Yes, our progressive and open-minded traditions have become a memory of the past, following the decisions taken by the governments that bowed down to those who adopt strictness and exaggeration in their ideas in all matters of life as if they had been promised heaven and its nymphs for shortening their clothes, growing their beards, carrying a grimacing look and covering their women in black from head to toe such that it is not possible to distinguish between men and women.
These fundamentalists and their masters are hard-line fundamentalists who were recently thrown out of their country of origin - the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, our big sister country. This was done by the young and wise leadership in that country. None of those who adopt radical thought dared to open their mouths and utter a single word of protest.
On the other hand, our “rational” government bowed down to the representatives of such people by restricting the women of the country to join the military corps without covering their hair and obtaining the consent of their fathers and husbands, based on a fatwa issued by the Kuwaiti fundamentalist castle “Ministry of Disruption”. Here, I mean the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and its various executive bodies to employ such groups after all the doors were opened to the College of Sharia, Awqaf, Zakat House, and dozens of fundamentalist public and private organizations.
When Kuwait was a progressive country, it had only one religious institute, which was in Kuwait City on Al-Ma’had Al-Dinyi Street, an extension of the Al-Gharabli Market.
The second shock is the prevention of an Indian exercise – yoga – for women. A license granted to establish a center for this exercise was cancelled as soon as an MP raised his voice against it.
The great calamity reached a full circle with the broadcasting of an exciting musical advertisement depicting our joy in Kuwait’s celebrations of its national holidays and liberation. We watched the advertisement more than once and did not see anything in it that contradicts our customs, traditions, or their customs and traditions - here I mean those who run the country and impose their strict opinions on its citizens and residents. It is quite unfortunate that a private multi-million telecommunications company stopped the advertisement.
There are many examples of this kind of tyranny that is matched by shameful governmental-representative submission and subjugation. This represents a reason for our delay on various levels in combating corruption, ensuring educational progress, and dealing with the phenomenon of placing the wrong man in the wrong place, and so on.
What is a real shock to us is the silence of the graves of civil society groups in the face of these slanders at the core of our constitutional and civil liberties, with the exception of one association - The Women’s Culture Association (May God prolong the life of those who run it).
Where are the human rights societies, graduates, teachers, artists, etc? Why have we not yet heard a single word of protest from them against these obscurantist and fundamentalist slanders?
We sincerely thank Al-Qabas daily for raising this issue on its front page on February 21, 2022. We hope it will continue in this manner. Perhaps it will help in waking up the government and the assembly of MPs who throw shoes at others, and restoring what the fundamentalists and extremists stole from our personal liberties that were stipulated in the divine books and man-made constitutions.
Email: [email protected]
By Ali Ahmed Al-Baghli
Former Minister of Oil
