Hijab Not Mandatory

Kuwait's highest court has ruled that female MP's do not have to wear headscarves:

"The Constitutional Court dismissed a case raised by a voter who claimed that two of four women elected to parliament in May--Rola Dashti and Aseel Al Awadhi--can not be members of the legislature because they do not comply with the Islamic dress code...

"Kuwait's parliament approved a suffrage bill in 2005 but fundamentalists added an obscure last-minute article saying women have to abide by the rules of Sharia, or Islamic law, when they exercise their political rights...

"The court ruled the election law article was neither well-defined nor 'specific' to the dress code, and stressed that the country's 1962 constitution guarantees personal freedoms and freedom of religion."

There was some uncertainty as to what the provision requiring women to follow shari'a actually meant. Apparently, however, it means nothing.