Kuwait already allows women to be army officers: what about other rights?

The news surprised half the world: in Kuwait, women can now be assimilated into the army as officers and NCOs.

This was stated by his Minister of Defense, Hamad Yaber al Ali, who noted that “Kuwaiti citizens“Now they will be able to work in the area of ​​medical services and as support soldiers.

“Your qualification, mastery, and loyalty“In sectors such as handicrafts,”engineering and sanitary”, Would have been arguments for this decision.

In this way, explains the EFE agency, Kuwait – led by Emir Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah- “becomes the sixth of the Gulf countries to allow women to join the military, after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman”.

A REAL CHANGE?

As previously noted, the decision is surprising because, as the BBC notes, Kuwait is a country “very conservative”.

According to Kristian Ulrichsen, Middle East expert at Rice University – who was interviewed by the outlet – the besieging of Iraq and the invasion led by Saddam Hussein de 1990, generated a “so great social trauma“, Which became”more Islamist and somewhat more conservative”.

Even so, in recent decades, the country has witnessed some progress in women’s rights. For instance, “the Sunni Muslim majority nation”Saw how, in 2005, the female vote was introduced.

Four years later, it was established that women could have passports “Without the consent of their husbands”.

But when it comes to respecting women’s rights, the country still has a long way to go.

International Amnesty notes that Kuwait agreed to implement the recommendations of the HIM-HER-IT, “but rejected those relating to guaranteeing full equality between men and women”.

Likewise, he did not agree with “criminalize sexual violence and marital rape and make its laws on legal status and nationality gender neutral”.

“Kuwait maintained legislation (Article 153 of the Penal Code) that penalized the murder of a woman at the hands of her relatives with only a fine in cases of homicide on the grounds of ‘honor’ “writes AI.

And he adds that, for this reason, “killings of women at the hands of their brothers”.

This is not the only way in which the nation does not respect the rights of its citizens.

In 1986, the BBC recalls, the emir Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah he suspended parliament (the same happened in 76 and 81).

His argument: from “an incident stemming from the Iran-Iraq war”And the threat that this posed to Kuwait, it was argued that the country’s security was in suspense.

And it is not the only thing the government is accused of: it is also accused of not respecting freedoms.

“Like when several television channels were prohibited from broadcasting information about an alleged plot against the government system”Recalls the British media about what happened in 2014.

And add:

“Or when opposition leader Mussallam al-Barrak was sentenced to five years in prison in 2013 for ‘undermining the authority of the emir’ “.

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