クウェート軍、女性兵士の戦闘任務許可　ただし丸腰で

【ＡＦＰ＝時事】中東クウェートで、国防省が女性兵士に戦闘任務に就くことを認めたものの、男性保護者の許可が必要だとした上、武器の携行を禁止したため、女性の怒りを買っている。（写真はクウェート国防省で軍の入隊手続きをする女性）
　国防省はさらに、女性兵士は民間人と異なり頭髪を覆わなければならないとも決定。女性権利活動家は、「一歩進んで二歩下がる」政策だと批判している。
　クウェートは湾岸諸国で最も開かれた社会の一つと見なされており、今回の動きにインターネット上で反発が広がった。
　体育教師でクウェートサッカー協会（ＫＦＡ）の女性委員会メンバーのガディール・カシティ氏は、「なぜ軍への入隊にこのような制限があるのか分からない」「警察を含め、あらゆる分野であらゆる女性が活躍しているのに」とＡＦＰに語った。
　カシティ氏の母親は、１９９０年にイラクのサダム・フセイン大統領（当時）がクウェートに侵攻した際、米主導の連合軍によって７か月に及ぶ占領から解放されるまでレジスタンス活動を支援していたという。「母はアバヤ（全身を覆う長衣）に武器を隠し、レジスタンス活動家のところまで運んでいた。父もそれを奨励していた」
　「何を根拠に、女性を弱いと見なしているのか理解できない」
　国防省は昨年１０月、女性の戦闘任務参加を認めると決定したが、イスラム教のファトワ（宗教令）を理由に「（戦闘任務は）女性の本質に合わない」と主張する保守派議員から国防相に質問が出された後に制限を加えた。

■女性殉教者
　クウェート女性文化社会協会（ＷＣＳＣ）のルルワ・サレハ・ムラ会長は、国防省の課した制限は差別的かつ違憲であり、協会として法的措置を取ると明言した。「わが国には、自らの意思で祖国を守った女性殉教者たちがいる。誰に命じられたわけでもない。祖国を愛していたからだ」
　「クウェートがイスラム教国なのは事実だが、私たちは法律がファトワに左右されないことを求める。個人の自由は憲法で保障されており、法律は憲法に基づいている」
　クウェート大学のイブティハル・カティーブ教授（英語学）は、新規則をめぐる議論は筋が通っていないと指摘。「軍は男女を差別することなくまとめる必要がある」「危険は男女を区別しいないし、戦闘中の死も同様だ」と述べた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2022/03/08-09:35）

Kuwaiti women are angry after the military, having allowed female soldiers in combat roles, decided they need the permission of a male guardian and banned them from carrying weapons.
Activists have decried the policy as one step forward, two steps back after the defence ministry also decided that women in the armed forces, unlike civilians, must wear head coverings.
The moves have sparked an online backlash in Kuwait, usually regarded as one of the most open societies in the Gulf.
I don't know why there are these restrictions to join the army, Ghadeer al-Khashti, a sports teacher and member of Kuwait Football Association's women committee, told AFP.
We have all kinds of women working in all fields, including the police force.
She said her mother had helped the resistance when Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein in 1990 invaded Kuwait and occupied it for seven months before being pushed out by a US-led international coalition.
My mum during the Iraqi invasion used to hide weapons under her abaya and transport them to members of Kuwait's resistance, and my father encouraged it, said Khashti.
I don't understand on what basis they see women as weak.
The ministry decided in October to allow women in combat roles but then imposed the restrictions after the defence minister was questioned by conservative lawmaker Hamdan al-Azmi.
Azmi, emboldened by an Islamic religious edict, or fatwa, had argued that having women in combat roles does not fit with a woman's nature.
- 'Women martyrs' -
Lulwa Saleh al-Mulla, head of the Kuwaiti Women's Cultural and Social Society, said the ministry's restrictions are discriminatory and unconstitutional and vowed legal action by the organisation.
We have women martyrs who defended their country of their own volition, she told AFP. No one ordered them to do that but the love for their country.
We are a Muslim country, that is true, but we demand the laws not be subject to fatwas. Personal freedom is guaranteed in the constitution, on which the country's laws are based.
Kuwaiti women earned the right to vote in 2005 and have been active both in cabinet and parliament, though they are poorly represented in both.
Unlike most Gulf countries, Kuwait is known to have an active political scene, with MPs regularly challenging the authorities.
Earlier this month, dozens of Kuwaiti women staged a protest against the suspension of a women's yoga retreat deemed indecent by conservatives.
One of them was Azmi who, in Twitter posts, denounced the retreat as dangerous and alien to our conservative society.
Women protesters carried placards denouncing the exploitation of women's issues in politics, as well as the regime of fatwas and guardianship of women.
The debate about the army's new rules for women has taken an irrational turn, said Ibtihal al-Khatib, an English-language professor at Kuwait University.
The army needs to integrate both women and men without discrimination, the feminist academic told AFP.
Danger does not differentiate between men and women, and neither does death during battle.