Kuwait: Healthcare segregation still holds

Cairo: Kuwait has dismissed as rumours reports that gender segregation in providing healthcare has been scrapped.

“The methodology of providing health service has not undergone any change,” the Kuwaiti Health Ministry said, denying claims about cancelling gender segregation at healthcare facilities.

“All health institutions are committed to preserving and safeguarding the patient’s right to privacy,” the ministry added, according to Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida.

In recent weeks, voices have raised in Kuwait for banning gender mixing in some areas.

Earlier this month, five Kuwaiti lawmakers proposed amending the law to allow segregation of university female and male students.

The authors of the proposal said they had demanded amending an article in a 1996 law pertaining to higher education for the Kuwait University and the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training.

Their proposal calls for developing buildings of the institutions to ensure a ban on mixing of students.

Elaborating, the lawmakers called for designating separate buildings, housing lecture halls, labs and all other facilities and utilities for female students.

There is no word yet when the legislature, elected last September, will debate the proposal. Earlier, a Kuwaiti lawmaker called for a ban on allowing men and women to mix at the country’s Ministry of Islamic Endowments (Awqaf).