ShareBy staff writer
Eight women took the legal oath of office before Chairman of Kuwait's Supreme Judicial Council and the Cassation Court and President of the Constitutional Court Yousef Al-Mutawa last week on the occasion of their appointment as judges at the Cassation Court. These are the first women to be sworn in as judges in Kuwait. In July, Attorney General Dirar Al-Asousi had approved the promotion of the eight female prosecutors to the rank of judge.
That moment is without a doubt a monumental victory for women's rights in Kuwait, and a step forward in what still remains a long road for Kuwait to achieve gender equality, and allow Kuwaiti women to enjoy equal rights with their male counterparts.
Kuwait's history is rich in examples where women shouldered the responsibility of building their country with men; far too many for one article to contain. The government has made efforts since Kuwait's independence to provide equal opportunities for male and female citizens in the education and job market fields, and has largely been successful in terms of providing public education and jobs for all regardless of gender.
The same cannot be said about providing equal rights to citizens irrespective of gender, however. In fact, Kuwaiti women had to wait until 2005 to have the right to vote; 44 years after Kuwait's independence and 43 years since the country's first parliamentary elections. In a more recent example, the health ministry announced last week allowing women to approve urgent medical intervention for their children, after the parliament passed a law in that regard late August. But before being passed, the draft law had to be amended to exclude wives from having the right to approve urgent medical intervention for their husbands, as originally proposed.
One of the main obstacles in women's road towards equality remains in the fact that Kuwaiti women don't have the right to pass down their citizenship to their children. Under Kuwait's citizenship law, only Kuwaiti men can pass their citizenships to their children, whereas Kuwaiti women married to non-Kuwaitis do not have the same right.
This situation puts many Kuwaiti women who are married to non-Kuwaitis under a constant case of worry, knowing that their children don't have access to the same rights and opportunities as their peers who have Kuwaiti fathers. While the government gives exceptions for children of Kuwaiti women such as education in public schools and priority in public sector employment ahead of expatriates, these 'advantages' are far from enough to give a sense of security, neither to those who are tied to this land by blood, nor to their mothers.
The issue of citizenship is a very sensitive topic in Kuwait, as it is considered a matter of sovereignty. There are many demographic, cultural, economic and other dimensions to consider when discussing the subject of granting citizenship to children of Kuwaiti women married to men who hold nationalities of other countries. But discussion over giving children of Kuwaiti women the right to citizenship should not focus on or merely be limited to talking about them having access to the privileges that comes with nationality.
Instead, discussion should start with equality and their naturalization as a human right, as well as giving a real chance to this important category of society to work, contribute, be fully integrated with and give back to the only country they've called home - something that seems even more relevant today when the government is aggressively pushing forward its 'Kuwaitization' policy.
The names of the eight women judges; Fatima Al-Sagheer, Fatima Al-Kandari, Sanabel Al-Houti, Fatima Al-Farhan, Bashair Shah, Bashaer Al-Rakdan, Rawaat Al-Tabtabae, and Lulwa Al-Ghanim are forever etched in Kuwait's history, marking an important point in Kuwaiti women's march towards equality.
Their achievement gives hope to female law practitioners around Kuwait who until recently feared that no matter how much they proved their worth, they could never be put on equal grounds with their male peers. Likewise, Kuwaiti mothers should never have to worry about the fate of their children while their male counterparts don't have to feel the same. Until that situation is rectified, Kuwait remains far from achieving full gender equality.
