal and Islamist women in the press, women's images continue to be stereotyped in the media and in educational materials. Yet, overall, the media have contributed to the normalization of an ever-broadening range of public roles for women and to the rise of female public figures.

Women's rights activists have some freedom to advocate openly about the promotion and protection of women's rights in Kuwait. While Kuwaiti women's groups are able to work with international and regional organizations and organize and attend international conferences on women's rights, there are some limitations. Five licensed women's groups currently operate in Kuwait; all receive government subsidies for their running expenses. Women's NGOs cannot refuse funds from the government and cannot receive funds from donors outside the country. Membership is restricted to women; the groups largely comprise elite and professional women from the upper and middle classes. The economic and social problems of divorced and widowed women, as well as the plight of female migrant workers, are not often addressed in the groups' campaigns. Kuwait's government has to a great extent succeeded in co-opting women's groups, in the process transforming them from an independent voice for women's rights to a pro-government support network.

RECOMMENDATIONS

1. Government agencies responsible for law and order and health services should receive in-depth training on violence against women and children so that they are positioned to provide assistance and protection to victims of violence.
2. The government should protect the rights of divorced mothers and Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaiti men, to ensure that adequate social assistance is provided when needed.
3. The government should promote positive women's representation and participation in the media and reduce gender stereotypes in educational materials.

AUTHOR: Haya Al-Mughni is a Kuwaiti sociologist based in Kuwait. She is the author of Women in Kuwait: The Politics of Gender. Ms. Al-Mughni currently works for a mobile telecommunications company in Kuwait.

NOTES

[Refworld note: source files did not contain inline references to these notes; they have been included to enable further reading and research.]

1. The World Factbook: Kuwait (Springfield, VA: U.S. CIA, 2003).

2. See Nathan J. Brown, "Kuwait (country)" (Microsoft Encarta Online Encyclopedia, 2004), http://encarta.msn.com.

3. "Statistics of Kuwaiti Women Married to Non-Kuwaiti Men" (Kuwait City: Al-Qabas, Center of Information and Studies, file no. 1044035, 2003).

4. Ibid.

5. For more details on the status of bidun in Kuwait, see "Promises Betrayed: Denial of Rights of Bidun, Women, and Freedom of Expression," Human Rights Watch 12, 2(E) (October 2000): 25; see also, Mary Ann Tétreault and Haya al-Mughni, "Gender, Citizenship, and Nationalism in Kuwait," British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 22, 1 & 2 (1995): 64-80.

6. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices-2003: Kuwait (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Dept. of State, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, 25 Feb. 2004), http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2003/27931.htm.

7. Ibid.

8. Arab Times, 26 May 2004, 1.

9. Handbook of Statistics of the Population and Labor Force, 24th ed. (Public Authority for Civil Information [PACI], 30 July 2003).

10. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices-2003: Kuwait (U.S. Dept. of State).

11. Ibid.

12. See Nasra M. Shah, Makhdoom A. Shah, and Zoran Radovanovic, "Patterns of Desired Fertility and Contraceptive Use in Kuwait," International Family Planning Perspectives 24, 3 (August 1998), http://www.agi-usa.org/pubs/journals/2413398.html.

13. Ibid.

14. "Promises Betrayed," Human Rights Watch, op. cit.

15. See Mary Ann Tetreault and Haya al-Mughni, "Modernization and Its Discontents: State and Gender in Kuwait," Middle East Journal 49, 3 (1995): 403-417.

16. Ibid. and Haya al-Mughni and Mary Ann Tétreault. "Citizenship, Gender and the Politics of Quasi-States," in Suad Joseph, ed., Gender and Citizenship in the Middle East (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2000), 237-60.