Recruitment of Kuwaiti women in the army is not mandatory and for sake of performing non-combative tasks, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister Defense affirmed on Tuesday while being grilled at the National Assembly.
Work of the women in the army will be restricted to technical, medical and engineering services and other non-combat tasks, said Sheikh Hamad Jaber Al-Ali Al-Sabah at Abdullah Al-Salem Hall where he took to the podium for interpellation by MP Hamad Al-Azmi who cast skepticism over regularity of the minister performance at the defense post.
Minister Sheikh Hamad Jaber said that he affirmed several times that the enrolment of the women in the Kuwaiti Army would be confined to medical and back-up services.
“These are the tasks currently undertaken by the women at the ministry of defense thus we have not come up with anything new and we have not mentioned carrying arms,” he stressed after the parliament member ended his address of interpellation against the minister.
However, the minister pointed out that he delayed the women enrolment issue to sound out views of the Fatwa Authority at the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs.
Up to 34 Islamic States have allowed the female citizens to join the military, he argued, noting that some of these countries are members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) in which Kuwait is also a member state.
Rebuffing the argument that the people in Kuwait were shocked at the planned women military recruitment, he noted that the female nationals would reap financial benefits and allowances by joining the military ranks.
He questioned MPs’ silence when Law 283/2018 was enacted stipulating the employment of the women in the military.
Reacting to charges regarding funds’ misappropriation, the minister noted that a committee under his jurisdictions settled a number of financial issues, affirming that he had responded to queries by the Audit Bureau.
On the issue of the Eurofighters aircraft, Sheikh Hamad said he submitted the final report of the relevant probe panel to the Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) on June 16th and sent another one on September second.
MP Al-Azmi denied the minister’s remarks saying that the army had called on the women to join the ranks as combatants, accused him of neglecting the Audit Bureau remarks on the Eurofighters deal, also questioned its high cost, amounting to a total of USD 8.9 billion. Moreover, he accused him of being complacent with respect of the state policy of “Kuwaitization,” noting that the whole number of staff at the ministry is 3,976 including 2,600 Kuwaitis.
Source: Kuwait News Agency