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| Arabia |
| Kuwait university fatwa 'totally irresponsible' |
| 2006-06-01 |
| Responding to questions about whether or not women had earned their political independence, dean of Kuwait University's faculty of Sharia, Prof Mohammed Al-Tabtebaei, recently issued a fatwa about how women should vote in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, reported Al-Watan. In it, Al-Tabtebaei said husbands could direct their wives' voting choice by using their right of divorce, or the threat of divorce, if they vote for a candidate other than their choice. He said that even if a woman does so in secret she could still be legally divorced. However, Al-Tabtebaei urged husbands not to abuse such a God-given right and reminded them that by the mere utterance of the word, be it meant or said in jest, divorce becomes effective. It is a well-established fact in Islam that if a man utters a threat to divorce his wife for disobeying his instructions, or doing something against his wishes, and continues to do so even after he has warned her about it, the wife will be considered divorced. Responding to this Fatwa, seventh constituency candidate, Aisha Al-Reshaid, expressed astonishment. "I consider that such a fatwa is specifically designed to attract and amass votes for a certain candidate and to deprive females of the right to take part in the process", she said, wondering how the Government could allow such interference in the electoral process. She added that Al-Tabtebaei had never said this when other elections were held, for the municipal council, coops, students unions, teacher societies, or the social reform society. "This statement is totally irresponsible", she concluded. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #11 Thank you, Old Patriot. :-) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-06-01 20:10 |
| #10 The black African Episcopal Bishop is from Kenya. I worked with a nice woman from Kuwait, Reem Jashan, who was a software engineer at LSI, where I worked. She was the daughter of a Kuwaiti mother and a German father, and VERY independent. She went back a few years ago. I haven't heard from her in about two years now. The last I heard, she was going back to the States to get married. She's my source for what little knowledge of Kuwait I have. I know more about Moscow, another place I've never been, than I do about Kuwait. |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2006-06-01 19:16 |
| #9 Yes, welcome Jewaira! It sounds like you might have a perspective and a point of view that it would benefit us to hear. I also hope you will check in from time to time and add comments on any article or comment of interest here. You may find ideas and opinions expressed by others (myself included) here unpleasant or unfair at times, but intelligent disagreements and debates are what make Rantburg special. That and the great belly laughs. And the wide range of knowledge and experience of the people who comment here. OK, there's lots of reasons . . . but the point is that you sound clever enough to hold your own in a lively discussion, so I hope you participate in the future. |
| Posted by: ryuge 2006-06-01 17:35 |
| #8 Welcome to Rantburg, Jewaira. Thanks for that bit of background information -- that helps us better understand. :-) I assume you only just discovered us -- else you'd know we've had a long series of articles posted here from the various Gulf English-language newspapers about local men caught in flagrente delicto with the neighbor's goats, sheep, and the one gentleman who, when caught carrying on with his boss's she-camel in the UAE, announced he was in love with her and planned to marry her. This is something we learned about from your newspapers -- it's not the kind of thing Westerners conceptualize on their own. As for the racism thing, in my own circle the Muslims come in the entire range of skin colours -- and amongst the North Africans the various shades are often siblings. As do Christians and Jews -- you may perhaps not be familiar with the Falashas, the black Jews of Ethiopia, or the Black African Episcopalian Bishop (I'm afraid I can't remember which sub-Saharan country he comes from. My apologies.) |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2006-06-01 16:19 |
| #7 My apologies indeed, didn't know there were so many PETA folks on the Rant. Next time I'll be much more considerate of goats. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-06-01 16:11 |
| #6 Many Kuwaiti women couldn't care less what Tabtebaei has to say. This latest move is a desperate measure to try and control the female vote. Of course the female vote matters: we are at an advantage with approximately 195,000 potential female voters compared to approximately 140,000 eligible male voters. No wonder they are afraid. And goat wonking sounds very racist to me. |
| Posted by: Jewaira 2006-06-01 16:06 |
| #5 Besoeker is right on this one. I had a meeting with a nice Kuwait last week. All his daughters live in London. 2 are doctors and the third is in university. Didn't sound like any of them are heading back to the old country. What woman would? |
| Posted by: remoteman 2006-06-01 15:39 |
| #4 Damn, I hate it when the cattle get all uppity! shut up and vote as you're told, wiman! |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-06-01 13:38 |
| #3 I figure the average middle eastern male must have an elephant sized inferiority complex, and a mouse sized wanker. That's the only explanation for what seems like convential behavior. |
| Posted by: anymouse 2006-06-01 12:32 |
| #2 Another case of the Scourge of Fatwa Abuse... |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-06-01 09:49 |
| #1 Wealthy old line Kuwaiti families and others in the ME, are having a real problem as they send their young daughters to Europe and the US for schooling. These bright young ladies soon discover that being wife #2 or #3 of a goat wonking, family arranged bridegroom... really ain't whats happening in the real world. A great many of them return to their homeland and reject arranged marriages and elect to remain single or relinquish their dowry and link up with westerners. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-06-01 09:17 |