KUWAIT CITY – Kuwait's highest court has ruled that women lawmakers are not obliged by the law to wear the headscarf, in a ruling that is a blow to Muslim fundamentalists in this small oil-rich state.
The Constitutional Court dismissed on Wednesday a case raised by a voter who claimed that two of four women elected to parliament in May can not be members of the legislature because they don't comply with the Islamic dress code.
Kuwait's parliament approved a suffrage bill in 2005 but fundamentalists added an article saying women have to abide by the rules of Sharia, or Islamic law.
The Islamic dress code is not compulsory in Kuwait.
The court ruled the article was "not specific" to the dress code and that the constitution guarantees personal freedoms.
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