Al-Tabtebaei fatwa

'totally irresponsible'

Kuwait Times, Thursday, June 1, 2006

KUWAIT: Responding to questions about whether or not women had earned their political independence, dean of Kuwait University's faculty of Sharia, Prof Mohammed Al-Tabtebaei, recently issued a fatwa about how women should vote in the forthcoming parliamentary elections, reported Al-Watan.

In it, Al-Tabtebaei said husbands could direct their wives' voting choice by using their right of divorce, or the threat of divorce, if they vote for a candidate other than their choice. He said that even if a woman does so in secret she could still be legally divorced.

However, Al-Tabtebaei urged husbands not to abuse such a God-given right and reminded them that by the mere utterance of the word, be it meant or said in jest, divorce becomes effective.

It is a well-established fact in Islam that if a man utters a threat to divorce his wife for disobeying his instructions, or doing something against his wishes, and continues to do so even after he has warned her about it, the wife will be considered divorced.

Responding to this Fatwa, seventh constituency candidate, Aisha Al-Reshaid, expressed astonishment. "I consider that such a fatwa is specifically designed to attract and amass votes for a certain candidate and to deprive females of the right to take part in the process", she said, wondering how the Government could allow such interference in the electoral process.

She added that Al-Tabtebaei had never said this when other elections were held, for the municipal council, coops, students unions, teacher societies, or the social reform society. "This statement is totally irresponsible", she concluded.