Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
09KUWAIT1015
2009-10-22 13:22:00
UNCLASSIFIED
Embassy Kuwait
Cable title:
CONSTITUTIONAL COURT: WOMEN CAN OBTAIN PASSPORT
how-toVZCZCXRO7158 PP RUEHDE RUEHDH RUEHDIR DE RUEHKU #1015 2951322 ZNR UUUUU ZZH P 221322Z OCT 09 FM AMEMBASSY KUWAIT TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 4096 INFO RUEHZM/GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL COLLECTIVE PRIORITY RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
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
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
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