Kuwaiti lawmakers are pressing the authorities to force women to wear the hijab headscarf ahead of a court ruling on Wednesday concerning two women MP who refuse to wear it. "Hijab is a legal and religious obligation," MP Jamaan al-Harbash told a rally late Saturday organised by Islamist lawmakers to enforce the hijab in the oil-rich emirate.
In early October the emirate's Fatwa Department, which issues religious edicts, ruled that Muslim women must wear the hijab in line with Islamic sharia law. "The government must apply the law and the fatwa," regarding the hijab, MP Faisal al-Muslim said told the rally.
Liberal MPs have said that the fatwa is non-binding, insisting that the rule of law and the constitution should be the only points of reference. And on October 11, Rula Dashti, a liberal woman lawmaker, filed an amendment to the electoral law, saying sharia regulations in the electoral law is a breach of the constitution. Dashti wants to scrap the requirement that women must comply with sharia guidelines which were introduced four years ago, when parliament voted to grant women full political rights.
At the time parliament added a precondition that both women voters and candidates must comply with regulations dictated by Islamic sharia. On Wednesday, the constitutional court, whose rulings are final, is set to issue its verdict on a complaint by a voter challenging the election of two female MPs for not wearing the hijab.
Two of the four women who were elected to parliament for the first time in May refuse to wear the hijab, which has also been spurned by the only woman appointed in May as ministers in the Kuwaiti government. Kuwait does not enforce any dress code on women because the constitution guarantees personal freedom.