Madinat al-Muslimeen Islamic Message Board
| Kuwait's highest court rejects women's rights case |
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| Moe |
| 01/18/01 at 15:23:57 |
| Kuwait's highest court rejects women's rights case January 16, 2001 http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/meast/01/16/kuwait.women.ap/index.html KUWAIT CITY, Kuwait (AP) -- The country's highest court rejected a case Tuesday in which activists had pleaded for women to have the right to vote and run for office in this oil-rich state. "The court has decided to reject the case," said Judge Abdullah al-Issa, president of the Constitutional Court. He offered no immediate explanation. Frustrated with the 50-seat legislature that voted down an emiri decree and a bill for suffrage in 1999, women activists and their male supporters took their case to the courts. In July, the highest tribunal refused to hear four of these cases on a technicality. The case rejected Tuesday was filed by a Kuwaiti man, Adnan al-Issa. He sued the elections department for failing to register the names of women, including his wife, on voter's lists. An Election Challenges court referred his case to the Constitutional Court for a definitive ruling. The rejection closes litigation as a route to meeting the concerns of women who want a political say, but does not end the campaign. Liberal lawmakers have proposed a new women's political rights bill. No date has been set for debate. The house has a large bloc of Muslim fundamentalists that joined forces with conservative tribal representatives to kill a similar bill in 1999. Extremists and conservatives believe women are better off staying home raising children than mixing freely with men at election campaigns. Al-Issa's lawyer, Kawthar al-Joaan, had argued that the ruler, Sheik Jaber Al Ahmed Al Sabah, and the Cabinet support women's political rights. The only power that doesn't, Parliament, "only represents half of the nation," the lawyer said. Kuwait's 1962 constitution grants equal rights to men and women. However, an elections law, of the same year, bars women from voting or running for office. It also gives voters the right to contest voters' lists in their own district. Unlike many of their counterparts elsewhere in the region, women in Kuwait can travel without the consent of their fathers or husbands, drive and work. They hold senior government positions including rector of Kuwait University, undersecretary of education, and ambassador. |
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