As I’ve previously mentioned, Kuwait is currently going through change, for the good and bad although I strongly believe that the changes are mostly for the good. This week Kuwait went through some very important changes.
Around a year ago, the “segregation law” was taken to the constitutional court by Kuwait University students who thought the law was unfair since they weren’t able to register for classes that were available for females only. This was the first time in Kuwait’s history where people were allowed to take a law to the constitutional court, previously only the government or parliament were allowed to do so.
I originally started writing this article last week because I wanted to share what was happening but then I decided to wait until the constitutional court ruling came out which it did yesterday. Lawyers, politicians, professors, non-profit organizations, were all waiting patiently to see what the Constitutional Court would rule, was segregating the sexes legal or not?
Back in 2000, the Kuwaiti Parliament voted by democratic ways a law that seemed to many as being undemocratic. In English media outlets it was referred to as “the segregation law”, and in Arabic media as “منع الاختلاط” which translates to “preventing integration”. But, the actual name of the law was “The Establishment of Private Universities” and was inspired by “The Higher Education Law” that was voted for in 1996. The law is very simple and short, with not a lot of details to its articles, for example ‘Article 2’ states “Student attire, behavior and activities shall be according to Islamic values”. Somewhere along the line though the Ministry enforced segregation on all higher private universities by referring to the law mentioned above.
Yesterdays court’s verdict came to everyone as a surprise. Although the court did not claim that the “segregation” law was unconstitutional, it instead stated there has been a mistake applying the law, as segregation was never mentioned in the original law.
On another brighter note, Kuwait’s Parliament yesterday finally passed an Animal Rights law making animal abuse in Kuwait illegal, as well as banning people from having certain pets like lions, cheetahs, etc. The law also enforces pet owners to take good care of their animals. The law shall be implemented within 6 months.
Feel free to email me [email protected] with any legal questions. I do not have the capacity to answer everyone for free (but I try), and I am happy to announce that I am currently working with a great team and therefore we are able to reply back to all emails with a reasonable time frame.
Post by Fajer Ahmed – Legal Counsel
The legal opinions expressed in this post are those of the author Fajer. Opinions expressed by Mark or any other writer on mark248am1.wpenginepowered.com are those of the individual’s and in no way reflect Fajer’s opinion.
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43 replies on “Kuwait Law: No More Segregation and Animals Now Have Rights”
Both laws seem reasonable to me.
Good!
Good! Thanks for the clarification Fajer as news was reporting it incorrectly
what was the news reporting??
I just read the Arab Times and Kuwait Times articles.
https://news.kuwaittimes.net/website/court-says-coed-ban-in-line-with-constitution/
Kuwait Times is the least accurate because it leaves a lot of details out.
https://www.arabtimesonline.com/news/case-against-gender-segregation-rejected-part-of-domestic-workers-law-unconstitutional/
Arab Times is much more accurate but written in a language thats very confusing.
Fajer on the other hand simplified it so that everybody can understand it.
least accurate? Isn’t Kuwait Times saying the exact opposite?
This is very newsworthy— good news. Thanks for sharing.
You are welcome kindly.
If you are not liking for the sigration then why not you for London???
Everyone happy for mixing with animals there man!!!!
This not LONDON!!!!!! THIS KUWAIT
ISHFEEEEEEEKUM????
I’m not sure an English language site is the best place for you.
This is London, not Jleeb Shyokh 😂 #icouldnthelpit
Loooooo 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Forgot to put the L cause I was laughing
this is kind of hurtful to people who actually live in jleen. 🙁
or jleeb even. plus im not sure insulting someone’s english is a good example of equality that you guys keep talking about. attack views not language
Your sentence structure and use of capitalization need work. 🙂
shetkharbi6 int?!!
We not for London. We for New York habibi.
also
This is… SPARTAAAAAAA
I find your ENGRISH disturbing.
Very disturbing
I hope the animal rights laws will be taken seriously. Something needs to be done about Friday market massacre…
I am confused Fajer. So will classes now have both males and females?
I came here to write the exact same question!
What’s saddening is the millions that have been spent on the ridiculously segregrated Shdadiya campus unnecessarily as it turned out. Hope it’s not too late to stop wasting public money on the medical campus. Stupid law.
Correction: Separate buildings are not mentioned in the segregation law but the establishment of the new campus law states having separate buildings:
https://www.gcc-legal.org/LawAsPDF.aspx?opt&country=1&LawID=4148
Yeah, what about this law that explicitly states segregated buildings?
At least they won’t have to build a crazy huge, double campus with and a river in the middle of it for separation everytime they decide to build a decent university. It’s based on the first segregration law which turned out to be meaningless. What a waste.
Nice to hear some refreshing news!
Good post Fajer. You mentioned that you believe that Kuwait is going through changes for the good *and* bad. Could you just mention what you think the bad changes are? Not trying to stir up anything, just genuinely interested in your opinion.
Thanks.
I see absolutely no *bad* points in this. All of this is good news unless you are an old world parent who has no clue what sort of disciplines his kids have that he never had. I Attend KU and do you know how irritating it is to see “Restricted : Females only”, especially when there’s only a single female section available.
how about you take a couple extra minutes to actually understand what he was trying to ask before you blow your lid unecessarily.
yayy!! this is great. hope for more positive change in the future
Oh great, NOW they done it, had to transfer from one major to another, so I can complete, and not stuck waiting a whole year for it to open in AOU. and that’s English Department, and guess how many male graduates? 7 only. while business had 63 male graduate, ofcourse females 75% of our uni.
Good for Kuwait.
great news all around! now if only we can get half the rights for domestic workers and labourers as we do for animals and kuwaitis, we’re truly on our way to a better society!
Interesting. Fajr, I have a question. If I understand it correctly, the law never required for segregation. But if a university wants to segregate students nevertheless, can they? Like, it may not be required by law, but is it forbidden by law?
No they used to think the law enforces segregation in classes and buildings, but in reality (according the constitutional court verdict) it only requires separation of males and females within the same class (left & right sides for example).
Yaaay Kuwait just joined the 20th century.
Actually in the 20th century classes weren’t segregated, this is recent
You are correct.I was referring to the animal rights.
Personally speaking, all my classes are co-ed.
I would love to see the day when animals are given rights in Kuwait. While this is certainly wonderful news, I am very skeptical as to whether the government and authorities will see through that these laws are implemented.