Dashti seeks to scrap sharia controls in election law
KUWAIT: Liberal female MP Rula Dashti yesterday submitted an amendment to the first article of the election law to scrap a requirement that women must comply to sharia controls. The amendment simply calls for having the same article one of the election law without a reference to sharia guidelines for women that was added in May 2005 when women were granted rights in a historic vote in the Assembly.
Upset that the vote passed in the Assembly, a number of conservative and Islamist MPs proposed to added a precondition stating "women as voters and candidates must comply with guidelines under Islamic sharia". Their proposal was accepted. The text does not explain what type of guidelines women should comply to although Islamist MPs insist women must wear the hijab.
In last May's general elections, four women won seats in the Assembly for the first time in Kuwait's history. Two of the women MPs do not wear the hijab while the two other do. That made Islamist lawmakers demand that women MPs should comply with the election law which, according to them, means that they must wear the hijab. Three Islamist MPs protested in the first session of the new Assembly on May 31 against two MPs and the only woman minister in the Cabinet, Modhi Al-Humoud, for not wearing the hijab.
Islamist lawmaker Mohammad Hayef later sent a question to the fatwa department at the Ministry of Islamic Affairs, asking about the opinion in Islam about hijab for women and if hijab is an obligation under sharia. The fatwa department answered last week, saying the hijab is an obligation for Muslim women but without making any specific reference to the election law. Nevertheless, the fatwa triggered a tug-of-war between Islamists and liberals. Islamists called for women MPs to wear the hijab while liberal
s said the fatwa does not concern Kuwaiti laws and the constitution.
In a related development, lawyer Mubarak Al-Mutawa yesterday filed a request to the constitutional court to set a date for him to make fresh arguments about the hijab issue. Mutawa represented a Kuwaiti citizen who after the election filed a lawsuit against the two female MPs for not wearing the hijab, demanding that their election to the house be scrapped.
Mutawa based his request on the new fatwa, saying new developments have taken place. The constitutional court has set Oct 28 to issue its verdict on this and 11 other election petitions. Liberals have insisted that the fatwa is not binding to the MPs and the Assembly and the only binding judgement should come from the constitutional court which has the right to explain laws and rule on constitutional and legal disputes.