Kuwait Times

Published Date: June 12, 2007
By B Izaak, Staff writer

KUWAIT:  Parliament members yesterday put their differences over the grilling of the oil minister behind them and passed the largest number of laws in one session throughout the current term which is expected to close early next month.
The Parliament unanimously approved a law that bans women from working at night from 8.00 pm to 7.00 am except in medical professions and some other jobs to be specified by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor.
 
The law also bans women from working in hard and tough jobs and in jobs that serve only men at all time. MPs said the law aims at protecting women from being exploited in immoral activity. They specifically targeted leisure places where women are employed only as a way to attract men.

Violators will be fined between KD 100 and 200 for each violations and their shops will be closed for up to one month. MPs unanimously agreed to reduce the age of Kuwaitis who can join the police force from 21 to 18 in order to provide needed manpower to the force.

The lawmakers also passed laws on rents, bluetooth, the establishment of Jaber Islamic Bank and the police force.  The new amendments to the rents law effectively cancelled the so-called open-end contracts and made it easier for landlords to demolish old buildings. The previous rents law stipulated that any rent contract would be without time limit which means that landlords did not have any power to evacuate tenants against their will. The new amendment stipulates that all rent contracts will be for a specific period of time to be specified in the contract. Existing contracts will be valid for one year for residential contracts and 10 years for commercial contracts.

The new amendment effectively gives landlords new powers to increase rents at the expiry of the contracts and now they don't have to wait for five years to ask for an increase as the previous law stated. The new amendments will become effective only after publication in the official gazette. MPs also passed a law that stipulates stiff penalties for those who misuse bluetooth technology in their mobiles. It stipulates up to two-year imprisonment for those who take pictures of people without consent, and up to three years in jail for those who use the pictures to defame others.

The law also stipulates a jail term between one and five years and a fine between KD 1,000 and 5,000 for those who use the pictures for blackmail.
The lawmakers also approved the establishment of Jaber Islamic Bank with a KD 100 capital. Seventy-six percent of the shares will be distributed equally to Kuwaitis but the government will pay the amount, while the remaining 24 percent will be owned by a number of government institutions.  The government voted against the law because the it states that the government should pay for citizens.