WORLD BRIEFING / KUWAIT
Kuwait’s highest court granted women the right to obtain a passport without their husband’s approval, the case’s lawyer said, in the latest stride for women’s rights in this small, oil-rich emirate.
Attorney Adel Qurban said the landmark decision “freed” Kuwaiti women from the 1962 law requiring a husband’s signature to obtain a passport. His client, Fatima Baghli, is one of thousands of women who have been petitioning courts for the right.
The court found the article in the decades-old law “unconstitutional” because it goes against the principle of equal rights for men and women.
“It undermines her free will and compromises her humanity,” the court concluded, according to a copy of the decision provided by the lawyer.
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