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Kuwaiti Lawyer Abd Al-Rahman Al-Tahous: There is a very important issue today. It may not be true of every household, but for one out of every 10 or 20 homes. The problem is that of girls who want to leave home and live on their own. The law allows them to do so, whereas...
TV host: Whereas the customs... Our society rejects this out of hand. Therefore, the Interior Ministry has even established a special body, called the "social police," the only mission of which is to resolve problems between girls who leave home and their families...
TV Host Muhammad Hisham Al-Mu'min: If the law permits it, why should I refuse?
Abd Al-Rahman Al-Tahous: As I was saying, there are things that we as a society reject. Our customs and traditions override them. Today, nobody can allow his sister, for example, to live all by herself.
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Kuwaiti Activist Salma Al-Essa: For some people, there's nothing wrong with a girl wearing shorts and dipping in the sea. It's better than her wearing a swimsuit, they say. Some families have no problem with that. For other families, it's a problem if a girl leaves the house without covering her face. They view this as shameful. So the concept of shame is not a pattern that is true for all families. It changes in line with the culture of each family. What is acceptable to you may not be acceptable to somebody else. What is acceptable to me - and I can tell you that the degree of liberty in my home is high - may not be acceptable in another family. We have differences even with regard to the concept of shame. We do not agree on what "shame" is.
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In a neighboring country [Saudi Arabia in 2002], they had a fire in a girls' school. The girls were being burnt alive. [The religious police] was unwilling to open the school gate because perhaps the girls would go out uncovered. Just imagine - girls are dying, but it's no big deal... It is forbidden to open the gate and save their lives. So we have a flaw in our understanding of religion, and I'm sad to say that even our preachers have been unsuccessful in conveying the philosophical message of our religion. The proof is that the most corrupt countries today are Muslim countries.
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Kuwaiti Professor of Philosophy Sheikha Al-Jassem: Today, I was talking about the niqab, and I asked how it could be viewed as a matter of personal liberty. If you choose to wear the niqab - fine. Personally, I consider it to be a violation of human rights, because a woman can hardly see or breathe... They got terribly upset, as if I had personally offended them. Perhaps they really can't breathe, and that's why they get so mad... I told them that a woman can wear the niqab if she feels like it. I wrote on Twitter that if people are incapable of being free, they should at least leave me alone and let me live according to my beliefs.
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TV Host Muhammad Hisham Al-Mu'min: What do you have to say about this? She says that women who wear the niqab suffocate...
Sheikha Al-Jassem: I didn't say that they were suffocating. I said that I consider it a matter of human rights when a person cannot breathe, but if they feel that they can breathe, they should just go with it. Let me tell you, most of my female students at the university's humanities department wear the niqab. As soon as they enter the classroom, they say: "Please close the door. We cannot breathe." And then they take off the niqab. This is especially true of the pregnant students. She's three or four months pregnant, and she can't breathe with all the humidity, when it's 50 º C, yet she wears the niqab. What's left to say?! And they tell me I'm wrong...
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