'One step forward, two steps back': Kuwait army allows women in combat roles, but without guns
Women register to join the Kuwaiti army at the Defence Ministry in Kuwait City
Kuwaitiwomenare angry after the military, having allowed female soldiers incombatroles, decided they need the permission of a male guardian and banned them from carrying weapons.
Activists have decried the policy as "one step forward, two steps back" after the defence ministry also decided thatwomenin the armed forces, unlike civilians, must wear head coverings.
The moves have sparked an online backlash inKuwait, usually regarded as one of the most open societies in the Gulf.
"I don't know why there are these restrictions to join thearmy," Ghadeer al-Khashti, a sports teacher and member ofKuwaitFootball Association'swomencommittee, told AFP.
"We have all kinds ofwomenworking in all fields, including the police force."
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She said her mother had helped the resistance when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1990 invadedKuwaitand occupied it for seven months before being pushed out by a US-led international coalition.
"My mum during the Iraqi invasion used to hide weapons under her abaya and transport them to members ofKuwait's resistance, and my father encouraged it," said Khashti.
"I don't understand on what basis they seewomenas weak."
The ministry decided in October to allowwomenincombatrolesbut then imposed the restrictions after the defence minister was questioned by conservative lawmaker Hamdan al-Azmi.
Azmi, emboldened by an Islamic religious edict, or fatwa, had argued that havingwomenincombatroles"does not fit with a woman's nature".
'Womenmartyrs'
Lulwa Saleh al-Mulla, head of the KuwaitiWomen's Cultural and Social Society, said the ministry's restrictions are discriminatory and unconstitutional and vowed legal action by the organisation.
"We havewomenmartyrs who defended their country of their own volition," she told AFP. "No one ordered them to do that but the love for their country.
"We are a Muslim country, that is true, but we demand the laws not be subject to fatwas. Personal freedom is guaranteed in the constitution, on which the country's laws are based."
Kuwaitiwomenearned the right to vote in 2005 and have been active both in cabinet and parliament, though they are poorly represented in both.
Unlike most Gulf countries,Kuwaitis known to have an active political scene, with MPs regularly challenging the authorities.
Earlier this month, dozens of Kuwaitiwomenstaged a protest against the suspension of awomen's yoga retreat deemed "indecent" by conservatives.
Watch |Gravitas: Kuwait: No women in women's committee
One of them was Azmi who, in Twitter posts, denounced the retreat as "dangerous" and "alien to our conservative society".
Womenprotesters carried placards denouncing the "exploitation ofwomen's issues" in politics, as well as the "regime of fatwas" and "guardianship ofwomen".
The debate about thearmy's new rules forwomenhas taken an irrational turn, said Ibtihal al-Khatib, an English-language professoratKuwaitUniversity.
"Thearmyneeds to integrate bothwomenand menwithoutdiscrimination," the feminist academic told AFP.
"Danger does not differentiate between men andwomen, and neither does death duringbattle."
