Kuwaiti MP plans campaign against women’s rights

City Islamists are planning to launch a counter campaign against granting Kuwaiti women full political rights even as the government is garnering support before parliament meets again on March 7.

Expressing disappointment with the government’s total support for women’s rights, Daifullah Al Buramiyah, a parliament member, announced plans to launch a campaign under the banner, “Under Islamic Sharia women have no political rights”.

Al Buramiyah said the campaign will be launched tomorrow at a public symposium which will see many MPs and clerics.

He criticised the government for launching a campaign in support of the issue. “We all know the final decision will be in the hands of the MPs in parliament,” he said.

Of the 15 ministers in the Cabinet, the Information Minister Mohammad Abu Al Hassan quit at the beginning of this year and Justice Minister Ahmad Baquer, a Salafist, has publicly opposed the granting of rights to women. T

he bill needs a simple majority to pass in a full house with 49 elected MPs and 16 ministers.

Many clerics have said at Friday sermons that a Fatwa issued by the Ministry of Islamic Affairs in 1991 at the request of the National Assembly says, “Islamic Sharia bans the participation of women in government”.

Social Affairs Minister and Acting Minister of Information Faisal Al Hajji said in a radio interview that the women’s right draft law is logically based on the 15 votes of the cabinet.

With the votes of the 10 MPs who filed a request to take to the issue to Constitutional Court the government have 25 votes.

“We need eight more,” he said, “and the government is working very actively with MPs to get that support,’’ he added.

Shiite MPs however have come out strongest in support of the draft law. Saleh Al Ashour said, “Any minister who does not vote in favour of granting women their rights must submit his resignation.”