Dubai: Kuwaiti security forces on Tuesday arrested a woman and her son, who told police that his mother had kept the body of his sister, who died in 2016, in the bathroom in their house in Salmiya area.
According to local media, the Kuwaiti mother locked her daughter in her room with an attached bathroom until she died five years ago. The mother, in her 60s, feared reporting her daughter’s death to police, and instead buried her body in her bedroom’s attached bathroom.
The crime came to light when the son, who assisted his mother in keeping secret of the the death of his sister, Dalal Abdul Qader, reported the crime to Salmiya Police Station in Hawalli Governorate, after having a heated argument with his mother and leaving the family house.
A team of police officers and forensic experts along with a civil defence team rushed to the family’s house in Salmiya where they found the skeleton of a young woman in her 20s.
The victim’s remains were referred to the forensic department to find out the circumstances and causes that led to the young woman’s tragic death.
Upon investigations, the mother admitted that her daughter died in her room in 2016 after she had imprisoned her and deprived her of her freedom. She used to provide food and drinks until one day she found her daughter dead. She feared telling the truth and reporting it to security authorities.
The mother and her son have been referred to public prosecution on charges of murder.
The issue has triggered nationwide anger due to the growing number of murders of women in conservative Kuwait.
In August, Kuwait witnessed a wave of demonstrations against sexual harassment and gender-based violence following the murder of three women in just two weeks.
The first was shot dead by her nephew, the second was stabbed to death by her husband and the third was beheaded by her brother.
Over the past two years alone, six women have been killed either by their male kin or other men.
