Kuwait Times

Published Date: March 25, 2009
By Sarah Alzouman, Staff writer

KUWAIT: Guests from across the Gulf and around the world gathered at the Women's Cultural and Social Society (WCSS) yesterday for the Second Gulf Forum on Women's Rights and Family Law. The opening of the two-day conference covered issues ranging from women's involvement in the judiciary and women's nationality to women's citizenship rights and family law. In addition, a study on the status of women's rights throughout the Gulf and Kuwait's Social and Civil Rights Draft law were discussed at the event yest
erday.

A number of speakers discussed the manipulation of religious belief and cultural values as an obstacle to the advancement of women. In Kuwait, for example, there are no female judges, a law attributed to the exigencies of Islamic Shari'a. Dr Abdul Rasoul Behbehani, from Kuwait University's Law and Shari'a College and former head of the Fatwa and Shari'a Committee, said that Kuwaiti law specifies a number of requirements for judges, none of which specify gender. Religiously, Behbehani refers to a book on Is
lamic 'fiqh' (doctrine), Fiqh Malki, on determining judiciary eligibility.

The book itself says that Islamic scholars disagree about the origin of 'ijtihad' (independent interpretation of Islamic doctrine to make a legal decision) and the condition that a judge be male," he said. There is no concrete religious law prohibiting female judges in general.

The basis of the women's citizenship law was another issue challenged by speakers at the conference. Throughout the Gulf, women married to non-nationals face a number of difficulties in securing citizenship rights for their children, if their children are eligible for citizenship at all. At the event, some people claimed that children should inherit their father's citizenship as they inherit his religion.

Dr Badriya Abdullah Al-Awadhi, professor of International Law at Kuwait University, opposed that notion. According to her, the idea of paternal sovereignty is irrelevant because "Citizenship is a social and political relationship," as opposed to a religious one. Wafa Al-Jasem, a member of WCSS who moderated the event, pointed out another contradiction in the law: "If citizenship is a matter of paternal sovereignty," she asked, "why is the non-Kuwaiti wife of a male Kuwaiti citizen granted citizenship?

Her sentiment was echoed by Abdul Karim Bin Haidar, an advocate and legal consultant who agreed that the problem of citizenship rights is a grave one. Current laws are not only unconstitutional in giving men rights that are denied to women, they are also inefficient in their legal language. Haidar explained that under the current law, the Kuwaiti government "may" award citizenship to the children of Kuwaiti women who fulfill a laundry list of conditions. Due to its vague language, "The constitutionality of
this law cannot be defended... A person could fulfill all the conditions set forth and be denied citizenship based on a whim," Haidar explained.

Kuwait's Social and Civil Rights Draft Law was another issue debated at the conference. The law covers a range of issues, including a stipend offered to women who stay at home with their children or accompany their husbands while they are working or studying abroad or caring for sick family members. Saleh Ahmad Ashour, former member of Kuwait's National Assembly, defended the stipend system as necessary compensation for the hard work women do at home and a legitimate effort to preserve cultural values.

Nedhal Mohammad Al-Humaidan, advocate, legal consultant and a member of the WCSS, objected to the law's unconstitutionality and incompleteness. Al-Humaidan accused the draft law of unconstitutionality because it granted women rights that men do not enjoy. Al-Humaidan said that the law seems to be an attempt to curry favor with women while failing in what should be its main goal: securing women true equality under the law.

The conference continues today with seminars that address women's political rights, housing rights, social security and their role in the modern family. The conference is organized by Freedom House, a non-governmental organization dedicated to political freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. The conference is being held in collaboration with Kuwait's Women Cultural Social Society, the Bahrain Women's Union (BWU), the US-Middle East Partnership Initiative (MEPI) and the United Nations Develop
ment fund for Women (UNIFEM).