A law passed unanimously by the Kuwaiti parliament on Monday means that women in the country are no longer allowed to work at night.The law means that any job (with the exception of those working in the medical profession) between 8.00pm and 7.00am will be closed to the women of Kuwait.
The government also banned women from working in jobs that "contravene with public morals and in all-men service places at any time."
To address the last part of the article; no it is not acceptable to ban women from working at night. According to one article the purpose of the ban was to stop women from participating in "immoral" activities. Restricting women's physical mobility may seem like a quick fix, but it puts the blame on women while the much deeper problem of violent patriarchy and a sexist economy remains or even intensifies.
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This reminds me of a story about Golda Meier and the founding of Israel.
During this turbulent period, rapes spiked at night and male council members suggested that a early curfew for women would ease the situation.
"But it is the men who are committing the crimes," said Meier, "So it would be more effective to set an early curfew for men."
And that ended all discussion for curfews, men or women, of course.
WOw, talk about living in a time warp.
WHy dont they just tell all the women, to move out?This HURTS
So instead of banning strip clubs, they are preventing women from working?
The Swedes have the right idea. They legalised the act of being a prostitute, but made it illegal to solicit one. That allowed women to get out of the business (as some 90% of them would do something else if they had the option) and reduced the power of the men who exploit them.
So I just read the comments on that article, and now I'm going to go bang my head against the desk for a bit.
I'm with you, Cara...wow. Gonna need an advil.
From my reading of the article and comments, the legislators in question think the society and economy are just fine the way they are.
Any thoughts on techniques to change attitudes this engrained?
jochre: great point. I hate when people "don't get" why something is sexist or unfair until they are the ones being disadvantaged.
Also, this comment made me want to scream:
Yes, I think they should be banned at night and at all places where there are all men because that dishonors them ...Islam honors women by giving them absolute freedom from work because their husbands make money. Here in USA women wish they could just sit home and somebody makes money for them. Islam gives that to a woman, still it does not completely ban women from work, and they can work only in all women environment. No that would have no effect on industry as Kuwait has got almost no industry, it is mostly oil based economy. There are many countries where women work but still are poor as India where millions live below poverty line so industry is not effected by making women work, give them freedom from work and support them fully with what ever they want. Don?t make them work because you don?t want to work.
Amir
Alexandria,USA
Yes, all I want is for a man to take care of me. I hate self-sufficiency. You have truly looked deeply into the hearts of women, which is of course different from the heart of a human being.
For the first time in history size and scale does not matter any more. Large cities no longer have the automatic advantage. Size, indeed, can now be a disadvantage. The sheer ‘cityness’ becomes invasive, transactions are too cumbersome, you fight against the traffic, ease of movement is constrained, and open space is too far away. In short, quality of life is not good enough.