War on women in Kuwait

July 10, 1991
Issue 

By Sissy Vovou

-1>The war may well have ended in Kuwait, and the "government" of Emir Al Sabah restored by the "Allies"; women, however, are paying an increasing price for the arrogance of the victors, who are stepping up their violence against them.0>

1>The number of rapes committed now in Kuwait has reached up to 20 a day, report foreign correspondents from Kuwait City.0>

Doctors and nurses at the Maternity Hospital, the largest gynaecological hospital in Kuwait, report that in the first week of April, five to 20 rapes were reported every day by Asian, Filipina and even Kuwaiti women. Almost all reported that the rapes were committed by Kuwaiti soldiers in uniform, and the doctors fear that many of the victims are pregnant.

The number of rapes has been increasing since the "liberation" of Kuwait, and it is believed that at least as many have not been reported. Meanwhile, officials to whom the incidents were reported have refused to acknowledge them and hence to take any measures. It is feared that with the return of more Kuwaiti soldiers, rapes will increase.

-1>Officials of the Catholic Church in the city are working on this problem, while a special envoy of the pope came from the Vatican to discuss the matter with the emir.0>

It's highly unlikely that the envoy will raise with the 65-year-old emir the problem of rapes that he himself commits, as quite a few times a year he "marries" yet another woman, the youngest of whom was 15 years old. The emir has had three wives for 30 years, and every few weeks he takes a concubine or "temporary wife", which he is entitled to do under "Islamic law". Officially, he has 37 children, but it's estimated that in reality he has 120.

One hundred women have reported being raped during the Iraqi occupation by Iraqi troops, though it is considered that the real number is much higher. Doctors and nurses are preparing to "welcome" the first babies which are being born as a result of these rapes, which the mothers usually leave on the steps of the hospitals.

As for the reforms promised by the emir, these do not include the right of women to vote, as he has made categorically clear. Already in Britain a Committee for a Just Peace in the Middle East has been established, among the aims of which are the rights of Kuwaiti women, including the right to vote. The committee, in which four female MPs are participating, is putting the matter to parliament, to the parties and to the trade unions, and is trying to expose the hypocrisy of the British government, which, when referring to the restoration of the "lawful" government of the country, is not interested either in the fact that this government was never elected by its people, or in the lack of any rights for its women.
[Translated by Mike Karadjis from the Greek

newspaper Epochi.]

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