Kuwait women MPs refuse to wear hijab in Assembly
Suppression of women is not an isolated phenomenon
in one part of the world. It was rampant all over the world by the male dominated society for an untold long period. The advent of industrialization in the west more than 300 years ago saw the change in the attitude of men to give women more respect, and that trend continued to improve slowly and steadily. The effect of the western world’s change influenced the other
countries making this world reaching a balance in the power of men and women. Although, the disparity is still huge, yet the system has made provision to rectify those with better judicial system.
Religion played a major role in the suppression of women in the older years. The blind faith that human kind had in those days has diminished with mass education and freedom of living. The one religion, which still tries to maintain the old system of women confinement within four walls, is Islam. In many Islamic countries, people have accepted the practicality along with the change in the day-to-day life. Some Islamic countries still follow the same age-old arrangements and schemes that were followed hundreds of years ago. Kuwait is a declared Islamic country, small, rich, and developing with a certain pace. The Amir is the head of state, but it has an electoral system of electing people in the
parliament. Until 2005, only men were allowed to be elected in the parliament as per the country’s laws derived mainly from their religion.
Kuwaiti women, in general, took education much more seriously than the men did for a long time. The educated families removed much restriction on women in private, which they did not display openly. These educated women generations after generations got the taste of women’s freedom during their interactions with their counterparts in the west. The norm of Kuwaitis going abroad for higher studies is maintained since the 80s. Naturally, good things have come to their notice in different democratic countries. The persistent efforts of the educated women while demanding the right of participating in the election saw the light of success in 2005. In the election of the last May 4, women were successful to go to the national assembly. Two of them are Rola Dashti and Aseel Al-Awadhi, who blamed their counterpart of accusing them of flouting Islamic Sharia law. One of these two demanded for an amendment in the law that dictates to observe sharia regulations in the parliament. Their main objection is to wear hijab all the time when outside the home. Dashti says, a woman should not be forced to wear hijab in the office. She is the one of leading economists in the country and feels that the forceful implementation of sharia on the women is unconstitutional.
It can be recollected that in 2005 when the government passed the law for women to cast votes as well as stand for the election, Islamists added the small rider in the rule saying that women have to follow the sharia rules as voters and members of the assembly.