CONSTITUTIONAL COURT: WOMEN CAN OBTAIN PASSPORT

UNCLAS KUWAIT 001015 SIPDIS NEA/ARP E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL KWMN PINR PHUM KU SUBJECT: CONSTITUTIONAL COURT: WOMEN CAN OBTAIN PASSPORT WITHOUT HUSBAND'S CONSENT 1.(U) On October 20, Kuwait's constitutional court granted women the right to obtain a passport without their husband's approval. The court was ruling on the case of Fatima Al-Baghli, one of thousands of women who had petitioned Kuwaiti courts for the right, whose husband had refused to hand over her passport and those of her three children to prevent them from leaving the country. The decision overturned article fifteen of law number eleven of the 1962 Passport Law, which required women to provide their husband's signature before obtaining a passport, an article which the court found violated the constitution's guarantees of personal freedom and gender equality. The court's ruling cannot be appealed. In the lead-up to the court's decision, MP Aseel Al-Awadhi -- one of the four women who broke the Kuwaiti parliament's gender barrier in the May 2009 election -- submitted a draft bill to her parliamentary committee that article fifteen of the Passport Law should be canceled for being unconstitutional. Abdulmuhsin Taqi Muzaffar, board member of the Kuwait Society for Human Rights, confirmed these reports with Poloff on October 22 and said that the ruling was as major, difficult step for the women's rights movement and that it will be implemented immediately. 2.(U) Comment: In addition to the 1962 passport act, Kuwait's sharp, well-educated female MPs have presently challenged several laws as unconstitutional, including the 1996 and 2000 laws which require universities to be gender segregated and an article of the 2005 female suffrage law which requires female candidates and voters to abide by Shari'a (septels). End comment. ********************************************* ********* For more reporting from Embassy Kuwait, visit: visit Kuwait's Classified Website at: http://www.intelink.sgov.gov/wiki/Portal:Kuwa it ********************************************* ********* JONES