Kuwait

Traditional Roles and Family

Traditionally, women have been relegated to the home to clean, cook, and feed and care for the children. However, women have gradually been taking upper-level positions and responsibilities in the country due to the expansion and growth of Kuwait, after opportunities for education and employment opened up for women early in the 1960s. The number of women gaining an education and working outside the home is steadily increasing, with just over 40 percent participating in the workforce. The debate over working women versus housewives has been ongoing for generations. Unmarried children, regardless of their age, are expected to live at home.

Women still suffer from discrimination and inequality in law, practice, and custom in many areas of their lives, and have limited political and civil rights. Women have an unequal status in marital relations; they are not allowed to pass their nationality on to their foreign-born husbands or children. Social norms and official policies remain a major hurdle to women's freedom of movement in Kuwait. By custom, Kuwaiti women must request permission from their male guardians or parents to travel abroad or visit friends at night.

There are two different sets of active family laws in Kuwait: a Sunni Family Law and the Shi'a Family Law (the Jaafari laws). Under both laws, a husband is allowed to have more than one wife. The Sunni Law states that a woman is not allowed to divorce her husband on the grounds that he has another wife. A woman does not have the same rights as a man to petition for a divorce, and is not allowed to marry any man she chooses. Her wali (guardian—usually her father) has to approve the match.

Women have limited freedom to make independent decisions about their health and reproductive rights, but married women have free access to contraception along with full access to health care. Highly educated women use birth control significantly more than less educated women. Abortion is prohibited and is considered a criminal act.

Women are entitled to 30 days paid maternity leave before delivery and 40 days after delivery, with unpaid extension possible due to illness or disability from childbirth. A woman's working day is restricted to an eight-hour day, according to Kuwait's labor laws.

Vital Statistics for Mothers

Life expectancy at birth in 2003 was 76 for males and 79 for females. The population growth rate is estimated at 3.55 percent in 2009, the third highest in the world. The maternal mortality rate in 2006 was 4.0 per 100,000 live births, and the infant mortality rate 5 per 1,000 live births.

Abortion is only legal to preserve the life or health of the woman or due to severe fetal impairment. Oral contraceptives and condoms are readily available, but emergency contraception is not, and a 2004 study concludes that the contraception needs of 90 percent of married women were being met.

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