VZCZCXRO7151
PP RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHDIR
DE RUEHKU #1014/01 2951317
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 221317Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY KUWAIT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4094
INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KUWAIT 001014 
 
SIPDIS 
 
NEA/ARP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL KWMN PINR PHUM KU
SUBJECT: COURT WEIGHS REMOVING FEMALE MPS FOR NOT WEARING 
HIJAB; MPS FIGHT LAW 
 
REF: A. 2005 KUWAIT 2064 
     ¶B. KUWAIT 504 
     ¶C. KUWAIT 244 
 
1.(U) Summary.  On October 28, Kuwait's constitutional court 
is expected to rule on whether recently elected female MPs 
Rola Dashti and Aseel Awadhi are violating the Shari'a 
requirement of Kuwait's electoral law by going uncovered and, 
as a consequence, should lose their assembly seats.  The 
ruling comes in the wake of an October 11 move by Dashti to 
submit an amendment to Kuwait's electoral law scrapping the 
hijab (head cover) requirement.  While the court is widely 
expected to rule that Dashti and Awadhi have not violated the 
law -- thus vacating the challenge to their seats -- 
conservative MPs are likely to vote down Dashti's attempt to 
remove the Shari'a requirement from the law.  End summary. 
 
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The Shari'a requirement 
--------------------- 
 
2.(U) The requirement was introduced when parliament passed a 
law granting women full political rights in May 2005.  The 
parliament included in the law a vague precondition that 
female voters and candidates must "abide by Shari'a" (Ref A). 
The precondition was proposed by Shi'a Islamist MP Hussein 
Al-Qallaf and embraced by the GOK as a means of mollifying 
Islamists. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
The court case:  Dashti and Awadhi on trial 
------------------------------------------ 
 
3.(U) In May 2009, Kuwaiti voters elected the first four 
women to parliament:  two women who wear the hijab and two 
women -- Dashti and Awadhi -- who do not (Ref B).  Kuwaiti 
citizen Hamad Al-Nashi, who belongs to Dashti and Awadhi's 
third electoral district, filed a case with the 
constitutional court to have Dashti and Awadhi's seats 
revoked and given to the runner-up candidates on the basis 
that they had violated the Shari'a requirement.  The court 
will issue its decision on October 28:  many Kuwaitis see the 
case as frivolous and most expect the court to rule that the 
women are not in violation and do not have to surrender their 
seats. Former parliamentary candidate Thikra Al-Rashidi (PhD 
in Constitutional Law from Cairo University, previously a 
lawyer in the Kuwaiti Supreme Court) -- who wears the hijab 
-- told Poloff on October 13 that she expects the court to 
rule in favor of Dashti and Awadhi because the Shari'a 
requirement is vague and open to interpretation.  Long-time 
liberal talk show host Yousef Al-Jassem was even more 
optimistic, telling Poloff on October 13 that he expects a 
similar ruling from the constitutional court and that such a 
verdict, on the heels of the poor showing of the Kuwaiti 
Muslim Brotherhood (ICM) in the May elections, would serve as 
further evidence of Islamist decline in Kuwait. 
 
------------------------------------------ 
Dashti's attempt to remove the Shari'a requirement 
------------------------------------------ 
 
4.(U) On October 8, in response to an inquiry from Islamist 
MP Mohammad Hayef, who hails from the conservative Al-Mutairi 
tribe, Kuwait's Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs issued 
a fatwa stating that Islamic law obligates Muslim women to 
wear the hijab head cover. Although the fatwa was general in 
nature and did not specifically refer to Kuwait's 2005 
election law, it spurred Islamist lawmakers to call on 
Dashti, Awadhi, and Education Minister Moudhi Al-Hmoud to 
comply.  On October 11, in response to these calls and her 
constitutional court case, Dashti submitted an amendment to 
Kuwait's electoral law to scrap the Shari'a requirement. 
Kuwait's National Assembly will debate the amendment after it 
reconvenes on October 27.  Dashti argued that including 
Shari'a regulations in the electoral law is a breach of the 
constitution: "The regulations clearly violate articles in 
the constitution which call for gender equality." 
 
5.(SBU) The question of whether female parliamentarians 
should be allowed to publicly show their hair brings together 
two of Kuwait's most divisive issues:  the role of women in 
politics and the role of Shari'a in Kuwaiti law.  On these 
issues, Kuwaitis tend to fall into two camps:  Islamist and 
non-Islamist.  Former Chairman of the National Union of 
Kuwaiti Students, 23 year-old Islamist Aws Al-Shaheen told 
Poloff on October 15 that he believes the National Assembly 
will retain the Shari'a requirement because a majority of 
Kuwaitis still believe the hijab is "a means of protecting 
women." 
 
KUWAIT 00001014  002 OF 002 
 
 
 
--------------------- 
Comment 
--------------------- 
 
6.(SBU) Because the Shari'a requirement is so vague, the 
constitutional court is widely expected to rule that Dashti 
and Awadhi are not in violation of the Shari'a requirement 
and do not have to surrender their seats.  Notwithstanding 
this possibility, the Islamist camp in Kuwait retains strong 
support -- especially among the conservative, traditional 
tribes which have become increasingly influential in recent 
years (Ref C). This influence renders it unlikely that 
parliament will agree to support Dashti's amendment to scrap 
the reference to Shari'a altogether. 
 
********************************************* ********* 
For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: 
visit Kuwait's Classified Website at: 
 
http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Kuwa it 
********************************************* ********* 
JONES