Gulf | Kuwait
Aseel will not wear headscarf in parliament
5am on May 14 was a special moment in the history of Kuwaitis when the judge supervising the election of the 2nd constituency announced that Dr Aseel Al Awadi and Dr Salaw Al Jassar were the first two women to confirm their seats in the upcoming parliament through the votes of their electorates.
- By Duraid Al Baik, Associate Editor
- Published: 23:48 May 17, 2009
- Image Credit: Reuters
- Aseel Al Awadi.
Dubai: 5am on May 14 was a special moment in the history of Kuwaitis when the judge supervising the election of the 2nd constituency announced that Dr Aseel Al Awadi and Dr Salaw Al Jassar were the first two women to confirm their seats in the upcoming parliament through the votes of their electorates.
Two other female candidates followed suit by winning their seats in the first and third constituencies a couple of hours later, a dream come true for many women in Kuwait.
"The second constituency is the stronghold of the business community too, which advocates that parliament should give more attention to the economic issues facing the country through cooperation with the government instead of confronting the cabinet over meagre issues like the previous three parliaments," Kuwaiti businessman, Fouad Al Khamis, from the second constituency told Gulf News yesterday.
Dominated by the Islamists, the previous three parliaments were dissolved by the Emir of Kuwait for failing to cooperate with the government.
The fame and public trust in the young and energetic Dr Aseel, 40, have came through her activities in the public domain. She has been a member of the Kuwaiti Society since the age of 22, defending the rights of victims of war and liberating the prisoners of the Iraqi invasion to Kuwait in 1990.
She struck additional success during her 2009 campaign for parliament through her articulated views about major issues concerning ordinary Kuwaitis including her views on the Islamic hijab. She demonstrated unprecedented transparency for a woman running for a public post in conservative Kuwiat by saying she respected the teachings of Islam regarding the headscarf, but she would not wear the hijab even if her behaviour annoyed her colleagues from the Islamic bloc.
Islamists MPs once walked out of Parliament when former Education Minister, Noura Al Subaih entered parliament without wearing a headscarf.
Dr Aseel said she would ask Islamist parliamentarians to abide first by the Islamic rules in their appearance and dress before they ask women to respect such rules.
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