VOA新闻杂志2022--科威特妇女权利之战

A Battle for Women's Rights in Kuwait

Kuwaiti officials recently canceled a yoga trip for women advertised by a teacher of the exercise form.

Lawmakers and Muslim leaders were upset over the danger of women doing yoga exercises. The incident this month was the latest cultural dispute over what women can do in the Arab nation.

Some observers say the power of tribes and Islamists in Kuwait is growing. They say politicians are opposing a growing feminist¹ movement. These politicians, some rights activists³ say, consider women's issues destructive to traditional values. At the same time, the government is struggling to deal with difficult economic issues.

"Our state is backsliding and regressing at a rate that we haven't seen before," said feminist activist² Najeeba Hayat to The Associated Press. She spoke⁴ recently during a women's protest in front of the Kuwaiti parliament. The activists were calling for freedoms they say officials have limited.

The country was once considered progressive compared to its Arab neighbors.

In recent years, however, women have made gains in other parts of the Arabian Peninsula. In Saudi Arabia, women have won greater freedoms under leader Crown Prince Mohammed bin⁵ Salman.

The "movement against women in Kuwait was always insidious⁶ and invisible but now it's risen to the surface," said Alanoud Alsharekh. She is a women's rights activist who helped start Abolish 153. It is a group that aims to end a law, called Article 153, which provides for weak punishments for so-called honor killings⁸ of women.

Just in the past few months, Kuwaiti officials shut down a popular center for belly⁹ dance classes. Clerics then demanded police arrest the organizers of a women's event called "The Divine Feminine."

A court in Kuwait will soon hear a case seeking to ban Netflix after the service produced an Arabic-language movie that some people found offensive.

Conservative Islamist Hamdan al-Azmi has led the fight against yoga. He says yoga damages Arab culture.

"If defending the daughters of Kuwait is backward, I am honored to be called it," he said.

These incidents have angered many Kuwaiti women at a time when there are no women in the elected parliament. There have also been several recent cases of violent honor killings.

In one case last year, a Kuwaiti woman named Farah Akbar was taken from her car and stabbed to death by a man. He was later released on bail¹⁰ and told to appear later in court.

The anger over Akbar's killing⁷ caused parliament to write a bill that would withdraw Article 153. The law says that a man who catches his wife committing adultery or his female relative in "illicit¹¹" sex and kills her faces, at most, three years in prison.

Kuwait's parliamentary committee, however, did not vote on the issue. It asked the state's Islamic clerics for a fatwa, or religious ruling, about the law.

The clerics ruled last month that the law be upheld.

"Most of these members of parliament come from a system in which honor killings are normal," said Sundus Hussein. She is another founding member of the Abolish 153 group.

After Kuwait's 2020 elections, there was a large increase in the influence of conservative Islamists and tribal¹² members, Hussein added.

Officials also called on clerics to decide whether women should be permitted to join the military.

The Defense¹³ Ministry¹⁴ had declared they could join last fall. But clerics added requirements. Last month, they decided¹⁵ women may only join in non-combat groups if they wear Islamic head coverings and get permission from a male guardian¹⁶.

The decision upset many Kuwaitis who are used to government not making rules on head coverings.

Issues affecting women appear to be the only issue on which social conservatives can agree. Kuwait's ruler-appointed cabinet and its elected parliament cannot agree on the economy. A divided parliament has failed to fix the country's record high deficit¹⁷ or pass economic reforms.

Two years ago, parliament passed a domestic violence protection law. But there are no government women's shelters or services for victims. Observers say violence against women has only increased during restrictions¹⁸ linked to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Activist Hayat has little hope the government will change anything for Kuwait's women. But she said that is no reason to give up.

"If there's a protest, I'm going to show up. If there's someone who needs convincing, I'm going to try," she said.

Words in This Story

yoga — n. a system of exercises for mental and physical health

regress — v. to return to an earlier and usually worse or less developed condition or state

insidious — adj. causing harm in a way that is gradual or not easily noticed

invisible — adj. impossible to see; not visible

bail — n. an amount of money given to a court to allow a prisoner to leave jail and return later for a trial

adultery — n. sex between a married person and someone who is not that person's wife or husband

domestic –adj. relating to or involving someone's home or family

convince— v. to cause (someone) to believe that something is true; to persuade

1 feminist   

adj.主张男女平等的，女权主义的

参考例句：

• She followed the feminist movement.她支持女权运动。
• From then on,feminist studies on literature boomed.从那时起，男女平等受教育的现象开始迅速兴起。

2 activist   

n.活动分子，积极分子

参考例句：

• He's been a trade union activist for many years.多年来他一直是工会的积极分子。
• He is a social activist in our factory.他是我厂的社会活动积极分子。

3 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

4 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

5 bin   

n.箱柜；vt.放入箱内；[计算机] DOS文件名:二进制目标文件

参考例句：

• He emptied several bags of rice into a bin.他把几袋米倒进大箱里。
• He threw the empty bottles in the bin.他把空瓶子扔进垃圾箱。

6 insidious   

adj.阴险的，隐匿的，暗中为害的，（疾病）不知不觉之间加剧

参考例句：

• That insidious man bad-mouthed me to almost everyone else.那个阴险的家伙几乎见人便说我的坏话。
• Organized crime has an insidious influence on all who come into contact with it.所有和集团犯罪有关的人都会不知不觉地受坏影响。

7 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

8 killings   

谋杀( killing的名词复数 )； 突然发大财，暴发

参考例句：

• His statement was seen as an allusion to the recent drug-related killings. 他的声明被视为暗指最近与毒品有关的多起凶杀案。
• The government issued a statement condemning the killings. 政府发表声明谴责这些凶杀事件。

9 belly   

n.肚子，腹部；(像肚子一样)鼓起的部分，膛

参考例句：

• The boss has a large belly.老板大腹便便。
• His eyes are bigger than his belly.他眼馋肚饱。

10 bail   

v.舀（水），保释；n.保证金，保释，保释人

参考例句：

• One of the prisoner's friends offered to bail him out.犯人的一个朋友答应保释他出来。
• She has been granted conditional bail.她被准予有条件保释。

11 illicit   

adj.非法的，禁止的，不正当的

参考例句：

• He had an illicit association with Jane.他和简曾有过不正当关系。
• Seizures of illicit drugs have increased by 30% this year.今年违禁药品的扣押增长了30%。

12 tribal   

adj.部族的，种族的

参考例句：

• He became skilled in several tribal lingoes.他精通几种部族的语言。
• The country was torn apart by fierce tribal hostilities.那个国家被部落间的激烈冲突弄得四分五裂。

13 defense   

n.防御，保卫；[pl.]防务工事；辩护，答辩

参考例句：

• The accused has the right to defense.被告人有权获得辩护。
• The war has impacted the area with military and defense workers.战争使那个地区挤满了军队和防御工程人员。

14 ministry   

n.(政府的)部；牧师

参考例句：

• They sent a deputation to the ministry to complain.他们派了一个代表团到部里投诉。
• We probed the Air Ministry statements.我们调查了空军部的记录。

15 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

16 guardian   

n.监护人；守卫者，保护者

参考例句：

• The form must be signed by the child's parents or guardian. 这张表格须由孩子的家长或监护人签字。
• The press is a guardian of the public weal. 报刊是公共福利的卫护者。

17 deficit   

n.亏空，亏损；赤字，逆差

参考例句：

• The directors have reported a deficit of 2.5 million dollars.董事们报告赤字为250万美元。
• We have a great deficit this year.我们今年有很大亏损。

18 restrictions   

约束( restriction的名词复数 )； 管制； 制约因素； 带限制性的条件（或规则）

参考例句：

• I found the restrictions irksome. 我对那些限制感到很烦。
• a snaggle of restrictions 杂乱无章的种种限制