Manama: A parliamentary committee in Kuwait has rejected a motion to ban bikinis, saying that it was unconstitutional.
The motion, submitted in November by members of the Development and Reform Bloc and MP Khalid Al Sultan, bans women from wearing bikinis, revealing bathing suits and clothes with deep cleavage at the beach. Offenders will be sentenced to one year in prison and to pay a KD 1,000 fine, the motion said.
The MPs said that they submitted the motion after noticing that several women did not comply with public moral standards by wearing "inappropriate" clothes, engaging in intimate activities, dancing and singing, listening to loud music and taking their dogs to the beach.
The "immoral" activities also occurred on Kuwaiti coasts and islands and in Kuwait's territorial waters, they said.
However, the parliamentarian committee said that the motion "violated the constitution" and that there was no need to add new articles to the existing penal code.
MP Aseel Al Awadhi, one of the four women in the parliament, blasted the move to ban bikinis, saying that Kuwaitis did not need a custodian to decide their lives for them
