Manama: A Kuwaiti lawmaker has called for imposing a blanket ban on women wearing indecent costumes in swimming pools and hotels.
“The proposal aims to prevent nudity in swimming pools and in hotels of all categories,” MP Hamdan Al Azmi said. “We want to protect the community from such negative phenomena. We also want to have strict rules and regulations that prevent mixing between sexes in swimming pools and to avoid acts contrary to public morals,” he said, quoted by local daily Al Jareeda on Sunday.
Hotels that fail to comply with such rules should be punished, he said in the proposal he reportedly submitted to the anti-negative phenomena committee in Kuwait.
A similar call by five lawmakers in 2010 had waded into controversy after it won support from conservatives, but was resisted by liberals who condemned it as an a violation of the constitution and an attack on personal freedoms and choices.
The ex-MPs said that the spread of “offensive” practices in the country was unacceptable and warned that the lack of clear legislation meant that beach guards could do nothing against women in indecent costumes.
Several countries in the Gulf and the Middle East have recently witnessed heated debates over what women — and men, in some cases — should wear to go to the beach or swimming pools.
Most of these countries do not impose any restriction on the way women should be dressed in public areas.
Sights of women wearing full “Islamic” swimsuits alongside women wearing bikinis have become familiar on public beaches.
