Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09KUWAIT1013
2009-10-22 13:13:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Kuwait
Cable title:  

KUWAITI FEMALE MP FIGHTS FOR RETURN TO COEDUCATION

Tags:  PGOV PHUM KWMN KISL KU 
pdf how-to read a cable
VZCZCXRO7141
PP RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHDIR
DE RUEHKU #1013/01 2951313
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 221313Z OCT 09
FM AMEMBASSY KUWAIT
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4091
INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KUWAIT 001013 

SIPDIS

NEA/ARP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KWMN KISL KU
SUBJECT: KUWAITI FEMALE MP FIGHTS FOR RETURN TO COEDUCATION

REF: A. RIYADH 1342

B. 1994 KUWAIT 04046

C. 2000 KUWAIT 03466

D. 2008 KUWAIT 804

E. 2008 KUWAIT 90

F. 2008 KUWAIT 154

Classified By: PolCouns Pete O'Donohue for reasons 1.4 b and d
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 KUWAIT 001013

SIPDIS

NEA/ARP

E.O. 12958: DECL: 08/13/2019
TAGS: PGOV PHUM KWMN KISL KU
SUBJECT: KUWAITI FEMALE MP FIGHTS FOR RETURN TO COEDUCATION

REF: A. RIYADH 1342

B. 1994 KUWAIT 04046

C. 2000 KUWAIT 03466

D. 2008 KUWAIT 804

E. 2008 KUWAIT 90

F. 2008 KUWAIT 154

Classified By: PolCouns Pete O'Donohue for reasons 1.4 b and d

1.(C) Summary. On October 6, in the wake of the September
opening of Saudi Arabia's first co-educational university,
Kuwaiti MP Rola Dashti proposed an amendment which would
effectively nullify the law forbidding coeducation at private
universities in Kuwait. Kuwaiti politicians and students are
split on the issue, although the majority of Kuwait
University's female students support coeducation, according
to a recent local poll. Given strong opposition to the
measure among parliament's Islamists and tribalists, Dashti's
desegregation amendment is likely to be voted down shortly
after the assembly reconvenes on October 27. End Summary.



--------------
KUWAITIS' REACTIONS
--------------


2.(C) On October 6, in the wake of the September opening of
Saudi Arabia's co-educational King Abdullah University for
Science and Technology (Ref A),female Shi'a MP Rola Dashti
proposed an amendment which would effectively nullify an
existing law forbidding coeducation at private universities
in Kuwait (law number 34 of 2000). On October 13, former
parliamentary candidate Thikra Al-Rashidi (PhD in
Constitutional Law from Cairo University, previously a lawyer
in the Kuwaiti Supreme Court) told Poloff she believes the
influence of the Kuwaiti Muslim Brotherhood (ICM) and Salafis
in Kuwaiti universities and Kuwaiti politics is ebbing
because voters have come to perceive these groups as
hypocrites who only use religion to advance their own
agendas. She added that Saudi Arabia's decision to allow
desegregated classes at the new King Abdullah University for
Science and Technology was a blow to Kuwaiti Islamists'
efforts to segregate classes here (Ref A). Reflecting the
changing perspectives of some Kuwaitis on the law, Shi'a MP
Saleh Ashour told Poloff on October 8 that although he voted
for the 2000 gender segregation law, he now feels that
gender-segregation of classrooms serves little purpose if men

and women are still able to intermingle in the cafeteria or
library outside classes (as is the case at most private
university campuses). According to Ashour, the 2000 law is
ineffective, in any event, because it did not achieve its
purpose of preventing an unmarried man and woman from being
alone together. (Note: He referred to a hadith of the Prophet
Mohammad: "Whenever a man is alone with a woman, the Devil
makes a third." End note.)



--------------
BACKGROUND: EARLY CO-EDUCATION AT KUWAIT U
--------------


3.(C) For the first two decades following its 1966 opening,
Kuwait University (KU) had a very liberal atmosphere:
mixed-gender classes and women in miniskirts were
commonplace. With Islamism on the rise in Kuwait in the wake
of the trauma of the 1990-91 invasion and liberation (Sunni
Islamists won about twenty seats out of fifty in Kuwait's
1992 parliamentary election, as opposed to only about ten in
the previous National Assembly),the newly appointed Islamist
dean of KU's Faulty of Arts began segregating classes in
1994, outraging liberal professors and students (Ref B). In
1996, the National Assembly banned co-ed classes at KU and
all other state universities and technical colleges. In 2000,
the Islamist-heavy parliament passed a bill allowing the
establishment of private universities, but under the proviso
that these universities be gender-segregated (Ref C). The
government and liberal MPs had opposed the amendment
requiring segregation and its passage was a public
embarrassment to then-defacto-PM Shaykh Sabah Al Sabah (the
current Amir),who said that Islamists' efforts had
encouraged "terrorism in some mosques" (Ref C).



--------------
BACKGROUND: ENFORCEMENT STALEMATE

KUWAIT 00001013 002 OF 003


--------------


4.(C) Although KU officials completed implementation of
gender-segregation by 2001, consecutive Ministers of
Education chose not to antagonize liberal elements and
ignored the legal requirement to enact segregation in private
universities (Ref D). However, in January 2008 Islamist MPs
brought a vote of no-confidence against liberal Education
Minister Nouriya Al-Sabeeh, accusing her of misleading MPs,
committing administrative and legal wrongdoing, violating
national mores and contributing to the deterioration of
Kuwait's education system by her failure to implement the law
(Ref E). In backroom maneuvering, the GOK allied with the
Islamists (notably the ICM) to assure that Sabeeh would
survive the no-confidence vote, which she did. In exchange,
the GOK promised the Islamists that it would enforce the 2000
gender segregation law in private universities. A month
later, in February 2008, liberal MP Ali Al-Rashed attempted
to head off this enforcement effort by submitting an
amendment to parliament to eliminate the 2000 gender
segregation law (Ref F). Rashed soon received a death threat
from an unidentified caller who claimed that the bill "is not
in line with Kuwait's Islamic traditions." Islamist MPs
quickly condemned the threat, but Rashed's bill still failed
to gain traction in the Assembly.


-------------- --------------
DASHTI USES CONSTITUTION TO RENEW DESEGREGATION PUSH
-------------- --------------


5.(C) Following the decisive Islamist segregation victories
in 1996 and 2000, liberal frustration over the 2008 Sabeeh
deal, Rashed's failed bill and the stalemate which has
followed, MP Dashti -- one of the four women to break the
parliamentary gender barrier in May 2009 -- is making another
attempt to counter university segregation. Taking aim at the
2000 law, Dashti argued that the Kuwaiti constitution's
article thirty, which guarantees freedom of choice, does not
allow for a law which forces all universities to be gender
segregated and has proposed an amendment which would allow
private universities to be co-ed if they so choose.


--------------
WHAT DO THE STUDENTS THINK?
--------------


6.(U) A March 2009 survey of female students at Kuwait
University (who comprise two-thirds of the student body) by
Al-Qabas newspaper found that many of the students disliked
gender-segregated classes. Following up, Poloff visited
Kuwait University during an October student election to
survey student opinions. In our informal poll, a majority of
the male students Poloff spoke to (even those voting for the
liberal party in the student election),said that they
supported gender segregation, mostly in the belief that it
helped students to focus better on their studies. When asked
about whether such a university atmosphere would leave
students unprepared for a co-ed post-graduate work
atmosphere, many students replied that they support having
gender segregated offices at work. While female students who
were voting for conservative parties also tended to support
segregation, it was much easier to find supporters for co-ed
education among liberal women students than among the men.
(Note: In Poloff's ad hoc survey, business department
students tended to be very liberal and Shari'a department
students were very conservative, while social sciences
department students were moderately conservative. End note.)
Female students pointed out that gender segregation resulted
in having less class selection and that the best professors
usually taught the girls' classes, leaving male students at a
disadvantage. They also noted that since most professors are
men, most "all-female" classes still had a man in them.


--------------
COMMENT
--------------


7.(C) Dashti's desegregation amendment is a strong effort on
behalf of gender equality, but -- wishful thinking aside --
it is likely to be voted down. Islamists and tribalists
maintain a significant presence in Kuwait's parliament. As
they are virtually unanimous in their opposition to
integrated classes, and not overly fond of Dashti herself --

KUWAIT 00001013 003 OF 003


whom they view as a flamboyant sign of the female peril --
they are almost certain to defeat her measure absent strong
GOK lobbying, which is unlikely given the general
unpopularity of the bill among the organized and voting
public.

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For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit:
visit Kuwait's Classified Website at:

http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Kuwa it
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JONES